Aerial Pano Stitching

[Kenley Nipper]

I have the Pro version of this software and I can never get it to stitch panoramic photos without major stitching errors.  I even add additional control points to the photos in the areas that aren’t stitching correctly and it doesn’t help the results at all.  However, I can load the exact same photos in Adobe Lightroom and it will stitch them together perfectly with one mouse click.  If Lightroom would output the stitched pano in the correct resolution (10,000 x 5,000 pixels) I would just cut my losses with PT Gui.

 

These are aerial photos shot with a DJI Phantom 4 pro drone.  Any tips or input would be appreciated.

[PTGui Support]

Hi,

Could you make a set of your source images available for download so we
can try? Please upload them to dropbox / wetransfer / google drive or
similar, and post a link here.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "PTGui Support" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
> an email to ptgui+un...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:ptgui+un...@googlegroups.com>.
> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/55fd724d-dd39-49df-9494-1b73aa364dfan%40googlegroups.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/55fd724d-dd39-49df-9494-1b73aa364dfan%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[Barney Meyer]

Hi Kenley et al

I have created MANY aerial 360 panos with DJI P4P and lately Inspire 2 X7 50mm DL lens (3Gpx aerial).

I always shoot manual focus, exposure and in Raw (DNG) format, then process DNG to Jpeg or TIFF if dynamic range is high, then stitch in PTGUI.

PTGUI reads the frame metadata (Yaw, Pitch, Roll) and accurately places the frames before stitching.

Here is one example: https://www.hiddenmelbourne.com.au/aerialviews/melbourne-high-school/

I'm happy to help anyone with this procedure.

Best regards

Barney

[al...@golem.ws]

Hi! Do you have PTGUI template files for Spherical Panorama stitching that might work with a Mavic Air 2? I am trying to stitch spherical panos in PTGUI (the dji built in stitcher can be "not so great") and am having trouble aligning the sky. I am going to make a test today with a spherical pano low in my yard with lots of straight lines to see if I can develop the template, but it would be nice to see what other people have. Will post my template when complete. Thanks!

[PTGui Support]

Hi,

A template would not improve the stitching, PTGui can already setup a
rough panorama by reading the exif data.

Q5.6 may be helpful when stitching drone panoramas. Usually the
stitching problems are caused by parallax, which is the result of the
drone drifting while the images were taken:
https://ptgui.com/support.html#5_6

If the problem is specifically the sky, it could also be caused by
moving clouds. You can try deleting all control points on moving clouds.

If you can't figure it out, make a set of images available for download
and I'll be happy to try.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

On 08/05/2022 13:21, al...@golem.ws wrote:
> Hi! Do you have PTGUI template files for Spherical Panorama stitching
> that might work with a Mavic Air 2? I am trying to stitch spherical
> panos in PTGUI (the dji built in stitcher can be "not so great") and am
> having trouble aligning the sky. I am going to make a test today with a
> spherical pano low in my yard with lots of straight lines to see if I
> can develop the template, but it would be nice to see what other people
> have. Will post my template when complete. Thanks!
>
> On Saturday, April 30, 2022 at 7:04:11 AM UTC+3 barney....@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Hi Kenley et al
>
> I have created MANY aerial 360 panos with DJI P4P and lately Inspire
> 2 X7 50mm DL lens (3Gpx aerial).
> I always shoot manual focus, exposure and in Raw (DNG) format, then
> process DNG to Jpeg or TIFF if dynamic range is high, then stitch in
> PTGUI.
> PTGUI reads the frame metadata (Yaw, Pitch, Roll) and accurately
> places the frames before stitching.
> Here is one example:

> https://www.hiddenmelbourne.com.au/aerialviews/melbourne-high-school/ <https://www.hiddenmelbourne.com.au/aerialviews/melbourne-high-school/>

> I'm happy to help anyone with this procedure.
> Best regards
> Barney
>
> On Thursday, 28 April 2022 at 05:34:21 UTC+10 Kenley Nipper wrote:
>
> I have the Pro version of this software and I can never get it
> to stitch panoramic photos without major stitching errors.  I
> even add additional control points to the photos in the areas
> that aren’t stitching correctly and it doesn’t help the results
> at all.  However, I can load the exact same photos in Adobe
> Lightroom and it will stitch them together perfectly with one
> mouse click.  If Lightroom would output the stitched pano in the
> correct resolution (10,000 x 5,000 pixels) I would just cut my
> losses with PT Gui.
>
> These are aerial photos shot with a DJI Phantom 4 pro drone.
> Any tips or input would be appreciated.
>

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "PTGui Support" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
> an email to ptgui+un...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:ptgui+un...@googlegroups.com>.
> To view this discussion on the web visit

> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/d8d351b3-3eb1-4510-b847-be4036f8946an%40googlegroups.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/d8d351b3-3eb1-4510-b847-be4036f8946an%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[Barney Meyer]

I agree with Joost 100%. If you share the image files we can show you how it is done.

From the drone camera specs, at 12Mpx (4000x3000px) and 84° DFOV calculations you should be able to get ~59.5px/° resolution ie. an approx 230Mpx 360x180° panorama. The camera spec also says "48Mpx" but I'm not sure how that is achieved. Be realistic and accept 230Mpx until you get the process problems solved.

Forget about "in-drone" stitching, shoot DNG files, process them to jpeg or tiff and stitch in PTGUI to get the best result.

You are going to have a problem with low altitude panos because the drone does move, so firstly test at 120m.

