Artifacts in drone Mavic 4 PRO panorama

[Jann Lipka]

What is this type of stiching artifacts called ? 
Can those be avoided / fixed without patching / photoshop ? 
 Could increased precision for blending fix this ?  
Obviously I cannot put any Control points in the sky. 

[Erik Krause]

Am 09.07.2025 um 12:36 schrieb Jann Lipka:

> What is this type of stiching artifacts called ?

No idea what the proper name is, but these artifacts occur where three
images join. Border Triangle?

However, they occur when one of the images has a different brightness or
color. To verify switch to Show Unblended Panorama in Pano Editor Mode
menu. You can try masks to move the seams to a different location or
adjust individual images brightness on Image Parameters tab. If the
images are differently exposed, try turning on Exposure Compensation in
Pano Editor Blending side menu.

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

[Jann Lipka]

Big thank You Erik - 
Yes indeed  .
being careful  with even exposure on Sky images solved this !
Regarding Exposure compensation - 
I have that turned but maybe exposure differences were too big. 
one more question :
I'm still scratching my head with those  other blending options
- when should I fiddle with precision ( normally at 1/8 ) and change blender type ? 

Any specific scenarios / type of images  - normally I use just from Lightroom exported 8B tiffs - no fancy HDR or raws  etc .   ? 

[PTGui Support]

Hi Jann,

Exposure Compensation can compensate for differences in exposure times.
But brightness differences can also be caused by local corrections
during raw conversion, such as shadow/highlight correction. This cannot
be compensated for, so then it's up to the blender to handle that. It's
best to avoid doing shadow/highlight correction, instead apply those
changes after stitching.

Also try stitching the DNGs directly in PTGui 13.2, it will probably do
a good job.

Increasing the precision will generally improve the result, but increase
stitching time an memory usage. So it's about how long you are willing
to wait.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

On 7/10/25 07:26, Jann Lipka wrote:
> Big thank You Erik -
> Yes indeed  .
> being careful  with even exposure on Sky images solved this !
> Regarding Exposure compensation -
> I have that turned but maybe exposure differences were too big.

> Skärmavbild 2025-07-09 kl. 12.35.05.jpgone more question :

> I'm still scratching my head with those  other blending options
> - when should I fiddle with precision ( normally at 1/8 ) and change
> blender type ?
>
> Any specific scenarios / type of images  - normally I use just from
> Lightroom exported 8B tiffs - no fancy HDR or raws  etc .   ?
>
>
>
> onsdag 9 juli 2025 kl. 20:03:30 UTC+2 skrev Erik Krause:
>
> Am 09.07.2025 um 12:36 schrieb Jann Lipka:
>
> > What is this type of stiching artifacts called ?
>
> No idea what the proper name is, but these artifacts occur where three
> images join. Border Triangle?
>
> However, they occur when one of the images has a different
> brightness or
> color. To verify switch to Show Unblended Panorama in Pano Editor Mode
> menu. You can try masks to move the seams to a different location or
> adjust individual images brightness on Image Parameters tab. If the
> images are differently exposed, try turning on Exposure Compensation in
> Pano Editor Blending side menu.
>
> --
> Erik Krause

> http://www.erik-krause.de <http://www.erik-krause.de>
>
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[Jann Lipka]

Aha - So I could make stiching with less corrected files and then 
substitute them with locally  adjusted ? 
I will try DNG workflow - 
but. with drone images normally Nadir is so much darker then sky 
( with manual same exposure ) so always adjust + for nadirs and - för above horizon ) 

[PTGui Support]

On 7/10/25 11:10, Jann Lipka wrote:
> Aha - So I could make stiching with less corrected files and then
> substitute them with locally  adjusted ?

No I mean don't apply shadow/highlight correction when converting your
raw files. Take the stitched panorama from PTGui and make any
adjustments there.

> I will try DNG workflow -
> but. with drone images normally Nadir is so much darker then sky
> ( with manual same exposure ) so always adjust + for nadirs and - för
> above horizon )

That's fine, Exposure Compensation in PTGui can handle that. If the
entire image is brighter or darker, PTGui can compensate for that. It's
shadow/highlight correction which is problematic, because it adjusts
different parts of the image in different ways.

Joost

[Jann Lipka]

OK thanks - I'm experimenting with new for me workflow. 
Stitching with DNGs is really very good . 

But as a heavy LIghtroom user I have issues 
wiith  image adjustment - 
My new DNG workflow would be 
1. Do nothing in LIghtroom / Photoshop
2. make panorama from DNGs - looks good but 
   lack some contrast and I would tune down highlights 

 the only tool that I can use in PTGUi is post proces 
( I use simple DNGs i'm not doing HDR so no Tone mapping or Exposure fusion ) 

( it is only curve + exposure + saturation ) 


I export  panorama as 16B image and make local  adjustments to whole image in Photoshop 

[Jann Lipka]

Is there any decent tutorial on how to use image editing tabs
( Tonemapping,  Exposure fusion and Postprocess ) 
I see I need to use those even with single exposures ? 

Those are so much different from Lightroom / Camera Raw 
and don't feel intuitive coming from Photoshop World. 

[PTGui Support]

Hi Jann,

I don't have a tutorial, I'm sorry. For these adjustments it basically
means trying adjustments until it looks good.

Exposure Fusion and Tone mapping are mutually exclusive by the way, you
can use only one.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

On 7/12/25 06:38, Jann Lipka wrote:
> Is there any decent tutorial on how to use image editing tabs
> ( Tonemapping,  Exposure fusion and Postprocess )
> I see I need to use those even with single exposures ?
>
> Those are so much different from Lightroom / Camera Raw
> and don't feel intuitive coming from Photoshop World.
>
>
>
> torsdag 10 juli 2025 kl. 21:13:54 UTC+2 skrev Jann Lipka:
>
> OK thanks - I'm experimenting with new for me workflow.
> Stitching with DNGs is really very good .
>
> But as a heavy LIghtroom user I have issues
> wiith  image adjustment -
> My new DNG workflow would be
> 1. Do nothing in LIghtroom / Photoshop
> 2. make panorama from DNGs - looks good but
>    lack some contrast and I would tune down highlights
>
>  the only tool that I can use in PTGUi is post proces
> ( I use simple DNGs i'm not doing HDR so no Tone mapping or Exposure
> fusion )

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[Jann Lipka]

OK - 

I'm somwwhat confused with tone mapping as it clearly makes my panorama much brighter in lower area ...
- But there is not much HDr in those DNGs to start with ... 

But yes - fiddling around gives me OK results and then final touch ups with 16B TIFFS  in  Camera RAW filter in PS 

[Christian Gamio]

I have the same problem and it´s annoying!! I´m using the latest version of PTFGui and as said it happens when several (3-4) pictures are bordering. Why is PTGui not solving this? I had it from the first version I got a year ago.

Pictures made with the DJI Mavic 3 classic.