Lowlight panorama comparison

[Krusty Geeza]

Just a quick & dirty comparison of a panorama taken just after the sun set as produced by the FF6 app first, then as DNG's a couple of minutes later. I didn't quite get the alignment the same, but considering the lowlight issues expected with a tiny sensor like this one, this is actually pretty good! I've had just as much noise from various DSLR's I have owned over the years with exponentially bigger sensors & much larger photosites to capture lowlight more effectively.

The resultant jpeg spat out by the FF6 app.



The panorama created quickly in Lightroom Classic from 6 single exposures, manually exposed & locked off with AE Lock, for the sunset colours.

 

[doylecolmdoyle]

Good compassion, I have started to do manual DNG panos and stitch in lightroom as my drone wont even shoot panos for me anymore, I am not sure what to do, very annoy bug.

 

[Krusty Geeza]

Good compassion, I have started to do manual DNG panos and stitch in lightroom as my drone wont even shoot panos for me anymore, I am not sure what to do, very annoy bug.

Thanks @doylecolmdoyle . I was trying to use the automated panorama feature on FF6 & it has never, categorically ever, worked properly for me when trying to stitch the images together, regardless of light conditions or height above subjects or even doing it in perfectly still winds. It will take the images okay for me, but has no luck when trying to combine them again, even when choosing the lower option. Horizons are never straight, buildings are mismatched, etc...

After reading that you were doing it manually, I thought I would give it a try too! Thanks for sharing that you were doing this, I can work with this now.

Unfortunately, I have no suggestions for you, but I will share what I did for a panorama I am about to post.

 

[Efliernz]

Cool comparison - thanks Krusty

Mine stopped doing Panos after I started playing/testing with manual camera settings. It wasn't rejecting my pano request... it just looked like it was doing it (progress bar and all) but it didn't do it. The bar didn't move... I'll experiment tonight, starting with camera to auto settings... then change one thing at a time.

 

[doylecolmdoyle]

I too will have to test panos again with the camera set to auto, I generally always shoot manual so perhaps they cant shoot in manual, possibly I also had AE lock on. Just need to find time to fly the drone again, dam work gets in the way!

Lately when I shoot panos the progress bar flashes up for about 1 second and it seems like the drone / app shoots perhaps the first or second photo in the pano series then it just stops.

 

[Efliernz]

[QUOTE="doylecolmdoyle,
Lately when I shoot panos the progress bar flashes up for about 1 second and it seems like the drone / app shoots perhaps the first or second photo in the pano series then it just stops.[/QUOTE]

Yeah!!! Just like that! I'm wondering if we are asking too much - manual settings, AE Lock and Pano.
Play time tonight I hope. Hover at 2M... and settings/play time.
If I'm organised (highly unlikely ) I'll screen-capture it.

 

[Krusty Geeza]

Cool comparison - thanks Krusty

Mine stopped doing Panos after I started playing/testing with manual camera settings. It wasn't rejecting my pano request... it just looked like it was doing it (progress bar and all) but it didn't do it. The bar didn't move... I'll experiment tonight, starting with camera to auto settings... then change one thing at a time.

That's cool, you're welcome.

I've not had problems (so far) with what you two fellas are experiencing. I do wish there was an option to choose to do the smaller pano's with DNG's though.

I too will have to test panos again with the camera set to auto, I generally always shoot manual so perhaps they cant shoot in manual, possibly I also had AE lock on. Just need to find time to fly the drone again, dam work gets in the way!

Lately when I shoot panos the progress bar flashes up for about 1 second and it seems like the drone / app shoots perhaps the first or second photo in the pano series then it just stops.

I'll test this out later on this afternoon to see whether there is a way to do automated pano's with manually set exposure.

Yeah!!! Just like that! I'm wondering if we are asking too much - manual settings, AE Lock and Pano.
Play time tonight I hope. Hover at 2M... and settings/play time.
If I'm organised (highly unlikely ) I'll screen-capture it.

I don't think it's too much considering the features already a part of the Anafi. I have a feeling there is a way to do it, but that it is achieved through a somewhat illogical means, perhaps, fingers crossed.

 

[Efliernz]

Testing tonight. 180 panos are with jpeg only. If I was on dng before selecting pano, it swapped to jpeg as soon as pano was chosen. I couldn’t do a dng pano no matter how many times I tried! Once in pano mode, jpeg is the only option.
How I managed to have dng selected the other night in a non-functioning pano mode, I have no idea!
I couldn’t remember how to turn on screen capture lol. Sorry!

I have however just done my 50th flight. I’m getting better at camera mode and menu selection ???

 

[Krusty Geeza]

As Pete @Efliernz shared above, automated pano's are indeed limited to jpeg output only with the Anafi, currently. If you want DNG pano's, you have to do them yourself.

This is mentioned in the manual, which I need to get into the habit of looking at again, when I am curious about these sorts of things, in future.

