Panorama Photos Stitched Badly with no Wind? Part 2

[TheFoxSaysRingADingDing]

Personally think the picture looks beautiful cropped at where the bad stitch is, and have about 1/3 of the sky cropped out. That way your eyes are more focused on the the turrent (?) to start and follow the coast (the leading lines) back to that big cloud that is in the background. Hope you don't mind that I tried it. I know it doesn't solve the stitching problem, but I think that may have been the photography gods telling you that you didn't need it to begin with ?

 

[TheRock]

Personally think the picture looks beautiful cropped at where the bad stitch is, and have about 1/3 of the sky cropped out. That way your eyes are more focused on the the turrent (?) to start and follow the coast (the leading lines) back to that big cloud that is in the background. Hope you don't mind that I tried it. I know it doesn't solve the stitching problem, but I think that may have been the photography gods telling you that you didn't need it to begin with ?View attachment 83197

Ha ha, yes, if you look at my Facebook page I actually posted that same shot Saturday. Nice job.

 

[macfawlty]

I wouldn't trust the drone to do panos. It's a Lightroom>Photoshop workflow. You can get the two for $10/mo. from Adobe Creative Cloud. THE BEST value in software, IMO. Notwithstanding DaVinci Resolve Lite for video.

You really can't do photography without Lightroom. Sure, the M2P photos look decent straight off the card, but you should be shooting RAW yielding a flat profile with more latitude in post. Bracket each frame if there's a wide variation in exposure. These cameras are ok, but blown highlights and crushed shadows can't be properly recovered without digital artifacting, noise, etc. Give yourself enough room at the top and bottom of the frame to crop the composition.

When shooting panos with my M2P, I overlap about 2/3 of the frame for each image. Wide angle lenses are more challenging to do panos due to the lens distortion, which gets worse the farther from center. The large overlap compensates adequately. Import your images to Lightroom, edit your first image and copy the settings to the others in the series. Select them all>right click>Edit In>Merge to Panorama in Photoshop. The merge dialogue box opens with a variety of options. Auto is unpredictable. I have the most success with the last one 'Reposition'. Merge Layers>Crop and save as PSD or TIF. The merged file will return to Lightroom where you can make further adjustments before exporting.

This one isn't my best, but I believe it was about a 5-6 image pano.

 

[TheRock]

That is very nice and I have and use all those programs but I am curious if anyone has seen a degradation in the in-camera stitching over the last few updates.

 

[GadgetGuy]

That is very nice and I have and use all those programs but I am curious if anyone has seen a degradation in the in-camera stitching over the last few updates.

I have already told you in post #13 above that the same issues exist on the earliest FW version .100 which came out in 2018, which I am still using, so your hypothesis that it is due to an upgraded FW version simply does not hold water anymore.

 

[TheRock]

I have already told you in post #13 above that the same issues exist on the earliest FW version .100 which came out in 2018, which I am still using, so your hypothesis that it is due to an upgraded FW version simply does not hold water anymore.

OK, thank you. Which drone/controller combination do you use? I started seeing this in my in-camera stitching prior to May, like Dec-Jan and I haven't seen any updates that seem to improve this.

 

[GadgetGuy]

OK, thank you. Which drone/controller combination do you use?

M2P and M2Z with the stock M2 RC, but the stitching is done on the drone in the camera, and not the controller or the tablet, as the final stitch is recorded to the microSD card on the drone within the 60 seconds it takes to record the 26 images and complete the stitch.

 

[TheRock]

M2P and M2Z with the stock M2 RC, but the stitching is done on the drone in the camera, and not the controller or the tablet, as the final stitch is recorded to the microSD card on the drone within the 60 seconds it takes to record the 26 images and complete the stitch.

Yes, understood on how/where the drone does the stitching. My Platinum Pro was more accurate. Could just be a M2P thing as I switched from the Plat to the M2P in November 2018. I see this on the 180 shots as well as the 360 and not only on ocean horizons. Thank you.

 

[Meta4]

Yes, understood on how/where the drone does the stitching. My Platinum Pro was more accurate. Could just be a M2P thing as I switched from the Plat to the M2P in November 2018. I see this on the 180 shots as well as the 360 and not only on ocean horizons. Thank you.

Some panoramas are easier to stitch accurately, some are difficult.
The on-board stitching programming is very basic and not particularly good.
Sea horizons are just one area where it's easy to see stitching problems.
You are barking up the wrong tree.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Yes, understood on how/where the drone does the stitching. My Platinum Pro was more accurate. Could just be a M2P thing as I switched from the Plat to the M2P in November 2018. I see this on the 180 shots as well as the 360 and not only on ocean horizons. Thank you.

The image files on the MPP are only 12MP vs. 20MP on the M2P. The much smaller MPP files are easier to process within the camera, and there is significantly less detail to stitch in the lower quality result. M2P files require professional stitching to get the best results, and even they often have visible stitching imperfections.

