Anafi 360 panoramas broken

[Regling]

Thank you all for your input!

For testing purposes I calibrated the drone and shot the same panorama six times at 30m height, and then four times another one at 100m height. All panos were shot starting facing the same spot on the ground.

Since freeflight produced panos with wrong horizons, I processed the files with ms ice on my computer (resized to 50% because file size upload limitation):

#1 @30m
View attachment P1261463_stitch_resized.jpg
#2 @30m
View attachment P1271505_stitch_resized.jpg
#3 @30m
View attachment P1281547_stitch_resized.jpg
#4 @30m
View attachment P1291589_stitch_resized.jpg
#5 @30m
View attachment P1301631_stitch_resized.jpg
#6 @30m
View attachment P1311673_stitch_resized.jpg
#7 @100m
View attachment P1321715_stitch_resized.jpg
#8 @100m
View attachment P1331757_stitch_resized.jpg
#9 @100m
View attachment P1341799_stitch_resized.jpg
#10 @100m
View attachment P1351841_stitch_resized.jpg

source files: anafi-pano-photos.zip

One thing I noticed, when switching from video to photo shoot, the view is no more stabilized. This is most likely because the whole sensor is used to take pictures and for video digital stabilization is used.

 

[DaveN]

Thank you all for your input!

For testing purposes I calibrated the drone and shot the same panorama six times at 30m height, and then four times another one at 100m height. All panos were shot starting facing the same spot on the ground.

Since freeflight produced panos with wrong horizons, I processed the files with ms ice on my computer (resized to 50% because file size upload limitation):

#1 @30m
View attachment 4789
#2 @30m
View attachment 4790
#3 @30m
View attachment 4791
#4 @30m
View attachment 4792
#5 @30m
View attachment 4793
#6 @30m
View attachment 4794
#7 @100m
View attachment 4795
#8 @100m
View attachment 4796
#9 @100m
View attachment 4797
#10 @100m
View attachment 4798

One thing I noticed, when switching from video to photo shoot, the view is no more stabilized. This is most likely because the whole sensor is used to take pictures and for video digital stabilization is used.

I'd like to take a go at it. Can you send a message to me with a link to the source files?

 

[Regling]

I'd like to take a go at it. Can you send a message to me with a link to the source files?

source files: anafi-pano-photos.zip

 

[Regling]

B.t.w., does it matter what flight preset I am in when shooting panoramas?

 

[DaveN]

I stitched the first and last image sets using PTGui which is a program based on the Panotools by Helmut Dersch I used to use. As I expected, all of the panorama is there but stitchers have difficulty in properly placing featureless areas such as sky or open water. From the images and experience, I figured that the Anafi takes photos starting at the nadir (bottom) works it's way up to the zenith at a given yaw, changes the yaw and works it way down the the nadir again and so on to complete the sphere. It is actually pretty accurate in doing so keeping the yaw, pitch and roll of each consistent between scenes.

The first panorama is the first image set result. There is some misalignment in the water at the horizon but that should be fixable.

The second panorama is the last image set using the yaw, pitch, and roll settings of the first panorama stitch without doing any control (match) point finding. It shows that the relative positions between the images is consistent between panorama sets is consistent. If it wasn't you would see more misalignment between the images.

The third panorama is the last image set where control points were located and the image positions optimized for that image set.

I'm enclosing the PTGui project files if you want to try it yourself. PTGui isn't the easiest program (with control comes complexity) but it allows you to fix things you can't in other programs.

To use the PTGui files, unzip them and put them in the folder with your images. Then open the file with PTGui and it should find the appropriate images. If it doesn't, load a set of 42 source images into PTGui and then go to File > Apply template and apply the project file as a template for your images. This should work for any set of panorama source images from your Anafi.

 

[DaveN]

Oh, I forgot, if anyone from Parrot is reading this, you should include the yaw, pitch, and roll information in the EXIF information of each photo. It would be useful for stitching programs. (I didn't find it in the uploaded images.)

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Using Photoshop 2020 also allows you to fix some of the flaws. Not all but most by using the "content aware tool"

Flawed horizon


Fixed horizon

 

[RoryG]

Great stuff! We've been evaluating the Anafi for 360 panos, it does indeed produce a full sphere however the jpg only files (as opposed to raw) is limiting for our purposes. I see it as a great tool for shooting the skies though, we normally shoot the sky from the ground for aerial panos so this would mitigate parallax errors if shot at roughly the same time.

Here's a test pano shot with the Anafi Thermal and stitched in PTGui Pro 12 beta 12. Pretty good considering this was in low light:

Waarie Geo, Lerwick

A 360 panorama by Shetland Flyer Aerial Media

www.360shetland.co.uk

And a flat version of the pano:



Cheers,

Rory

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I do many panos and I have found this very last update seems to have fixed the few errors I would get on windy days. My last pano was perfect. As for getting raw photos I find to much adjustment on our part will make it very hard for the sky to not have a joining line. Meaning the two or three joining photos really need to have the same adjustments or it becomes very noticeable. My last pano.

River october 24th 2020

River october 24th 2020

kuula.co

 

[RoryG]

I do many panos and I have found this very last update seems to have fixed the few errors I would get on windy days. My last pano was perfect. As for getting raw photos I find to much adjustment on our part will make it very hard for the sky to not have a joining line. Meaning the two or three joining photos really need to have the same adjustments or it becomes very noticeable. My last pano.

