Proven workflows to get good RAW panoramas from Mini 2

[CJG]

Hi all,

I am revisiting an old topic/reopening old wounds: how to get a flat-horizon-9-image-pano from a Mini 2. I am just processing images from a trip to the south coast of the UK (Milford-on-Sea and Hurst Castle) and reminded myself how frustrating this issue is.

The Mini 2 is a phenomenal aircraft which takes great images; but this really bugs me. If you stitch in-app, then the resulting jpg isn't too bad (although a bit distorted at the bottom edges and too low a quality).

But if you import into Lightroom Classic and try and create a pano from the 9 images, you get a fish-eye, curved horizon image. I had originally solved this in HUGIN: but this was more by luck than judgement and it has stopped working properly now. HUGIN is really too complicated for me!

Has anyone found a foolproof, fairly-simple, method of getting a flat horizon panorama from a Mini 2 9 image pano? I prefer free things (other than Lightroom) but I am prepared to pay for a proven method of sorting out these panoramas!

Many thanks in advance

CJG

 

[Meta4]

Just shoot the pano manually.
Then it's easy.

 

[Fizzbang]

I don't know about the mini or 9 image panos.
I only have mavic pro 2's but I can tell you what I use.

First off its easier and simpler to use jpg images but you want RAW.
I use RawTherapee to convert the 26 DNG files in batch to png or jpg format. You can edit exposure etc. in RawTherapee but I leave that till later.
The reason to convert the file format is that I do not know if its even possible to stitch RAW images.

When I have the 26 jpg or png format files I then stitch them together using Microsoft Image Composite Editor(ICE).
Import: (drag and Drop) all 26 images into ICE.
Stitch: Because there are 26 images ICE automatically stiches them together as a 360 Spherical Pano, but you can adjust and tweak the settings if you wish.
Crop: ICE will auto crop to include as much detail as possible
I then click on auto complete to square things off.
Export: The last step with ICE is to export the image as a jpg format.

The problem now is that the image is of the wrong proportions.
GIMP
Import the stitched image into GIMP. Go to the top menu 'Image' and select 'Canvas Size'.
To produce a 360 pano the image proportion has to be (2:1)twice as wide as high.
My stitched images are for example 27648 pixels wide. Being an even number it is handy if its an odd number you will have to round things off. So 27648/2 is 13824 pixels.
Change the number of pixels in the height to be 13824 and click on the link lock next to the numbers. Look carefully at the image preview below and drag the image down to sit at the bottom of the box. and click resize.


You now have a full 360 degree pano which you can open in Rioch Theta or other pano viewer. With a horizontal horizon albeit with no top just white sky above.

You can leave things at this stage or use SkyFill to add sky above or a mirror image sphere, but thats a whole bigger subject.

Just tried stitching 9 images from a 3 x 3 grid but it depends on what effect you are trying to achieve.

Of the ten projections available in ICE only the three transverse projections and the perspective projections will give a straight horizon.
The other six projections all give a curved horizon.
That said each of the transverse projections can only produce a level horizon by distorting the extremities..

 

[Meta4]

I don't know about the mini or 9 image panos.
I only have mavic pro 2's but I can tell you what I use.

He was asking about the peculiar way the Mini uses to shoot an automated 9 image pano.
It's quite different from what you are used to.
See here:

Panoramic slight fisheye in Lightroom

Coming from my workhourse Phantom 4 Pro, I'm loving the Air 2S! When I go to edit 9 shot panoramics in lightroom, however, the photos have a slight fisheye effect to them. Is there a lens correction profile in Lightroom that'll fix this? The P4P NEVER had any of these issues. Anyone else notice...

mavicpilots.com

 

[Hummingbird.UAV]

Hi all,

I am revisiting an old topic/reopening old wounds: how to get a flat-horizon-9-image-pano from a Mini 2. I am just processing images from a trip to the south coast of the UK (Milford-on-Sea and Hurst Castle) and reminded myself how frustrating this issue is.

The Mini 2 is a phenomenal aircraft which takes great images; but this really bugs me. If you stitch in-app, then the resulting jpg isn't too bad (although a bit distorted at the bottom edges and too low a quality).

But if you import into Lightroom Classic and try and create a pano from the 9 images, you get a fish-eye, curved horizon image. I had originally solved this in HUGIN: but this was more by luck than judgement and it has stopped working properly now. HUGIN is really too complicated for me!

Has anyone found a foolproof, fairly-simple, method of getting a flat horizon panorama from a Mini 2 9 image pano? I prefer free things (other than Lightroom) but I am prepared to pay for a proven method of sorting out these panoramas!

Many thanks in advance

CJG

I use Microsoft's Image Composite Editor for stitching panos, 9 files & 26 file 360. The spherical and flat projections both work with 9 images. However you do have to crop the edges to make a rectangular image.
And best of all it's FREE, Windows only though.

 

[Meta4]

I use Microsoft's Image Composite Editor for stitching panos, 9 files & 26 file 360. The spherical and flat projections both work with 9 images. However you do have to crop the edges to make a rectangular image.
And best of all it's FREE, Windows only though.

As demonstrated in the link in post #4 .. stitching isn't the problem or solution.
ICE does not solve the problem.

 

[Fizzbang]

As demonstrated in the link in post #4 .. stitching isn't the problem or solution.
ICE does not solve the problem.