 

[TheRock]

Some panoramas are easier to stitch accurately, some are difficult.
The on-board stitching programming is very basic and not particularly good.
Sea horizons are just one area where it's easy to see stitching problems.
You are barking up the wrong tree.

I am not barking up any trees. Please don't think I am saying the on-board program is magic and good. I have already said I have other top stitching programs and I use them when I need a properly stitched shot. I have no agenda here. I know by looking at the panos I took last year with the Plat Pro that the in-camera stitching was better. I then switched to the M2P and found it to be less accurate. I am basically polling to see if others have noticed this. I thank you for your insights.

 

[TheRock]

The image files on the MPP are only 12MP vs. 20MP on the M2P. The much smaller MPP files are easier to process within the camera, and there is significantly less detail to stitch in the lower quality result. M2P files require professional stitching to get the best results, and even they often have visible stitching imperfections.

Yes, that's also what I think and because the M2P files are more detailed, the imperfections stand out more as well. So I am trying to eliminate any other factor, i.e. software updates, etc. But I believe your point is probably the main reason I am seeing mediocre results in the in-camera stitching.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Yes, that's also what I think and because the M2P files are more detailed, the imperfections stand out more as well. So I am trying to eliminate any other factor, i.e. software updates, etc. But I believe your point is probably the main reason I am seeing mediocre results in the in-camera stitching.

Yup! All other factors considered, and ruled out, so that's all that's left!

 

[TheRock]

Yup! All other factors considered, and ruled out, so that's all that's left!

Thanks GG. If anyone has any other experiences, glad to hear them. In one way, I find it odd that it does that in that with better image files, you would think more detail would make a better match-up. But, as you say, it is a simple stitching program.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Thanks GG. If anyone has any other experiences, glad to hear them. In one way, I find it odd that it does that in that with better image files, you would think more detail would make a better match-up. But, as you say, it is a simple stitching program.

The larger files sizes of the M2P stills don't change the lack of detail in the subject from which to stitch level ocean horizons, but they do tax the in camera stitching algorithm. If you are happy with the default stitch on the MPP, use it instead, and save the M2P for stitching with the desktop programs, where the ultimate quality is desired.

 

[TheRock]

The larger files sizes of the M2P stills don't change the lack of detail in the subject from which to stitch level ocean horizons, but they do tax the in camera stitching algorithm. If you are happy with the default stitch on the MPP, use it instead, and save the M2P for stitching with the desktop programs, where the ultimate quality is desired.

Well, sadly, the MPP is now (and has been for a while) sitting in a place where only the best of mountain goats can venture. So the M2P is my only choice. But, yes, for sales and stock submissions, you have to use PtGUI or PS no matter what. A good, close look at images straight out of the drone almost always have something a bit out of place. But I liked the MPP outputs for quick posts to social media. Not really an option now.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Well, sadly, the MPP is now (and has been for a while) sitting in a place where only the best of mountain goats can venture. So the M2P is my only choice. But, yes, for sales and stock submissions, you have to use PtGUI or PS no matter what. A good, close look at images straight out of the drone almost always have something a bit out of place. But I liked the MPP outputs for quick posts to social media. Not really an option now.

I seriously doubt anyone on social media will criticize a quick post of the M2P camera created pano stitch. Pixel peeping is not really their thing! Very few will even even notice any stitching glitches, assuming they exist, since they are likely consuming all of their social media content on a small smartphone screen, instead of a large desktop monitor. Purists, like us, who demand the very best results, will save them for ourselves and our clients, and use the in camera stitch as a preview, to decide if it is worthy of a professional stitch. I always open the M2P camera created pano stitch with the PTGui Viewer on my desktop, and go from there! It falls apart when you zoom in too far, while with the professional stitch, you can zoom in significantly further, at the expense of a 7x increase in the file size! I prefer the latter, but the former is certainly good enough for social media!

 

[TheRock]

I seriously doubt anyone on social media will criticize a quick post of the M2P camera created pano stitch. Pixel peeping is not really their thing! Very few will even even notice any stitching glitches, assuming they exist, since they are likely consuming all of their social media content on a small smartphone screen, instead of a large desktop monitor. Purists, like us, who demand the very best results, will save them for ourselves and our clients, and use the in camera stitch as a preview, to decide if it is worthy of a professional stitch. I always open the M2P camera created pano stitch with the PTGui Viewer on my desktop, and go from there! It falls apart when you zoom in too far, while with the professional stitch, you can zoom in significantly further, at the expense of a 7x increase in the file size! I prefer the latter, but the former is certainly good enough for social media!

Yes, well said!!

 

[TheFoxSaysRingADingDing]

Gosh you guys, and for me here I thought disposable cameras were complicated enough to understand!

 

[TheRock]

Drone = Disposbale Camera .... pretty close in many circumastances!!