Yea we're investigating how to add a cataloguing feature that would automatically folder and sequence each pano in its own folder, but at this time it is not clear how it can be done with the SDK. There is definitely a learning curve on "best practices," we're all still learning so it's great to hear what are becoming your best practices - thanks for sharing
The stitching software that you use after collecting the images should be able to stitch them no matter what order they appear or were taken in. It uses overlapping image data and not the file name or the order/time they were shot in/at. However, the image metadata will show the time sequence of each shot collected. Spherical panoramas are best used for locations where the 360° horizontal view offers areas of interest in all directions. A 180° panorama is better suited for shooting the coastline from the water, because there is nothing interesting behind you. It can also be challenging shooting into the sun, so pick a time of day when the sun is over the water behind your 180° panorama, or shoot your 360° when the sun is directly overhead. Have fun! These are really cool uses of the P3!
The stitching software that you use after collecting the images should be able to stitch them no matter what order they appear or were taken in. It uses overlapping image data and not the file name or the order/time they were shot in/at. However, the image metadata will show the time sequence of each shot collected. Spherical panoramas are best used for locations where the 360° horizontal view offers areas of interest in all directions. A 180° panorama is better suited for shooting the coastline from the water, because there is nothing interesting behind you. It can also be challenging shooting into the sun, so pick a time of day when the sun is over the water behind your 180° panorama, or shoot your 360° when the sun is directly overhead. Have fun! These are really cool uses of the P3!
Have you tried importing the panorama images into Lightroom? In LR, you can select capture order to sort the images, and also rename them, appending a leading or trailing incrementing sequence number in the current capture order, to the original file name, to do exactly what you are describing. You can also stack images by capture time, and set the time interval of each stack grouping. The panorama sequences will be tightly grouped in time, vs. your manually shot images. If you specify say a 10 second interval between stacks, your first panorama images should then be in a stack, to help spot them, unless all your other images are 3 or 5 simultaneous shots. LR's ability to organize your images is limited only by your imagination to get the results you want.
Have you tried importing the panorama images into Lightroom? In LR, you can select capture order to sort the images, and also rename them, appending a leading or trailing incrementing sequence number in the current capture order, to the original file name, to do exactly what you are describing. You can also stack images by capture time, and set the time interval of each stack grouping. The panorama sequences will be tightly grouped in time, vs. your manually shot images. If you specify say a 10 second interval between stacks, your first panorama images should then be in a stack, to help spot them, unless all your other images are 3 or 5 simultaneous shots. LR's ability to organize your images is limited only by your imagination to get the results you want.
Lots of magical lighting scenarios don't capture well digitally. Our eyes have a far greater dynamic range than any camera. Try different stitching programs. They all have slightly different algorithms. Some are better than others, depending upon your scene. Also several of the stitching programs allow you to manually override the automated stitching process to correct for errors. Learning about control points will help, too. Happy stitching, and have fun !
Why rely upon Dronepan at all? Why not just shoot them all manually? You get to take exactly as many as you need. You can bracket exposures. You can shoot in DNG. Way more flexibility and control! I've been doing mine manually for several months. No need whatsoever for a Dronepan app. Just start the first image with the compass arrow at 9pm on a clock and rotate 45° clockwise fot each additional exposure, until you shoot 3pm, for a 180° pano, or keep going to 9pm for a 360° pano. If you want a 360x120 spherical pano, just shoot straight down for 0°, and then 30°, 60°, 90°' and 120° up with a complete 360° sequence at each gimbal elevation.Yes Lightroom and Photoshop are my tools of choice. The image below (larger view) was a 3 - 4 frame capture with dronepan and stitched in Lightroom. I had some success with Kola Autopano and manually setting controls points, but still not happy with the results. At least it will give me something to do as the nights draw in!
Hoping dronepan relase an update soon to limit the degrees of frames captured so that I have less images to throw away.
Why rely upon Dronepan at all? Why not just shoot them all manually? You get to take exactly as many as you need. You can bracket exposures. You can shoot in DNG. Way more flexibility and control! I've been doing mine manually for several months. No need whatsoever for a Dronepan app. Just start the first image with the compass arrow at 9pm on a clock and rotate 45° clockwise fot each additional exposure, until you shoot 3pm, for a 180° pano, or keep going to 9pm for a 360° pano. If you want a 360x120 spherical pano, just shoot straight down for 0°, and then 30°, 60°, 90°' and 120° up with a complete 360° sequence at each gimbal elevation.
Agreed. However, it seems that your intended use of 180° single row panoramas is vastly different than their intended automation of 360°x120° multi-row spherical panoramas. They automate the shooting of 20 frames and you only need 3, and are having a hard time finding the 3 you need among theIr 20. Just sayin'. For what you want to shoot, 3 manual shots is easier and gives you more control, because you can shoot DNG and even automate the bracketing of your 3 needed exposures natively within DJI GO, and Dronepan will likely never do either. Just my humble opinion.
Just bring your final stitched jpg panorama into Photoshop and use "content aware fill" to clone in the missing sky to get a full 360x180° spherical panorama and use that for your output to web image. Alternatively, just add another layer of 6 blue sky photos to the 20 DronePan images before the stitching, and make sure they are at the top of your sequence. I use PTGui and PanoramaStudio Pro. PSP avoids the black ceiling on its own, but PTGui needs cloned in sky to fill the top of the dome.
Thanks for the input. I'll try photoshop first as I haven't had any luck stitching other pictures. My stitching software is very fussy about the resolution of all frames. If they are one pixel out it has a paddy.Just bring your final stitched jpg panorama into Photoshop and use "content aware fill" to clone in the missing sky to get a full 360x180° spherical panorama and use that for your output to web image. Alternatively, just add another layer of 6 blue sky photos to the 20 DronePan images before the stitching, and make sure they are at the top of your sequence. I use PTGui and PanoramaStudio Pro. PSP avoids the black ceiling on its own, but PTGui needs cloned in sky to fill the top of the dome.
Both of the stitching programs I mentioned above have free trials that put their watermark on the result, but you can test them and their stitching capabilities before buying them. They are also about $100 each, but very good at stitching and their output to web modules do a great rendering, if you can host the files on your own site.
Did you deliberately lower the resolution? The image never seems to sharpen, and is missing the sharp resolution of the P3P. Something must have been done to the output files, as the camera JPG's are usually sharp as a tack and can be significantly zoomed into in the spherical panoramas.
I use PanoramaStudio Pro and PTGui and self-host the web output files, or use ICE with Photosynth, but it has now stopped working for me---won't let me upload anymore, even though I am well below the max upload limit! All three display the full resolution of the original stitch when you zoom in. That's what makes these spherical panoramas so impressive!
