Couple of Panos

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Beautiful, Guapo!! I was just about to post a topic about how best to HDR panos...but I might as well ask you since yours are so stunning and I assume there's HDR involved since the ground and sky are both well-exposed. How do you HDR? I know PTGui Pro will do it, but I'm really trying to see if I can do it without buying that. I have PSP X9 which I've found is a really respectable, affordable alternative to Photoshop, and I've been stitching panos with Microsoft ICE. Only trouble is even if I'm shooting RAW, though I can import RAW files into ICE, I can't export in a raw format, so I lose the advantage. I've read perhaps the best way to do it is to AEB bracket JPGs when shooting the pano from the bird, then make a few different-exposed panos, then HDR merge multiple finished panos together.

Anyway, enough about that - what's your workflow to make a beautiful pano like this?

And thanks for sharing!
 
Panos come out best between 11:00AM - 2:30PM, when the sun is at its highest. This, of course, if you want clear blue skies.

The next thing you want to do is set your camera settings manually starting with the brightest area. I shoot in Raw but you can shoot in JPG. Auto exposure tends to change the exposure of each image tile, and set your white balance depending on the day light (sun or clouds), 4:3 ratio. Images must be in 4:3 ratio and do not use auto camera settings and Auto exposure. I suggest ISO at 100, shutter speed above 1/250th, and an aperture at 5.6 to 8.0 if using a P4 Pro. Adjust the shutter speed to maintain the aperture I suggested. Litchi and AutoPilot have automated modes to do this, but if you do not have an autonomous flying app this can be accomplished manually. Angle the camera to 20 degrees for the first row and do a 360 spin while taking 12 images. The images must overlap. Rotate slowly. In essence, you’ll rotate, take a picture, rotate, take a picture, rotate. Next angle the camera to about -17 degrees downward and do another 360 spin while taking 7 images. The images must overlap. Rotate slowly. Do not angle the camera upward. Next step is to angle the camera down to about -53 degrees and shoot another 7 images. To complete the pano angle the gimbal all the way down to -90 degrees and take 2 pictures, basically take 1 picture and rotate and take another picture after the rotation.

I have both Autopilot and Litchi, but I have gotten better results with Autopilot. For some odd reason, sometimes Litchi does weird stuff when running Pano missions, in the middle of the mission the aircraft just hovers without finishing the mission. I had this happened to me couple of times working commercially.

If using AP or Litchi take the images at 3 rows starting at above 20° above the horizon with 8 images per row left to right. then move down 30° and repeat, accept the Nadir defaults 2 images facing 90° down.

Once you have all of the pictures, it is time to stitch them together in the computer. There are various programs out there that can do this. Hugin is a nice free image stitching software and GIMP is a Free image manipulation software with similar capabilities to Lightroom or Photoshop. Download both and install them in your computer. I'm pretty sure they have Windows versions, I use Mac.
 
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Guapo, thank you so much for taking the time to write all this - I can't tell you how much I appreciate it!! I would not have thought midday would have been the best time, but your eye-popping skies speak for themselves. Duly noted!

I've played with Hugin a bit but honestly I've been scared of the learning curve - tried to stitch one pano and got multiple errors - so I ran back to Microsoft ICE with my tail between my legs! But - your workflow has really helped me think through something that might work for me, which is just slightly adapting what you do. By the way, I'm on a P3P, so fixed aperture - so set white balance and exposure for the sky, run one pano with JPGs with DronePan (though I could use Litchi, I use it for other stuff but not panos yet), set exposure for the ground, run another pano, perhaps with one in the middle for good luck. Complete all panos and HDR merge. Not quite as elegant as being able to use the considerable leeway in RAW imagery - but I'm not quite ready to spend $175 on PTGui pro :)

Could I do an HDR pano with Hugin? May have to just suck it up and learn how to use it if so!!

Thanks again - going to try a few panos!
 
I used to have a P3P, that's a very good aircraft with a nice camera on board. You can very well use your P3P for Panos with great results, I have a Mavic, fixed aperture, that I use it for Panos and they come out great. The camera of the P3P is very similar to the Mavic.

For some people Litchi works great, maybe it will work for you. I prefer AutoPilot, and maybe because that is the first Autonomous software I learned to use from day one, give Litchi a chance if you already have it.

When you are ready to do a pano, fly your aircraft to a hover at a safe altitude - 75 ft - using the DJI GO App. While your camera is in auto mode rotate the aircraft in a 360 motion and stop at the brightest spot you can find. Next step is to change your camera settings to manual mode, like I said I recommend ISO 100 and set your shutter speed , give or take 1/250, and WB. Launch Litchi and switch to Pano mode, an square little icon with a gear on the left hand side is going to show up. Click that icon, the first setting is Rows, you can start with 2 Rows, take the default of Top Row Angle: +20 degrees. Photos per row: 14 Width: 360 and Nadir: 3. Then run your mission, once you see what Litchi does when running a Pano mission and feel comfortable fly to 300 or 399 feet and do an actual Pano.

Hugins and ICE are good choices of free Pano stitching software. A member in the Mavic forum uses Serif PanoramaPlus X4 with good results, I have never used it myself but he likes it. I think he paid $19.99 for the software.

That should get you started.
 
Guapo, you are the man!! Thank you so much - will give it a go. In the meantime, keep those great photos coming!! Thanks again!
 
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Incredible! Truly beautiful stuff. I can see why you'd want cloudy conditions. Once I can get these two projects out the door I'm going to give it a go!
 

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