This is a good post about the capture/stitch process:

https://www.time-for-inspiration.de/blog-en/2020/10/11/panorama-photography-with-the-dji-mavic-air-2

Best Regards
Barney Meyer
We create Virtual Reality for you

Digital Technologist
Professional Panographer
Virtual Tour Creator
E:   barney....@gmail.com
W:  hiddenmelbourne.com.au
M:  0409 522093

You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "PTGui Support" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/ptgui/ZAsM9tYGU9Y/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to ptgui+un...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/da9592dd-df62-f86f-9cdf-e4841907be6d%40ptgui.com.

[Mike Cowlishaw]

Just to add to the comments ... I always used MSI and Hugin for stitching my drone sphericals, but they both had problems with Warwick Racecourse and with Anafi images.  PTGui handles all of those with aplomb .. I have gone back and re-processed a number of panoramas with PTGui and, so far, have always had better results.  Thank you Joost!

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ptgui+un...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/CAA89STNEoOAtVEvv8iO3RgNszVOj%3D8w7JZ%3Dyi4R%2BML6iAcuPmw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Steve]

I have done probably by now over 300 aerial photos from the Mavic 1, 2 and 3 along with the Inspire one and havent had a lot of issues outside of some far distance stuff with mountains .. can you explain your process or software? If your doing it manually then you need to get some software that can help you out.  I just finished a huge project for Burning man that has both aerial and ground https://360vr.burningman.org/flyranch/index.htm along with a video I did ages ago that walks you though the process 360 basic workflow.. https://youtu.be/ioteQPLuAl8

[al...@golem.ws]

i figured out the problem which is that the drone is not doing the zenith shot. duh! so not recreating the zenith in photoshop

..thanks

[Barney Meyer]

If you want to capture the zenith, you can do it by handholding the drone after landing and pointing it in the right directions to manually capture the zenith.

[Mike Cowlishaw]

Or use an Anafi drone; it allows full 180° pitch.   I do wish DJI drones did, too!

[RVhd]

not to make propaganda but the next/not so far dji-mini3 will allow +60° tilt, covering zenith. Wait and see.

hdrv

[1drey]

Actually your type of aerial is very easy to shoot - no/little regular textures makes the stitching process with PGTui a breeze 

Problems start if a drone is hanging over a city and the wind is blowing)

I am stitching panos for a large project from Montenegro/Croatia and sometimes the aerials are a pain:
https://pano.1drey.com/marzipano/M2P/index.html

понедельник, 9 мая 2022 г. в 23:40:15 UTC+3, Steve:

[hgol...@gmail.com]

I have an Anafi, but I prefer my Mavic Pro 2 for its responsiveness and flight characteristics. I would love it if the DJI Mini 3 Pro would complete a VR's apex, but I don't see how it could do that with only a 60° upward tilt. I've been on the DJI social media to see if anyone has yet attempted an equirectangular stitch, but have not yet seen such a post.

[Mike Cowlishaw]

Yes my primary drone is also Mavic 2 Pro.  And for images like this recent one of mine (now on Google Maps) the zenith isn't very interesting: https://www.google.com/maps/@43.3977737,-4.6090112,3a,75y,215.55h,69.22t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPiltWFf1SwBrXJZz39d1Yg3LSu5wodYMm9Dh7i!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPiltWFf1SwBrXJZz39d1Yg3LSu5wodYMm9Dh7i%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya350.86493-ro-0-fo100!7i14000!8i7000

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "PTGui Support" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/ptgui/ZAsM9tYGU9Y/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to ptgui+un...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/b0f6c5d3-2c69-4bfc-9a84-9c5e8d8a3e5cn%40googlegroups.com.

[Barney Meyer]

Hi Mike...not completely so easy! You always have to watch out for the horizon line because there are no stitching points and drone pitch can vary slightly between frames
As there are no stitch points, I would manually adjust the pitch of that frame in PTGUI to nudge it into position. You may need to adjust the roll too. After doing that "Keep" the frame parameters.

Regds, Barney 

[John Houghton]

On Wednesday, May 25, 2022 at 7:53:51 AM UTC+1 barney....@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Mike...not completely so easy! You always have to watch out for the horizon line because there are no stitching points

Barney, There may not be any stitching points but there are stitching lines along which you can create straight line control points to accurately align them, and you may be able to use a vertical line point to anchor an image in position horizontally.

John 

[Mike Cowlishaw]

Hi Barney ... yes I also noticed the glitches there, but decided that it wasn't worth reporting.  Seems to me that the line (disjoints) there are clear (the darker blue lines) and so manual fixing shouldn't be necessary.

Also, in this particular image I set the initial viewpoint to the South so the viewer will only see the horizon glitches if they spin to look behind [which most people won't do as the sea direct is rather boring] ... :-).

Mike

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/2924dc78-b6cf-4d1e-9c81-2a643e365d9cn%40googlegroups.com.

[al...@golem.ws]

nice work...which software did you use to create the tour?

On Monday, May 9, 2022 at 11:40:15 PM UTC+3 Steve wrote:

[Barney Meyer]

Hi Al (al...@golem.ws)

I'm a long time Panotour Pro user, but the closure of Kolor meant that I had to look for a new solution, hopefully with wide support and good features.

I chose Pano2VR because it is modern, has a good support group and seems to have no problems handling Gigapixel images of full360x180 as well other formats.

Photoshop became a problem due to serious file size limitations and I had to switch to Affinity Photo.

Best Regards

Barney Meyer
We create Virtual Reality for you

Digital Technologist
Professional Panographer
Virtual Tour Creator
E:   barney....@gmail.com
W:  hiddenmelbourne.com.au
M:  0409 522093

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/6facb468-ccff-4ccb-bab5-8efc96ec4fc9n%40googlegroups.com.

[Philip Chong]

That is easy to fix on the horizon. Go to Edit-Transform and do Skew or Prespective or Wrap, I try it all.