how to stitch the picture by using dual fisheye camera with rotate 90 degrees?

[James Lee]

Hello seniors,

I recently started using the Insta360 1-inch dual-fisheye camera for photography. Through a chance discovery, I learned that when using this type of 360 camera with a one-shot capture, it is recommended to shoot two sets of photos by rotating the camera 90 degrees to avoid blurry edges that might occur during stitching. After taking these sets of photos, the next step is to use PTGui for stitching.

However, despite following these instructions, I have been encountering difficulties in smoothly stitching the images in PTGui. Could you please recommend any forum threads that might be helpful for me to read?

Additionally, I've noticed that sometimes the floor portion of my stitched panorama appears skewed. I have set vertical and horizontal lines, and the horizontal field of view appears fine, but the zenith and nadir parts are still skewed. Occasionally, closing PTGui and reopening it for re-stitching yields slightly better results, but most of the time, the ground appears distorted (for example, after shooting in a tiled area, the tiles on the ground don't look like perfect squares or rectangles, more like trapezoids).

Could you advise on how I can correct these issues in my images?

[PTGui Support]

Hi James,

Could you make a project (including source images) available for
download, so we can give it a try?

Keep in mind that there's always a slight amount of parallax when using
dual fisheye cameras, so there will be some small stitching errors. It
should be able to get rid of the skewing though.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

> Could you advise on how I can correct these issues in my images?ptgui.png
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[John Houghton]

James,  Stitching the two images is fairly straightforward.  Just add the two images and PTGui will create four images, each containing an image pair.  There will be four unmasked versions of the image circles.  Treat these as you would four shots taken with a DSLR fitted with a 180 degree fisheye lens.  If it helps, you can adjust the order of the images on the Source Images tab so as to replicate the 0,90,180,270 ordering.

As for the nadir distortions, they may not be correctable by shifting/rotating the panorama image on the spherical stitching surface as is normally done when levelling.  You may have to optimize with the option to include horizontal and vertical line control points in the first pass of the optimiser (on the Advanced panel of the optimizer) if the distortions need to be corrected by adjustments of the lens parameters.  This can be tricky, so do let us have copies of the source images as Joost suggests.

John

[James Lee]

Hi John,

Thank you very much for your response and assistance. I just upgraded PTGui to version 12.24 last night, and after loading the two files into PTGui, it automatically sorted the files as you suggested.

Despite following your recommendations, I still couldn't achieve satisfactory results. The original files are available at the following link: Google Drive Link

I appreciate your help.

John Houghton 在 2023年11月16日 星期四凌晨2:40:00 [UTC+8] 的信中寫道：

[John Houghton]

James, I'm not sure what was causing problems in your project, but mine (attached) turned out well.

John

[James Lee]

Hi Joost ,

I am sorry that I don't know why my reply didn't sent out,  here is the link with the project and the source images :

 Google Drive Link

by the way, I got the reply from John Houghton, he got a good result but I can't , so I compare his project with mine. I found the different thing as below picture show :

The lens settings was different, left side is my project and right side is John's project. If I change the lens settings to the parameters John used, I can achieve results almost identical to his. I don't understand why my parameters would differ from his. Every time I reload the files for stitching, the parameters automatically revert to my original settings. This indicates the my EXIF data is different from John's, even though we are using the same files. I'm puzzled by this inconsistency. I'm not sure if this information is helpful to you, but I would appreciate your assistance in identifying the issue. Thank you.

Best Regards,

James Lee

PTGui Support 在 2023年11月16日 星期四凌晨2:02:34 [UTC+8] 的信中寫道：

[James Lee]

Hi John , 

I try to copy your lens setting and I can achieve results as you got. 

I don''t know why your lens settings was different with mine. but at least I have a sample that I can use for my Insta360 ONE RS 1-Inch.

By the way, can you help me to check the initial lens setting when you load the file is same with me or not?

Best regards,

James

John Houghton 在 2023年11月16日 星期四下午5:42:31 [UTC+8] 的信中寫道：

[John Houghton]

James,  The lens parameters that are set up when you load in the images are incomplete.  The distortion correction parameters are set to zero.  They are not the result of a proper calibration exercise.  Only by setting appropriate control points and optimizing will a satisfactory alignment be obtained. 

BTW - as perhaps you noticed, my project file had two of the images disabled on the Create Panorama tab.  This was not intentional.  I had finished by trying a stitch using just one camera image and accidentally failed to revert the project to a full stitch.  Sorry about that.

John

[James Lee]

Hi John,

I have noticed that you have disabled a set of images. Thank you for informing me of your intention. Regarding your statement that the distortion correction parameters are set to zero just because the images I loaded are incomplete, I would like to ask for your guidance on how to proceed. My workflow is as follows:

•        Open PTGUI.
•        Drag images into PTGui.
•        Press 'Align images' until I achieve an acceptable stitching result.
•        Check control points and add vertical lines.
•        Optimize.
•        Output panorama."

