Info about what Lightroom develop settings can be used prior to stitching in PTGUI

[Geoffrey LORD]

Hello,

I recently came across this message on an old post in this forum BANDING IN SKY and you explained that we shouldn't do any "dynamic color corrections such as dehaze,

shadow/highlights etc, on the individual source images". 

Could you please give a list of "static" changes that can be made without risking banding ? I assume exposure is fine but I'm not sure about the rest...

Thanks in advance, 

Geoffrey

[PTGui Support]

Hi Geoffrey,

In Adobe Camera RAW:

- Light: Exposure and Contrast should be fine. I would leave Highlights,
Shadows, Whites and Blacks set to zero.

- Effects: don't apply these

- Geometry: don't apply these

The other settings look like they can be applied safely. It's important
to develop all raw files with the same settings. You can select multiple
images in Camera Raw. Right click on the thumbnails and choose 'Sync'.

If you're in doubt, go to the panorama editor in PTGui and switch to
Unblended mode. Ideally the images would have similar brightness. If one
image looks much darker or brighter than the others, the blender will
have to correct this. If the difference is large this can lead to
banding or other artifacts.

If you have PTGui 13 beta, consider stitching the raw files directly in
PTGui. You can use the color corrections in PTGui, or output the
stitched panorama to DNG for further processing.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

On 02-04-2024 15:06, Geoffrey LORD wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I recently came across this message on an old post in this forum BANDING
> IN SKY

> <https://groups.google.com/g/ptgui/c/xheJpd1IymU?pli=1#:~:text=Definitely%20don't%20do,correction%20after%20stitching.> and you explained that we shouldn't do any "dynamic color corrections such as dehaze,

> shadow/highlights etc, on the individual source images".
> Could you please give a list of "static" changes that can be made
> without risking banding ? I assume exposure is fine but I'm not sure
> about the rest...
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Geoffrey
>

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[Erik Krause]

Am 02.04.24 um 16:09 schrieb 'PTGui Support' via PTGui Support:

> - Light: Exposure and Contrast should be fine. I would leave Highlights,
> Shadows, Whites and Blacks set to zero.

Stay away from Clarity and Vibrance. Those operate locally and hence can
cause different results in different images, even if applied the same
amount.

--
Erik Krause

[Geoffrey LORD]

Thanks for the quick response, I'll stick to those settings! 

I always shoot full manual, same settings on every shot and same edits on all. 

"If one image looks much darker or brighter than the others, the blender will have to correct this. If the difference is large this can lead to banding or other artifacts." 

This happened recently with a pano that is built with over 800 images, with the sun having moved quite a bit between some of the rows during the 38min shooting time... Should I try to correct this change in brightness in Lightroom prior to stitching or is it a "if PTGui can't do it, no point in doing it before" type of thing? 

However, most of the banding in my panos is in the sky and I can't seem to get rid of it completely. I removed most of it by shooting at f/11 and by letting PTGui do the vignetting correction rather than Lightroom. Not applying all sorts of dehaze/highlights/shadows edits in Lr also massively helped. Any other suggestions ? In the thread that I linked there was a lot of talk about shutter speed but I'm not sure I understood all of it... 

I'm using version 12.18. I was not aware of version 13 but from reading https://ptgui.com/beta.html , it looks like it has great improvements! 

Geoffrey

[Erik Krause]

Am 02.04.2024 um 17:31 schrieb Geoffrey LORD:

> In the thread that I linked there was a lot
> of talk about shutter speed but I'm not sure I understood all of it...

That's only relevant for short exposure times (below 1/200s) and cameras
with focal plane shutter (all DSLRs and most mirrorless). Under these
circumstances, uneven shutter movement can lead to uneven exposure
throughout one image, causing one side being brighter than the other,
which PTGui won't correct.

--
Erik Krause
http://www.erik-krause.de

[Geoffrey LORD]

I see. Unfortunately, I don't think that I can afford to use slow shutter speeds with telephoto lenses in most situations as it very easily leads to camera shake, especially when trying to take hundreds of photos and "speeding" through the shots. I'll try to fix the mistakes in photoshop! Thanks again!