How do I deal with exposure differences in manual HDR Panoramas?

[Deleted member 94047]

Hello fellow members!

So I tried a few HDR panos - basically I shoot a series of AEB photos starting from one end, then panning a little and shooting another set of AEB photos untill I get to the other end of what I want the pano to capture. I then combine the AEB shots in to HDR images in Photoshop, and finally merge the HDR images in to a pano and edit the image afterwards. This has worked well for me in most situations where the lighting is even across the images and I have gotten some pretty stunning panos from this method.

With the below image though, I can't quite figure out how to edit the final raw output because of the difference in the lighting across the image. I end up with very dark shadows or over exposed highlights. I have thought of individually editing the HDR raw images, exporting them into JPEGs, and then stiching the JPEG images in to the pano. But some how, I get the feeling that there may be another method of doing this while still working the raw HDR images. How would you go about doing this? I would be very grateful for any advice.

I have inserted the below low resolution version of the pano I am working on and also attached a higher resolution version for your viewing pleasure. I am not trying to get a kicker of a pano out of this since it has a few other issues. I want to shoot the same scene again and I want to know how I can do it better (both in the shooting and editing phases) so any advice is really welcome.



Thanks ? (Oh, shooting with the MA if in case that is relevant).

 

[AMann]

Ive made HDR virtual 360 images with my DSLR and wide angle lens consisting of 15 panels, and each panel was made of three manually bracketed shots taken with the same three bracketed exposures for each panel. I lock down exposures by shooting everything in manual mode and then using the same settings for the HDR post processing. You have to take the panels that are either over exposed or under, and find a good setting between both and apply that to every image. Here are two examples of my work- notice that the visitor center was very dark (dim bulbs in ceiling) and even darker in the fireplace, but I was able to keep the bright outside less overexposed than had I not done a HDR shot. For the second shot, the sky was gray but rather bright and the red sandstone was a lot darker, again locking down manual and shooting every picture the same for each bracket stop kept exposures even.

Torrey Pines Visitor Center, Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, California 360 Panorama | 360Cities

360° panorama photo from San Diego by Anthony Mann. The Torrey Pines Visitor Center is located in a unique adobe building built by the Scripps fam...

www.360cities.net

Snow Canyon State Park (HDR) 360 Panorama | 360Cities

360° panorama photo from Utah by Anthony Mann. Some of the spectacular fossilized sand dunes (sandstone) that can be seen at Snow Canyon Stat...

www.360cities.net

 

[Deleted member 94047]

Those are wonderful @AMann, especially the first one. I will definitely have to learn how to do that ( that is the great thing about owning a drone - it has opened a new world for me).

On your advice, I am not sure I understand you entirely. Are you suggesting that I take one set of exposures from the AEB sets and stich that in to the pano? Or am I misreading you? I would really appreciate it if you break it down for me a little bit more. And thank you so much for taking the time to help me in this.

 

[AMann]

Thank you for the compliment. What I did was to take three photos in the same position, and bracketed them approximately two stops between each one.

I proceeded to take three photos in all the other directions with at least 20-30% overlap the same way with the same exact exposures as the original three. The best way to bracket is to change the shutter speed only, if you change the f-stop you’re going to affect the depth of field and focus between each of the photos.

I converted each of the three sets of photos into an HDR using the best settings I could find, and made sure to use this same exact settings for all of the other photo triplets.

So what I ended up with is instead of 45 separate pictures, ended up with 15 HDR images to stitch together into a panorama. I used Hugin, and a older version of PTGui to stitch the 360’s. I will look up the links for those and will post them back here tomorrow.

 

[Deleted member 94047]

Thank you for the compliment. What I did was to take three photos in the same position, and bracketed them approximately two stops between each one.

I proceeded to take three photos and all the other directions the same way with the same exact exposures as the original three. The best way to bracket is to change the shutter speed only, if you change the f-stop you’re going to affect the depth of focus between each of the photos.

I converted each of the three sets of photos into an HDR using the best settings I could find, and made sure to use this same exact settings for all of the other photo triplets.

So what I ended up with is instead of 45 separate pictures, ended up with 15 HDR images to stitch together into a panorama. I used Hugin, and a older version of PTI to stitch the 360’s. I will look up the links for those and will post them back here tomorrow.

Thanks for the quick response, and for the awesome explanation. That is one approach I will have to try. The MA offers no way to change the f-stop so that is one less thing for me to worry about. Thank you so much again!

 

[AMann]

Thanks for the quick response, and for the awesome explanation. That is one approach I will have to try. The MA offers no way to change the f-stop so that is one less thing for me to worry about. Thank you so much again!

In manual mode you can’t change the f-stop? Really? I thought you could. Well if you can change the speed, you’re that better off. I used to change the ISO on my point-and-shoot to do the same thing, But that was a mess!

 

[AMann]

Now that I’m thinking of it, if you can’t lock down the f-stop, the camera is adjusting exposures based on your shutter speed to get the same exposure result. You really have to lock down exposure in order to get this affect. Well the camera allow you to bracket? You’re gonna need three photos - one underexposed to bring out highlights, one medium and one over exposed to bring out the shadows to make it work right.

 

[Deleted member 94047]

In the MA iso and shutter speed are the only aspects of the exposure triangle you can control in manual mode - the f-stop is fixed. In either HDR or AEB mode, all the camera does is change the shutter speed. I have relied on the AEB mode to get what I need for the HDR images but I have let the camera do its own thing when it comes to taking the individual panels that will make up the final HDR picture. What you are suggesting, if I understand correctly, is do my own AEB by controlling the shutter speed manually for the HDR panels. I will definitely try that.

 

[WithTheBirds]

In manual mode you can’t change the f-stop? Really? I thought you could. Well if you can change the speed, you’re that better off. I used to change the ISO on my point-and-shoot to do the same thing, But that was a mess!

You can’t change the f-stop in any mode on the air. It doesn’t have an aperture diaphragm.

 

[AMann]

Here are the links for the programs I used in the photos above :

Hugin - Panorama photo stitcher

hugin.sourceforge.net

Photo stitching software 360 degree Panorama image software - PTGui Stitching Software

PTGui is image stitching software for stitching photographs into a seamless 360-degree spherical or gigapixel panoramic image

www.ptgui.com

HDR Merge Software for Real Estate & Landscape Photography | Photomatix

Turn any high-contrast scene into a perfectly exposed HDR image. Includes merge to HDR, batch processing and HDR presets for real estate photography.

www.hdrsoft.com

I haven’t used this but you might check this one out for HDR processing, it looks good and it is free:

Luminance HDR

Download Luminance HDR for free. Complete solution for HDR photography. Luminance HDR is a complete suite for HDR imaging workflow. It provides a wide range of functionalities, during both the fusion stage and the tonemapping stage.

sourceforge.net

 

[Deleted member 94047]

Thanks a lot, will check them out.