How to do Exposure Lock on 360 Pano

[chong67]

I just got my M3 and playing with it. I did a search first. Questions about EV (Exposure Lock). 1. How do you do EV lock on 360 Pano? 2. I have program my Fn button to do EV lock, but it only works on single photo. 360 Pano mode, nothing happens. 3. I thought you can do EV lock on the screen.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Manual exposure mode?

 

[chong67]

Manual exposure mode?

Which is Pro mode right? I did Aperture Priority in 360 Pano, it doesn't work. The exposure still shifted. Have you try?

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Which is Pro mode right? I did Aperture Priority in 360 Pano, it doesn't work. The exposure still shifted. Have you try?

I don't have an M3, so I haven't tried, but I do ALL of my panos on manual mode, regardless of camera (land based or drone).

I hope you are not telling me that there is no manual mode (I just checked the manual and found nothing on camera modes, but the DJI manuals are often light on controller application settings). That would be an absolutely brick-wall show-stopper for me (I would never buy a camera without full manual mode).

Chris

 

[GadgetGuy]

I just got my M3 and playing with it. I did a search first. Questions about EV (Exposure Lock). 1. How do you do EV lock on 360 Pano? 2. I have program my Fn button to do EV lock, but it only works on single photo. 360 Pano mode, nothing happens. 3. I thought you can do EV lock on the screen.

360 Pano is a completely automated process. The exposure is set based upon the first image that is part of the 26 shot sequence. You can control the initial direction, but not the gimbal elevation, which will always start out at 90°. You can also choose to save the originals as DNG's if you want to create your own pano later.

 

[Yaros]

I did Aperture Priority in 360 Pano, it doesn't work.

Don't do Aperture Priority. If you want EV lock then just go full manual.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I just got my M3 and playing with it. I did a search first. Questions about EV (Exposure Lock). 1. How do you do EV lock on 360 Pano? 2. I have program my Fn button to do EV lock, but it only works on single photo. 360 Pano mode, nothing happens. 3. I thought you can do EV lock on the screen.

Exposure is locked automatically, based upon the first image.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Exposure is locked automatically, based upon the first image.

This is good to know. So your best bet is for that first image to be in the brightest section of the sequence, eh?

(Admittedly, I haven't done a lot of panos with my M2P, but did a lot with the Phantom which were all on manual exposure mode.)

Chris

 

[chong67]

I have found out my mistakes and I have been doing it the wrong way on my M2P.

So I keep asking Q on other places & here and I found my answer :

On the Mavic 3, go to the Pro mode. Put all the 3 brackets in AUTO. What I do is pan my camera to a little below the mid level horizon so that I can have some of the exposure of the sky and also the ground is bright enough for me to recover later in post production! Once you get the medium exposure that you like, turn off the AUTO. Now when you shot your 360 Pano, everything will have the same exposure, just like EV lock!

When you go to your photo editor, you will see all the 25 DNG photos have the same exposure! You still have to do some edits. I use luminosity masking, a advance skill sets to do my exposure.

Here is my result : Facebook

Here is another result that I do last night : Facebook

It is not that hard. Have a wonderful day!

 

[Robert Prior]

I did Aperture Priority in 360 Pano, it doesn't work. The exposure still shifted.

Aperture priority will still change exposure between shots. Exposure within a single pano should be constant for an automated pano, but might not be depending on how DJI programmed it.

Personally, I shoot all my 360° panos in manual mode. Usually I bracket, so shoot several panos with two stops exposure between them and process those as an HDR image. I do this because (a) a single exposure rarely works for the entire image, and (b) it gives me the chance to make decisions away from the field, when I'm not multitasking and have time to experiment.

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Virtual Tours Made Simple

Roundme is a simple and beautiful online app that allows you to create, share and explore Spaces.

roundme.com

Virtual Tours Made Simple

Roundme is a simple and beautiful online app that allows you to create, share and explore Spaces.

roundme.com

 

[chong67]

Aperture priority will still change exposure between shots. Exposure within a single pano should be constant for an automated pano, but might not be depending on how DJI programmed it.

Personally, I shoot all my 360° panos in manual mode. Usually I bracket, so shoot several panos with two stops exposure between them and process those as an HDR image. I do this because (a) a single exposure rarely works for the entire image, and (b) it gives me the chance to make decisions away from the field, when I'm not multitasking and have time to experiment.

Virtual Tours Made Simple

Roundme is a simple and beautiful online app that allows you to create, share and explore Spaces.

roundme.com

Virtual Tours Made Simple

Roundme is a simple and beautiful online app that allows you to create, share and explore Spaces.

roundme.com

Virtual Tours Made Simple

Roundme is a simple and beautiful online app that allows you to create, share and explore Spaces.

roundme.com

Say for the M3, you shoot 25 DNG x 2 for two exposure each for total of 50 DNG?

 

[chong67]

Aperture priority will still change exposure between shots. Exposure within a single pano should be constant for an automated pano, but might not be depending on how DJI programmed it.

Personally, I shoot all my 360° panos in manual mode. Usually I bracket, so shoot several panos with two stops exposure between them and process those as an HDR image. I do this because (a) a single exposure rarely works for the entire image, and (b) it gives me the chance to make decisions away from the field, when I'm not multitasking and have time to experiment.

