Panorama Photography w/ M2x drones - Horizon adjustability questions

[Big-Foot]

Funny ... I shoot lots of panos and do it manually to avoid the hassle of the automated system.
With a little practice, it's fast and simple and gives you much more flexibility.

I've done manual Panos but have to say that the automated process used in GO4 is virtually bullet-proof when done on a relatively still day. Similarly the SuperResolution Photos created on the M2Z are more perfect than anything I could create manually..

 

[gnirtS]

The major flaw with Go4 is it always centres the horizon for a pano which is usually the last thing you want composition wise.
It also lacks the ability to select start/end points (ie custom field of view) and number of rows.

 

[GadgetGuy]

The major flaw with Go4 is it always centres the horizon for a pano which is usually the last thing you want composition wise.
It also lacks the ability to select start/end points (ie custom field of view) and number of rows.

The beauty of the automated shooting Spherical Pano process is that you have everything you need among the 26 saved originals to create anything you need afterwards, while still having a usable 360x180 pano immediately. Afterwards, create any type of pano you want, centered anywhere you like. Only thing missing is the ceiling, easily cloned in, or left out, reducing the 360x180 to 360x147 or so.

 

[gnirtS]

The beauty of the automated shooting Spherical Pano process is that you have everything you need among the 26 saved originals to create anything you need afterwards, while still having a usable 360x180 pano immediately. Afterwards, create any type of pano you want, centered anywhere you like. Only thing missing is the ceiling, easily cloned in, or left out, reducing the 360x180 to 360x147 or so.

True but the overall exposures can sometimes vary wildly on the 360s depending on sun angle. Thats why i find it easier to manually expose for a shoot a pano myself rather than the automated modes.

 

[GadgetGuy]

True but the overall exposures can sometimes vary wildly on the 360s depending on sun angle. Thats why i find it easier to manually expose for a shoot a pano myself rather than the automated modes.

True, but that is where choosing the time of day and the lighting makes all the difference, just like with any other photograph. I find flat lighting is best, with high cloud cover concealing the sun, or shooting just before sunrise or just after sunset. High noon works, too, but the harsh noon lighting is not flattering to landscapes. On a full 360x180 panorama, eliminating the sun produces the best results. For 180° panoramas, just shoot with the sun behind the camera facing the subject, and eliminate the automated 360° shots taken into the sun. If you choose to shoot an automated spherical pano and save DNG's instead of jpg's (the automated panos can't save both at the same time), you'll have plenty of latitude in post to get what you want out of any lighting scenario. In the end, whatever gets the job done works. The auto pano is just so quick and efficient that I can squeeze one or two into almost every flight, while only sacrificing a minute or two of battery, and then I have the raw material to create a custom pano at home, with a finished lowres sample already on the card.

 

[gnirtS]

I can see the merit of it for sure (if i could work out the sequence it takes images to know how to reassemble!) but i do get issues where it locks the exposure at the start so varying lit areas differ hugely in the final 360 (and therefore any pano from it).
In those situations it'd be better done manually.
As for light, yep quality of light is everything but sometimes you have to shoot what you have, when you're there (im unlikely to get high cloud cover here!). A lot of the time im shooting around large cliffs or canyons so sometimes only specific times of day has enough light in them etc.

There is a fair scope for shadow and highlight recovery although nowhere near as much as im used to from real cameras. Noise levels are acceptable on ISO 100-200 as well.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I can see the merit of it for sure (if i could work out the sequence it takes images to know how to reassemble!) but i do get issues where it locks the exposure at the start so varying lit areas differ hugely in the final 360 (and therefore any pano from it).
In those situations it'd be better done manually.
As for light, yep quality of light is everything but sometimes you have to shoot what you have, when you're there (im unlikely to get high cloud cover here!). A lot of the time im shooting around large cliffs or canyons so sometimes only specific times of day has enough light in them etc.

There is a fair scope for shadow and highlight recovery although nowhere near as much as im used to from real cameras. Noise levels are acceptable on ISO 100-200 as well.

The sequencing can easily be ascertained by shooting one pano in the air strictly for observation purposes while it is shooting (using a screen recorder will help) . It basically goes up, then down, then rotates 45°, shoot from down to up, then rotates 45°, shoots from up to down, then rotates 45°, shoots down to up, minimizing the camera movement necessary. Most stitching programs can auto assemble the stitch without knowing the sequence order, but it helps to know it, if the stitching algorithm has problems, especially on horizons with no overlapping detail.

As to the locked exposure, I often reshoot the same automated pano from a different starting direction, much like on an iPhone when shooting a pano, shooting it twice, once starting from the left, and once starting from the right, to vary the exposure.

The more you work with it, the more you can learn to work around some of its limitations. The beauty of the already stitched result that you can view it immediately after shooting, while still in position to see if it needs to be reshot. The desktop programs also can make automatic exposure adjustments to the individual frames to even out the final stitch. Have fun with it. Panoramas are the best way to share the drone view without watching a video.