In this process, I haven't made any changes to the lens settings, and it automatically generates the results you see. Could you please advise me on how to ensure that the files are fully loaded and automatically obtain the correct lens parameters? One again, I sincerely appreciate your feedback, As a beginner, I am still exploring many aspects, and the advice you've given has been tremendously helpful to me. Thank you.

Best Regards,

James 

John Houghton 在 2023年11月17日 星期五凌晨4:59:54 [UTC+8] 的信中寫道：

[PTGui Support]

Hi James,

I think PTGui has a not so perfect lens profile for the Insta360. It
might work for 2 images, where only the edges overlap, but not for 4.
I'll make sure this gets improved in a next update.

The other part of the problem is that by default PTGui doesn't optimize
lens distortion for dual lens 360 cameras, because there's hardly any
overlap with two images. With 4 images (like in this case), optimization
can be enabled safely. So, go to the Optimizer tab and enable Minimize
Lens Distortion: yes.

You might use John's project file as a template: open it, then do File -
Save As Template and give it a name. For future panoramas, load the
images and do Apply Template.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

On 16-11-2023 16:02, James Lee wrote:
> Hi John ,
>
> I try to copy your lens setting and I can achieve results as you got.

> lens settings.png
>
> I don''t know why your lens settings was different with mine. but at
> least I have a sample that I can use for my Insta360 ONE RS 1-Inch.
> By the way, can you help me to check the initial lens setting when you
> load the file is same with me or not?
>
> Best regards,
> James
>
>
> John Houghton 在 2023年11月16日 星期四下午5:42:31 [UTC+8] 的信中寫道：
>
> James, I'm not sure what was causing problems in your project, but
> mine (attached) turned out well.
>
> John
>
> On Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 5:11:15 AM UTC James Lee wrote:
>
> Hi John,
>
> Thank you very much for your response and assistance. I just
> upgraded PTGui to version 12.24 last night, and after loading
> the two files into PTGui, it automatically sorted the files as
> you suggested.
>
> Despite following your recommendations, I still couldn't achieve
> satisfactory results. The original files are available at the
> following link: Google Drive Link

> <https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KDI5cLN9zrrfn0WzHg2wn4ojP3P46xVz?usp=sharing>

> www.ptgui.com <http://www.ptgui.com>

> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/720a2ebe-1dd7-45b0-803f-d0f0533c9a14n%40googlegroups.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/720a2ebe-1dd7-45b0-803f-d0f0533c9a14n%40googlegroups.com> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/720a2ebe-1dd7-45b0-803f-d0f0533c9a14n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/720a2ebe-1dd7-45b0-803f-d0f0533c9a14n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>>.

>
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[John Houghton]

James, The project using two camera images shot with a 90 degree rotation between them serves as a calibration exercise to evaluate the lens parameters.  If, as Joost suggests, you use the project file as a template, you can stitch the two image circles from just one camera image to give an acceptable result.  I've attached a simpler version of my project file to use in this way.

The workflow is then:

1. Load in one camera image.

2. Do File->Apply template->Other and navigate to where the template file is located

3. Go straight to the Create Panorama tab and click "Create Panorama".  (Do not run Align Images).

Note that what happens when you apply a template (and run Align Images) is specified on the Project Settings tab.

John

[James Lee]

Hi Joost, 

Thank you for patiently listening and assisting me in resolving the issues.

I will try to follow your suggestions and give it another attempt.

I truly appreciate your enthusiastic support.

Thanks you .

Best Regards,

James

PTGui Support 在 2023年11月18日 星期六凌晨1:04:01 [UTC+8] 的信中寫道：

[James Lee]

Hi John,

Thank you very much, I will follow your instruction to test the template, thanks for your enthusiastic support, thanks a lot.

Best regards,

James

John Houghton 在 2023年11月18日 星期六凌晨2:55:53 [UTC+8] 的信中寫道：

[Shawn Rosensteel]

Hello,

I am trying to accomplish this exact same   thing using the new Qoocam Ultra 3.  I have tried to follow the directions in the posts but cannot get the stitching right.  I have the qoocam ultra 3 template which was posted on a facebook group which I believe came from Joost.  When I import the images it only adds single images from each file not the double images as described in this thread. When I do add duplicates of each image the stitching is a mess with a lot of overlap and I don't know to fix it. Any help you can offer would be much appreciated! Thank you in advance for your help!

[Erik Krause]

Am 21.08.2024 um 19:24 schrieb Shawn Rosensteel:

> When I import the images it only adds single images from each file
> not the double images as described in this thread

Did you try to stitch one panorama at a time by loading only one image
twice? To do multiple panoramas you would need the Batch Stitcher, but I
would recommend that only, if you first master the process for a single
panorama.

