Panorama ruined - Auto exposure gone bananas

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I tried to do a panorama of the greatest waterfall in Norway (measured in the amount of water - NOT the beauty...) this morning. It was done using Litchi's panorama function.

But the panorama was completely ruined because two of the 18 images was completely overexposed. I don't understand how this can be. The camera setting was auto exposure.

Images 1-3 is from the upper strip.
Images 4-6 is from the lower strip (the same sideways angle).

As you can see, image 4 and 5 is completely overexposed, leaving about zero details left:

dji.jpg


This is a part of the stitched panorama. The focus of the entire panorama, the waterfall, is completely ruined:
dji2.jpg


So.... what happened? Is the auto exposure of the Phantom really so slow that it needs 15 seconds to adjust? That is the (estimated) time from image 3 to 6 where the exposure is more or less ok (a bit on the dark side).

If only Litchi could get their *** in gear and start supporting AEB bracketing for their panorama...
 
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I got that using litchi... I take photos manually now to make panoramas


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
With panos, at least on my DSLR, I always shoot raw and manual exposure. I find it far easier to stitch later. I usually meter on the medium zones of the pano (neither the dark or the light) and then let the lightest over expose mildly and let the darks under expose slightly. After stitching, I can do adjustment layers with a gradient mask over the two zones. But I do so after stitching.
 
But the panorama was completely ruined because two of the 18 images was completely overexposed. I don't understand how this can be. The camera setting was auto exposure.

It can be, because the camera compensates for exposure by itself in Auto, advise to always shoot Panos on manual exposure ;)
 
You might also want to shoot closer to noon - extreme sun angles and the resulting shadows can mess with auto exposure as well.

Litchi does support HDR.. I presume on all DJIs? I know it does on the Mavic and P4. That might help, although it does take much longer.

You might also try a 1 or 2 sec delay before taking the picture to give the camera time to meter and set exposure. That's one of the pano settings.
 
This is a very common issue to those new to shooting panos with land based camera systems also.

The solution is simple.

With the AC airborne yaw and pan around the scene and set your exposure manually. Almost always you will find that facing the brightest area of the scene to determine the exposure will give the best outcome as it is the blown highlights that prove most objectionable. Once you have determined the exposure shoot all frames with the set EV (camera in manual mode).

This will consistently give pleasing results in your final stitched image.
 
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