What is the problem then?
9 image stitch and a horizontal horizon.

or Mercator

 

[CJG]

Just shoot the pano manually.
Then it's easy.

Thats certainly Plan B, @Meta4! I do like the convenience of the automated Panoramas though. It just saves time when you want to quickly pop up the Mini 2 a grab a few shots

 

[CJG]

What is the problem then?
9 image stitch and a horizontal horizon.
View attachment 136064
or Mercator
View attachment 136065

That is great stuff @Fizzbang. Was the image from a Mini 2? What is the App you are using? Looks like a keeper!

 

[CJG]

What is the problem then?
9 image stitch and a horizontal horizon.
View attachment 136064
or Mercator
View attachment 136065

PS And I am a Mac man. So if this is the MS ICE, it won’t work for me. Any Mac equivalent?

 

[CJG]

I don't know about the mini or 9 image panos.
I only have mavic pro 2's but I can tell you what I use.

First off its easier and simpler to use jpg images but you want RAW.
I use RawTherapee to convert the 26 DNG files in batch to png or jpg format. You can edit exposure etc. in RawTherapee but I leave that till later.
The reason to convert the file format is that I do not know if its even possible to stitch RAW images.

When I have the 26 jpg or png format files I then stitch them together using Microsoft Image Composite Editor(ICE).
Import: (drag and Drop) all 26 images into ICE.
Stitch: Because there are 26 images ICE automatically stiches them together as a 360 Spherical Pano, but you can adjust and tweak the settings if you wish.
Crop: ICE will auto crop to include as much detail as possible
I then click on auto complete to square things off.
Export: The last step with ICE is to export the image as a jpg format.

The problem now is that the image is of the wrong proportions.
GIMP
Import the stitched image into GIMP. Go to the top menu 'Image' and select 'Canvas Size'.
To produce a 360 pano the image proportion has to be (2:1)twice as wide as high.
My stitched images are for example 27648 pixels wide. Being an even number it is handy if its an odd number you will have to round things off. So 27648/2 is 13824 pixels.
Change the number of pixels in the height to be 13824 and click on the link lock next to the numbers. Look carefully at the image preview below and drag the image down to sit at the bottom of the box. and click resize.
View attachment 135961

You now have a full 360 degree pano which you can open in Rioch Theta or other pano viewer. With a horizontal horizon albeit with no top just white sky above.

You can leave things at this stage or use SkyFill to add sky above or a mirror image sphere, but thats a whole bigger subject.

Just tried stitching 9 images from a 3 x 3 grid but it depends on what effect you are trying to achieve.

Of the ten projections available in ICE only the three transverse projections and the perspective projections will give a straight horizon.
The other six projections all give a curved horizon.
That said each of the transverse projections can only produce a level horizon by distorting the extremities..

Wow! Thanks for all the work in this answer @Fizzbang. But I don’t tend to do 360 panoramas: I do 9 or 10 image panos in the Mini 2 and 9 or 21 images in my M2P

 

[CJG]

I use Microsoft's Image Composite Editor for stitching panos, 9 files & 26 file 360. The spherical and flat projections both work with 9 images. However you do have to crop the edges to make a rectangular image.
And best of all it's FREE, Windows only though.

Unfortunately I’m a Mac man @Hummingbird.UAV

 

[Meta4]

What is the problem then?

Apart from having cropped away half of the panorama image and defeating the purpose of the 9 image panorama .... nothing.
I spent several hours trying all options, including ICE as explained in the link in post #4 and nothing stitches the 9-shot automated panorama properly like a simple manually shot panorama.

 

[Fizzbang]

Apart from having cropped away half of the panorama image and defeating the purpose of the 9 image panorama .... nothing.
I spent several hours trying all options, including ICE as explained in the link in post #4 and nothing stitches the 9-shot automated panorama properly like a simple manually shot panorama.

If you don't like the crop take more pictures.

Just use GIMP Filter Lens distortion correction.

 

[Meta4]

If you don't like the crop take more pictures.

The topic of the thread is the automated 9-shot panorama, which doesn't give the option to take more photos.
I don't use the automated option and always shoot my panoramas manually, giving me full control and no stitching.
issues.

Because of something weird about the way DJI shoots the images for their 9-shot automated pano, you cannot manually stitch and get a satisfactory result.

 

[Fizzbang]

Neither does the original post give either a resulting image or the originals so we have to guess what the issue is.
Take as many images as is needed

 

[Meta4]

Neither does the original post give either a resulting image or the originals so we have to guess what the issue is.
Take as many images as is needed

For the testing done in the link in post #4, I had a set of original Air 2S images to work with.
The testing showed pretty clearly what the issue was.

 

[McGanksta]

Post 14 seems to be on to something

McG

 

[vindibona1]

While I have an ongoing subscription to Photoshop and Lightroom (the rental scheme makes me angry) I almost never use Lightroom. I've found a better program: On1Photo Raw... the 2022 version just released. The one feature that I love is that while you *can* import images into O1PR, you don't have to and can work directly from the folders. Works great with Panos. Very similar interface to Lightroom with a few differences. If Lightroom were a separate subscription from Photoshop I'd ditch it tomorrow.

 

[Robert Prior]

PS And I am a Mac man. So if this is the MS ICE, it won’t work for me. Any Mac equivalent?

For free? Hugin.

Hugin - Panorama photo stitcher

hugin.sourceforge.net