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

[Shawn Rosensteel]

Thank you for reaching out to try and help!  I am trying to upload two images taken by the qoocam ultra 3 360 camera shot at 90 degree angles to each other.  This is a dual fisheye camera so it is almost like you get 4 images to stitch together.   This is similar to what James Lee was doing with his insta360 1" camera at the top of this thread.    I am not trying to batch process anything just using the two images shot at 90 degree angles to each other to produce one panorama.

[John Houghton]

On Wednesday, August 21, 2024 at 10:23:34 PM UTC+1 Shawn Rosensteel wrote:

Thank you for reaching out to try and help!  I am trying to upload two images taken by the qoocam ultra 3 360 camera shot at 90 degree angles to each other. 

 Shawn, You could upload to wetransfer.com and post a link to the images here.  It's free, no need to register.  Just click Add files and Get a link. 

John

[Shawn Rosensteel]

Hi John,

I appreciate your suggestion!   The reason I am trying this is while the qoocam 3 ultra takes some great shots there are stitching issues in the images.  These are less noticeable on a computer monitor but when you use these images in a VR headset the problems are very obvious.  I saw a post on FB about using PTGUI to stitch 2 Photos taken at 90 degree angles to use the best parts of all photos.

Here is a link to the original DNG files straight out of the camera: https://we.tl/t-6Qg7JNkhnM

Here is a link to the template I have been using: PTGui Camera Templates - Google Drive

I really appreciate your help!

Shawn

[PTGui Support]

Hi Shawn,

The template is intended to be used for a single (dual fisheye) shot.

load the image into PTGui
load the same image again into PTGui
then apply the template.

I've tried stitching your 2 photos and came up with the attached
project. The result is far from perfect, I assume this is due to the
parallax resulting from the lens spacing of the Qoocam.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

On 22-08-2024 12:16, Shawn Rosensteel wrote:
> Hi John,
>
> I appreciate your suggestion!   The reason I am trying this is while the
> qoocam 3 ultra takes some great shots there are stitching issues in the
> images.  These are less noticeable on a computer monitor but when you
> use these images in a VR headset the problems are very obvious.  I saw a
> post on FB about using PTGUI to stitch 2 Photos taken at 90 degree
> angles to use the best parts of all photos.
>
> Here is a link to the original DNG files straight out of the camera:
> https://we.tl/t-6Qg7JNkhnM
>
> Here is a link to the template I have been using: PTGui Camera Templates
> - Google Drive

> <https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1J7wXs0jInj8EgLZoITp9W9Kl9tdt8cL2?fbclid=IwY2xjawEz7dBleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHUvQrdgmlAIcznN_iZvZZCnc1yCtwmH2Cit5bUhVkJ0iuaOjRjsCtkMdeQ_aem_It8uh4_kbariy6IZQMC2IQ>

>
> I really appreciate your help!
>
> Shawn
> On Thursday, August 22, 2024 at 3:07:34 AM UTC-4 John Houghton wrote:
>
> On Wednesday, August 21, 2024 at 10:23:34 PM UTC+1 Shawn Rosensteel
> wrote:
>
> Thank you for reaching out to try and help!  I am trying to
> upload two images taken by the qoocam ultra 3 360 camera shot at
> 90 degree angles to each other.
>
>

>  Shawn, You could upload to wetransfer.com <http://wetransfer.com>

> and post a link to the images here.  It's free, no need to

> register.  Just click *Add files* and *Get a link*.
>
> John

>
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[John Houghton]

On Thursday, August 22, 2024 at 3:03:51 PM UTC+1 PTGui Support wrote:

The result is far from perfect, I assume this is due to the
parallax resulting from the lens spacing of the Qoocam

I also got a poor result!  The probable explanation is parallax resulting not only from the spacing of the two lens, but also from the lenses being offset from the rotation axis when the camera is rotated about the tripod mount socket in the centre of the base.  Ideally, an adapter is needed to shift the camera sideways to bring the lenses onto the rotation axis.

John

[Shawn Rosensteel]

Thank you for trying!  It means I likely can't do what I wanted without a ton of hassle and it likely wouldn't work anyways!

[Shawn Rosensteel]

Thanks for looking into it!  I was hoping to eliminate the stitching issues I get from the Kandao software buy using multiple images in PTGUI.  It looks like it is a waste of time and I appreciate your efforts to try and help me!

[John Houghton]

Shawn,  I had another go with your images and I did manage to get a rather good result after trying a few things.  In fact, it's a practically perfect stitch - far better than the optimizer figures would lead one to expect (av. 7.8,  worst 22.2).  So it might be worth investigating further after all.  Project file attached.

John

[Shawn Rosensteel]

Wow! Pretty great results!  I am going to check out the project file to see if I can replicate the results! Thanks again for your help!