Available photo formats for each photo mode are as follows:

• Single: JPEG RECT, JPEG WIDE, DNG+JPEG
• Burst: JPEG RECT, JPEG WIDE
• Bracketing: JPEG RECT, JPEG WIDE, DNG+JPEG
• Timer: JPEG RECT, JPEG WIDE, DNG+JPEG
• Panorama: JPEG RECT only

The manual also mentions:

Before shooting a panorama:

• Make sure you are not flying lower than 10 meters (30ft) over water.
• Make sure no object nor subject are present in a 10 meters (30ft) radius around Anafi
• Bear in mind Anafi locks the exposure (refer to the “AE Lock ” section of this guide for additional information on exposure locking) of the frame with which you start your panorama. For this reason, Parrot recommends you always frame the main subject of the intended panorama before pressing the shutter button.
• Bear in mind Anafi will not enable you to proceed with a panorama if the drone is short on power (capturing a 360 Panorama takes Anafi up to 3 minutes).

Somebody else earlier today mentioned in the forum somewhere their amusement of seeing mention of flying over water given as part of an instruction on how to use the Flight Plan feature, with the example involving flying around a lighthouse over water, when the manual states not to fly over water. I agree with them, it's a bit of a pilot beware situation, but so is taking the thing into the air anywhere. There's this thing called gravity that isn't friendly to things that are not really supposed to be in the air naturally.

For @doylecolmdoyle , you lock the exposure by having the area you want exposed correctly within the first frame of your panorama's when using the Anafi, this is mentioned in the second part I quoted above.

Looks like we have to manually create our DNG panorama's gentlemen. It would be pretty amazing if one day the Anafi had the ability to allow you to manually set exposure for your panorama's, have them captured as DNG's, & even as bracketed DNG's! I can wish!

 

[Krusty Geeza]

Oh & Pete, congratulations on 50 safe flights! May there be thousands more!

 

[Kevredhead]

By coincidence I took my first pano this morning. I had it create all three options from the data. The tiny planet and the tunnel options were as I expected. However, the sphere pano is different than what I thought it was. I’m brand new to this so I may have the wrong impression of what it’s supposed to look like.

Here are the 3 pics. Notice the one that looks like a regular long panorama? Is that what the sphere is supposed to look like? So a sphere panorama is just a normal panorama like you’d take on your iPhone (or whatever model you may have)? If so it all seemed to be created as advertised.

Note these are unedited images. And to reiterate, they were produced right on my phone using the automated software.

 

[Agustine]

That is your sphere that you can now upload to different sites to give you that 3D look. Try this site, it free.
Kuula | 360 Virtual Tours. Create, edit & share.

 

[Kevredhead]

Okay, thanks Agustine! What I just quickly viewed on the website is more like what I was expecting. I appreciate you sending the link because I was looking for a place to play with the finished products. ?

 

[Efliernz]

Okay, thanks Agustine! What I just quickly viewed on the website is more like what I was expecting. I appreciate you sending the link because I was looking for a place to play with the finished products. ?

The great thing about the sphere is that you can take it into your photo editor, adjust shadows, highlights etc and resave before uploading

 

[Agustine]

The great thing about the sphere is that you can take it into your photo editor, adjust shadows, highlights etc and resave before uploading

I would say yes you can but to a point. I have edited some of my spheres and thought they looked better but once uploaded you could start to see where images overlapped in the sky. Sometimes that blurred look is better

 

[Krusty Geeza]

I would say yes you can but to a point. I have edited some of my spheres and thought they looked better but once uploaded you could start to see where images overlapped in the sky. Sometimes that blurred look is better

Have you tried saving all the frames of your pano's & then reassembling them in a computer based panorama constructor/editor @Agustine ? There are some free ones available, I know that Microsoft had a program called ICE that was apparently very good, but I have no idea if it's still around or not as I am not a Windows user & the only other option I knew of was Hugin.

I suspect that they would both create the pano's without overlaps; as compared to what FF6 can do with it's lesser processing power available on mobile phones & tablets.

 

[Agustine]

LOL
Been there done it many times for the last three years so yes to your question. I have used them all. I used PanoramaStudio 3 Pro on my desktop as I find it does the best job of all of them. ICE is the worst program out there, microsoft **** as far as I am concerned.

 

[Krusty Geeza]

LOL
Been there done it many times for the last three years so yes to your question. I have used them all. I used PanoramaStudio 3 Pro on my desktop as I find it does the best job of all of them. ICE is the worst program out there, microsoft **** as far as I am concerned.

I have a couple of landscape photographer acquaintances from Europe & USA that swore by Microsoft's ICE as being the best. Me personally, I love AutoPano Giga, I've been using it since 2013 after doing my initial investigations of what was around at that time. Hugin was the next best back then. I've never heard of the program you are using, I'll have to take a look at it too.

 

[Krusty Geeza]

Just had a look at the program you are using @Agustine & that's very good value for money! It's almost doing everything I use in AutoPano Giga & would have saved me hundreds of $$$ in the process! I wish I had known about it earlier on, but will still grab a copy in the next few weeks, as I like to have two options for most of my editing.

 

[Kevredhead]

The great thing about the sphere is that you can take it into your photo editor, adjust shadows, highlights etc and resave before uploading

I have just recently started using a photo editor so am pretty new to this process. Have started with the free program from Nikon (Capture NX-D) because our DSLR is a Nikon. Remarkable the difference it can make!

With regards to editing a sphere, I was playing with that earlier today (I’m retired) and found it quite interesting. I have, however, initially loaded one on Kuula just to see how it works. Very cool!