WIDE Panoramic (9-shot) Distortion in Lightroom

[Lambda]

Here is a three shot pano taken with Mavic 2 Pro using my standard procedure, e.g.: 30% overlap, upload to Adobe Camera Raw, select all, right click, merge to panorama. This is the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida.Then, edited in ACR (Camera Raw).

Dale
Miami

That's very nice. I will give ACR a try on my next one, maybe this fixes the distortion

 

[adcimagery]

The issue is caused when the camera is pointed downwards for the initial shot.
If the camera is level with the horizon for the original shot, the problem is solved.

Yeah, but my point is that you don't have to worry about positioning the camera if you adjust the pano at time of stitching. In PTGui, you can correct that curve in the horizon, while it's a lot tougher to solve in PS/LR.

 

[Meta4]

That's very nice. I will give ACR a try on my next one, maybe this fixes the distortion

The Mavic 2 doesn't have the problem to start with.

 

[Meta4]

Yeah, but my point is that you don't have to worry about positioning the camera if you adjust the pano at time of stitching. In PTGui, you can correct that curve in the horizon, while it's a lot tougher to solve in PS/LR.

My point was that after months of wondering what causes the problem, the cause of the issue has been found.

 

[akakrill]

I have the same issue on the mavic 3. My mavic 2 pro takes all 9 shot panos level. the problem is in either the fly app or the firmware. The mavic 2 pro stitches flawlessly in light room. Even when you manually change your starting angle of frame 1 (center / middle) to maintain rule of thirds, either more sky or more ground, its perfect, in raw, and outputs great. DJI fly app or the new firmware cant possibly use the same code as the mavic 2 pro. but if the did everything would be normal. The mavic 3 just outputs a poorly stiched, distorted jpeg. I wish there was an option to shut off internal sticthing and quit angling the sides.. completely destroyed perfect functionality going to the mavic 3

 

[Dale D]

I have the same issue on the mavic 3. My mavic 2 pro takes all 9 shot panos level. the problem is in either the fly app or the firmware. The mavic 2 pro stitches flawlessly in light room. Even when you manually change your starting angle of frame 1 (center / middle) to maintain rule of thirds, either more sky or more ground, its perfect, in raw, and outputs great. DJI fly app or the new firmware cant possibly use the same code as the mavic 2 pro. but if the did everything would be normal. The mavic 3 just outputs a poorly stiched, distorted jpeg. I wish there was an option to shut off internal sticthing and quit angling the sides.. completely destroyed perfect functionality going to the mavic 3

I don't think anyone really uses the automated stitching. It is poorer quality and does not allow for editing well. My technique has been published here many times. If you want to see it again, write to me by private conversation.

Dale
Miami

 

[mostrillo]

After tons of test I finnaly found out what I have to do to let LR merge the 9-pictures pano, producing a straight horizon: you just need to start shooting with gimbal at 0°.
If you tilt the gimbal upward or downward befor start shooting, you will get distortion.
The problem is that in this way, you will always ent to have a lot of useless sky in the picture.
That's why I will try PTGUI to see if it helps with horizon straitening.

 

[Meta4]

you just need to start shooting with gimbal at 0°.
If you tilt the gimbal upward or downward befor start shooting, you will get distortion.

This has all been investigated in the past.

That's why I will try PTGUI to see if it helps with horizon straitening.

As has this idea, but different stitching software won't fix the issue

 

[PanoVolo]

Hey there!

This is specific to DJI's 9-shot 'Wide' panoramic feature.

I'm attempting to use the 9 RAW DNG files off of my Air 2, and stitch them in Lightroom/Lightroom Classic, rather than using the version auto-stitched by the DJI app/drone:

1) to retain the RAW file instead of the lossy JPEG the app spits out
2) to retain the full resolution on pano's
3) because the DJI app sometimes stitches poorly.

However, in Lightroom/Lightroom Classic, even at 100% boundary warp, I can't stretch the horizon to being anywhere near flat (first picture, Lightroom on Left, DJI on Right). Attached are snippings of the following Pano settings:

• Spherical (Correct) (Boundary warp 100%)
• Cylindrical (Boundary Ward 100%)
• (Perspective fails to even compute)
• Spherical (Boundary warp OFF)
• Reach case: Spherical+boundary warp+distortion correction+guided transformation

Has anyone else run into this and/or come up with a better solution for stitching Panoramic Photos?

My guess is that it stems from the angled gimbal action that the Air 2 is using to capture the corner shots, as seen in the last picture of with all 9 images in their captured grid. My last ditch idea was to crop each image to level the horizons, but I think LR/LRC still work with the original image, not your crop. Maybe cropping, exporting a new base file, then importing and using the new leveled image for the pano merge, but obviously this would be a horrible workflow for every 9 shot image.

To anyone interested enough to have gotten this far... thanks for your ideas!

-Chris
View attachment 131836View attachment 131837View attachment 131838View attachment 131839View attachment 131840
View attachment 131835

Panovolo - www.panovolo.com has an option to automatically produce straight horizon when stitching panoramas

 

[Dale D]

Panovolo - www.panovolo.com has an option to automatically produce straight horizon when stitching panoramas

I have tried PTGui which works but is very complex for me so I have not purchased it because of the complexity and the cost. I have had the most success with just my plain, old vanilla method of MANUALLY shooting3-5 images with a 30% overlap of the grid lines. Then taking the 3 or 5 selected images from Adobe Bridge. Select the first and shift/click the last (select all). Then, RIGHT click, opening the menus to give me the choice of "merge to Panoramama." From here, it is self evident- I select spherical, allow the Adobe programs to run its process, and then use the final image to edit as I need.

Dale
Miami

 

[PanoVolo]

Hi Dale, I think the problem is what happens when the central point (vanishing point) of panorama set is not pointing to horizon (for example you tilt gimbal up or down from 0 deg in wide angle 3x3 pano) . In these cases the horizon will appear as a curve when stitched in photoshop/lightroom (either curve down if your vanishing point was below horizon, or curve up if it was above). In PtGui it's possible to adjust the vanishing point manually. Panovolo has an option to calculate and adjust the vanishing point automatically, thus producing straight horizons.