 

[Carlesbc]

You can try to use microsoft ice, its free and you can make panos from video, post process time is minimal and make a manual video is fast and easy.

 

[gnirtS]

Doing it from a video is going to be *significantly* lower resolution and image quality.

 

[Carlesbc]

Doing it from a video is going to be *significantly* lower resolution and image quality.

I use pics on ms ice, never tried video, dont know the difference in numbers, but you always can spend more time and take raw pics, reveal and stitch. I like air magic for quick reveal raw, gives good results.

 

[-ZLV]

Regarding 360 Panos -
Guess I am still doing it the hard way:
Data Acquisition: MavPro (34 frames)
Initial Stitch/TIF Build: PTgui
TouchUP/Curves: Photoshop Camera Raw
Convert to 3D jpg: Photoshop CC
Branding/HTML5: Pano2Vr

Pennybacker Bridge ~ Austin Texas

Tall Ship Morning

White Rock Lake - Dallas Texas

 

[gnirtS]

Mine is slightly different.

Initial bath editing/curves in Adobe Camera Raw then export as TIFF.
TIFFs into Microsoft ICE for stitch.
360 into Photoshop for sky cloning/editing then export as a 360 from there.

 

[tesohn]

Regarding 360 Panos -
Guess I am still doing it the hard way:
Data Acquisition: MavPro (34 frames)
Initial Stitch/TIF Build: PTgui
TouchUP/Curves: Photoshop Camera Raw
Convert to 3D jpg: Photoshop CC
Branding/HTML5: Pano2Vr

Pennybacker Bridge ~ Austin Texas

Tall Ship Morning

White Rock Lake - Dallas Texas

Looks like you get the same bad stitch in the sky that I do from stitching in ICE.

 

[tesohn]

Regarding 360 Panos -
Guess I am still doing it the hard way:
Data Acquisition: MavPro (34 frames)
Initial Stitch/TIF Build: PTgui
TouchUP/Curves: Photoshop Camera Raw
Convert to 3D jpg: Photoshop CC
Branding/HTML5: Pano2Vr

Pennybacker Bridge ~ Austin Texas

Tall Ship Morning

White Rock Lake - Dallas Texas

Nice shot of the bridge!

 

[scubaddictions]

I've had a similar fascination about maximizing beautiful sky shots with my Mavic 2 Pro here in Hawaii. I'm entirely self-taught so I know I'm no expert, however I think I've created some great pictures using full manual panoramas, (manual control of both the camera and the drone) usually with AEB shots, and often as a two-row panorama. As others have mentioned the one-button pano mode is great for a quick shot but to really get everything into a single frame it takes manual control, particularly over the drone and gimbal.

These three shots below outline one of my earliest experiments in trying to maximize a sunset. BTW, this first shot is unedited, not AEB, only modification is a white balance preset (cloudy, I believe) within the drone's camera itself. It demonstrates how limited the view is in a single shot of a sweeping sunset, but also shows the gonzo colors of a Hawaiian sunset:

Then increased into a single row panorama with the camera tilted up significantly above the horizon (but not all the way up to 30 degrees, as the land would be mostly/completely chopped out). This one started with four overlapping AEB sets, or 20 original pictures:

It's a compromise because I'm still missing some of the color beyond the top of the frame and the slice of land at the bottom is mostly an abstract streak. Two days later I made my first two-row panorama, similar horizontal framing but now created from eight overlapping AEB sets, 40 original pictures:

Now I'm able to capture as high as 30 degrees above horizontal (depending on the angle the wind is hitting the drone) and as low as I want to capture anything on the ground as well. As the original shots are such high quality I can still zoom in on any portion and get nice detail.

Anyway, it's worked out for me. Once I'd practiced it a bit it's easy to fire off a complete two row panorama (even three row a few times) is just a minute or so, with up to around 10-12 AEB groups (50-60 shots total) in a two-row panorama.

 

[scubaddictions]

Trying to capture the full vertical splendor of the local sunrises and sunsets does make me wish for a drone with a front mounted camera that can shoot greater than 30 degrees upward, but in general I'm pleased with the results.

 

[ff22]

Mine is slightly different.

Initial bath editing/curves in Adobe Camera Raw then export as TIFF.
TIFFs into Microsoft ICE for stitch.
360 into Photoshop for sky cloning/editing then export as a 360 from there.

I'm exhausted just reading that! (g)

Dad was a professional photographer. Me - advanced amateur.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I'm exhausted just reading that! (g)

Dad was a professional photographer. Me - advanced amateur.

Stick with the automated Spherical Pano function. It works great most of the time. If not, keep reshooting the pano from a different side, and at different times of the day, and under different lighting conditions, and at different elevations! Some work better than others!

 

[Big-Foot]

Trying to capture the full vertical splendor of the local sunrises and sunsets does make me wish for a drone with a front mounted camera that can shoot greater than 30 degrees upward, but in general I'm pleased with the results.

You've made some phenominal shots there!!! Thanks for posting them!