River october 24th 2020

River october 24th 2020

kuula.co

Nice pano! If it was possible to save raw (as you can with the Mavic 2 Pro) you would be able to recover the blown highlights in the clouds, just not possible with jpg images unfortunately. My Mavic workflow is to process all the raw images with the same settings before stitching, PTGui recognises Mavic photos from the metadata and aligns them to a grid before creating control points. I've created a template for the Anafi in PTGui which works well, the images align to the grid prior to stitching, then I find the best workflow is to delete most of the control points in the clouds and just leave them positioned by the grid.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I have used this program in the past with some success. To me I really don't care about the Raw aspect of it. If your just posting on facebook and the various forums 99.9% of the people could care less if it is Jpeg or raw edited.

JPEG to RAW AI

JPEG to RAW AI

topazlabs.com

 

[RoryG]

I have used this program in the past with some success. To me I really don't care about the Raw aspect of it. If your just posting on facebook and the various forums 99.9% of the people could care less if it is Jpeg or raw edited.

JPEG to RAW AI

JPEG to RAW AI

topazlabs.com

I like the Topaz software, I use Topaz Sharpen and Topaz Denoise. I shoot 360 images as part of my job (I have an aerial media company) so my clients demand the highest quality, hence shooting raw. I shot a pano on Thursday afternoon with the Anafi, exported it from PTGui Pro as a 16bit TIFF then used the camera raw filter in Photoshop to process it. The results were great, very clean and sharp, and at 19,000px x 9,500px the resolution and detail is pretty good. There wasn't a great deal of interest in the sky, and I added some ambient sounds and a lens flare effect to the scene here:

Sands of Sound | 360 Panorama by Shetland Flyer Aerial Media

360 Panorama by Shetland Flyer Aerial Media

www.360shetland.co.uk

 

[Liger 1956]

You have some very nice panoramas on your website. I have never been that far north in Scotland.

 

[RoryG]

You have some very nice panoramas on your website. I have never been that far north in Scotland.

Thank you! Yes, we are as north as you can get and still be in Scotland, the southern point of Mainland Shetland is 123 miles from the north coast of Mainland Scotland! It’s a wild place in the winter but beautiful in summer as you can see from my tour. I have worked out a way to use the flightplan in Freeflight 6 to shoot the photos for a pano in raw format, I haven’t tested it yet as the weather is so bad but hopefully it will work well.

360 Shetland

A stunning 360° aerial tour of Shetland produced by Shetland Flyer Aerial Media

www.360shetland.co.uk

 

[d95gas]

Thank you! Yes, we are as north as you can get and still be in Scotland, the southern point of Mainland Shetland is 123 miles from the north coast of Mainland Scotland! It’s a wild place in the winter but beautiful in summer as you can see from my tour. I have worked out a way to use the flightplan in Freeflight 6 to shoot the photos for a pano in raw format, I haven’t tested it yet as the weather is so bad but hopefully it will work well.

360 Shetland

A stunning 360° aerial tour of Shetland produced by Shetland Flyer Aerial Media

www.360shetland.co.uk

Shetland's are stunning in good weather months. I have been fortunate to travel to Scatsta on numerous occasions during the last 20 years, stunning scenery. Some great tours you have put up there.

 

[RoryG]

Shetland's are stunning in good weather months. I have been fortunate to travel to Scatsta on numerous occasions during the last 20 years, stunning scenery. Some great tours you have put up there.

Thank you, 360 Shetland is a labour of love for me! It’s so sad that Scatsta is now closed, a big employment blow for the North Mainland amid the current Covid crisis. And the Moorfield hotel (although due to close anyway) was raised to the ground by fire with another major employment loss. If you look at the Voxter scene in my tour you can see the hotel just a couple of weeks before the fire.

As soon as the weather improves a bit I’m going to try the pano flight plan, and I also want to try shooting a standard pano exposed for the sky and shoot the main pano with the Mavic 2 Pro and blend them together.

 

[d95gas]

Thank you, 360 Shetland is a labour of love for me! It’s so sad that Scatsta is now closed, a big employment blow for the North Mainland amid the current Covid crisis. And the Moorfield hotel (although due to close anyway) was raised to the ground by fire with another major employment loss. If you look at the Voxter scene in my tour you can see the hotel just a couple of weeks before the fire.

As soon as the weather improves a bit I’m going to try the pano flight plan, and I also want to try shooting a standard pano exposed for the sky and shoot the main pano with the Mavic 2 Pro and blend them together.

Yes loosing Scatsta was a major blow, it was an area I supported for Serco for many years, John Thorne, Jodie, etc were all good friends, really felt for everyone. Hope something comes along.

 

[IronSky1]

Has anyone been able to get 360 pano mode to work in Flight Plan? I was trying to create a FP that can be repeated over and over in as the seasons change in autonomous mode from the same position (which is easier to get to by autonomous flight then going there.

 

[Ana789]

I wrote an answer in the topic you opened about it:

360 Photo in FP

Has anyone been able to get 360 pano mode to work in Flight Plan? I was trying to create a FP that can be repeated over and over in as the seasons change in autonomous mode from the same position (which is easier to get to by autonomous flight then going there.

parrotpilots.com

Unless you are thinking about flying out of the reach of the remote, it works well!

 

[Pixexid]

Nice pano! If it was possible to save raw (as you can with the Mavic 2 Pro) you would be able to recover the blown highlights in the clouds, just not possible with jpg images unfortunately. My Mavic workflow is to process all the raw images with the same settings before stitching, PTGui recognises Mavic photos from the metadata and aligns them to a grid before creating control points. I've created a template for the Anafi in PTGui which works well, the images align to the grid prior to stitching, then I find the best workflow is to delete most of the control points in the clouds and just leave them positioned by the grid.

hi, it's possible to share the PTGUI GRID template for ANAFI? i have some hard times trying to align on ptgui.