Virtual Tours Made Simple

Roundme is a simple and beautiful online app that allows you to create, share and explore Spaces.

roundme.com

Virtual Tours Made Simple

Roundme is a simple and beautiful online app that allows you to create, share and explore Spaces.

roundme.com

Virtual Tours Made Simple

Roundme is a simple and beautiful online app that allows you to create, share and explore Spaces.

roundme.com

For me, it is not really necessary to shoot in brackets, unless the contrast is so big in variation. Say for example, I shoot something in EV 0.0. If you shoot in DNG, you can easily just move your EV 0.0 and slide it to EV -1.0 and rename that file, then you have your EV -1.0 ... NOW to do this trick and going 2 stop above or below, that would take a miracle. You might be able to do it if you got a full sensor or a a double full sensor. LOL! My 2 cents.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I have found out my mistakes and I have been doing it the wrong way on my M2P.

So I keep asking Q on other places & here and I found my answer :

On the Mavic 3, go to the Pro mode. Put all the 3 brackets in AUTO. What I do is pan my camera to a little below the mid level horizon so that I can have some of the exposure of the sky and also the ground is bright enough for me to recover later in post production! Once you get the medium exposure that you like, turn off the AUTO. Now when you shot your 360 Pano, everything will have the same exposure, just like EV lock!

When you go to your photo editor, you will see all the 25 DNG photos have the same exposure! You still have to do some edits. I use luminosity masking, a advance skill sets to do my exposure.

Here is my result : Facebook

Here is another result that I do last night : Facebook

It is not that hard. Have a wonderful day!

How can you be sure that the automated M3 Pano used your chosen exposure, and not its own, based upon the first image? Have you checked the metadata of the 26 images to see if they all match your chosen Pro values, rather than just each other?

 

[chong67]

The AUTO setting, the Exposure varied. When I put those 25 DNG photos together, I see the different contrast.

When I put in PRO mode (not AUTO), all the exposure are the same. When I see the 25 DNG photos that are stitched by PTGui, the Exposure are now even.

This is how I verify visually. I am sure the Photo Properties METAdata will tell you the same too.

 

[chong67]

How can you be sure that the automated M3 Pano used your chosen exposure, and not its own, based upon the first image? Have you checked the metadata of the 26 images to see if they all match your chosen Pro values, rather than just each other?

Here is a example. I did use Manual Exposure to do my 360 Pano. I do all edits in DNG on the 25 photos.

You can see in the yellow highlights that there is still some correction that needs to be done, even in Manual mode. I correct it and the whole 360 Panos have even Exposure after that.

 

[Coskier]

Say for the M3, you shoot 25 DNG x 2 for two exposure each for total of 50 DNG?

I am guessing he shoots 3 or more sets, to combine them to get the full range. Look at the 2nd and 3rd examples, it definitely works.

 

[Coskier]

Aperture priority will still change exposure between shots. Exposure within a single pano should be constant for an automated pano, but might not be depending on how DJI programmed it.

Personally, I shoot all my 360° panos in manual mode. Usually I bracket, so shoot several panos with two stops exposure between them and process those as an HDR image. I do this because (a) a single exposure rarely works for the entire image, and (b) it gives me the chance to make decisions away from the field, when I'm not multitasking and have time to experiment.

Virtual Tours Made Simple

Roundme is a simple and beautiful online app that allows you to create, share and explore Spaces.

roundme.com

Virtual Tours Made Simple

Roundme is a simple and beautiful online app that allows you to create, share and explore Spaces.

roundme.com

Virtual Tours Made Simple

Roundme is a simple and beautiful online app that allows you to create, share and explore Spaces.

roundme.com

I'd be curious about the full workflow for this, including the tools you are using. Love the Iceland and Greenland shots.

 

[Robert Prior]

Say for the M3, you shoot 25 DNG x 2 for two exposure each for total of 50 DNG?

How many exposures depends on the scene. I do a lot of sunrise/sunset panoramas, so usually end up with at least three exposures, sometimes four. Shooting midday it's one or two.

What I do is point the drone at the brightest shot, record the shutter speed for a well-balanced shot, repeat with the darkest (usually straight down). Then dial in that setting and shoot a pano, adjust the shutter speed by two stops, shoot another, and repeat until I've covered the range.

As a shortcut I have a set series of speeds that I use on a cheat sheet. Sometimes I end up with an unnecessary panorama, but that's better than realizing that you don't have the exposure you needed when you start post-processing.

 

[Robert Prior]

You can see in the yellow highlights that there is still some correction that needs to be done, even in Manual mode. I correct it and the whole 360 Panos have even Exposure after that.

That vertical bar effect is caused by vignetting in the source images. Correcting the DNGs for vignetting is really tricky.

I find I get better results using just JPEGs. When processing the JPEG DJI applies just the right amount of de-vignetting to the image (something I haven't managed to do myself).

The trade-off is that I have less dynamic range to play with, which usually doesn't matter as I'm shooting bracketed anyway.

If I only had time for one panorama (say fast-moving clouds) I might shoot DNG.

 

[Coskier]

How many exposures depends on the scene. I do a lot of sunrise/sunset panoramas, so usually end up with at least three exposures, sometimes four. Shooting midday it's one or two.

What I do is point the drone at the brightest shot, record the shutter speed for a well-balanced shot, repeat with the darkest (usually straight down). Then dial in that setting and shoot a pano, adjust the shutter speed by two stops, shoot another, and repeat until I've covered the range.

As a shortcut I have a set series of speeds that I use on a cheat sheet. Sometimes I end up with an unnecessary panorama, but that's better than realizing that you don't have the exposure you needed when you start post-processing.

Care to share the cheat sheet?