P4P Pano Mode Review | tl;dr I'm impressed

OK I tried out a couple shots in "Pano" mode this morning. I see in previous posts the pictures came out in both raw and JPG, all the pictures came out in JPG format (I have not messed with camera setting at all) . I was just a bit baffled by the icons for the type of "Panos" to create. I was looking for the mode to shoot 360* as in DaRana's "Winter Suprise".Now I just have to figure out how to stitch them together.
 
Thanks for the reply DARana...
When I got home from work this morning I downloaded the firmware from DJI to a card and tried the whole process again. I don't think the bird got updated last time as it took much longer this time. Anyway, I now see "pano" mode in the camera section. so the Pro+ version did get the upgrade. I will be trying it out later this morning.
I was gonna say you have to have the AC connected for it to show up. Have fun with it.
 
I took two pano photos with my P4P+ yesterday. I was not able to load up my old Canon Photostitch program in Windows 10 and seeing everyone seems to be using Lightroom to stitch them together I went ahead and purchased Light room. The first Pano with 21 pictures , Lightroom said it could not put together for some reason. the second group of 35 pictures it put together in about 45 minutes (wasn't ready for that one) came out a bit confused. there must be some way to arrange the pictures to get them into the proper order?
pano_1.jpg
 
I shot this in 16:9, hand flew the rotation and snapped 4 or 5 and then merged in PS.
 

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I took two pano photos with my P4P+ yesterday. I was not able to load up my old Canon Photostitch program in Windows 10 and seeing everyone seems to be using Lightroom to stitch them together I went ahead and purchased Light room. The first Pano with 21 pictures , Lightroom said it could not put together for some reason. the second group of 35 pictures it put together in about 45 minutes (wasn't ready for that one) came out a bit confused. there must be some way to arrange the pictures to get them into the proper order?
pano_1.jpg

LR seems to get confused with more than about 12 images. Try Hugin and Microsoft ICE, both are free. ICE just did a 34 shot one for me and stitched it well. Then back into LR for full editing.
 
LR seems to get confused with more than about 12 images. Try Hugin and Microsoft ICE, both are free. ICE just did a 34 shot one for me and stitched it well. Then back into LR for full editing.


KAOS nImagery, you are a genius! I messed around with LightRoom and PTGui for half a day trying to make one simple stitched together panoramic picture. With the Microsoft Ice I had the program downloaded , installed and a picture made in less than fifteen minutes. Thank You for your help.
pano_2.jpg
 
KAOS nImagery, you are a genius! I messed around with LightRoom and PTGui for half a day trying to make one simple stitched together panoramic picture. With the Microsoft Ice I had the program downloaded , installed and a picture made in less than fifteen minutes. Thank You for your help.
You're welcome, glad you got it sorted out. Looks good!

You can also use ICE to make those tiny planets out of your 180* pano. Choose Stereographic as the pano type, then click, hold and drag upwards on center of your image inside the grid until it becomes circular like a planet. You can tweak it some in ICE, then finish off in LR :)
 
I will try out the Stereographic mode you mention next. I know I am missing the back 180* of my globe but will that mode give me anything close to the shape of your "Winter Sunrise"?
 
I will try out the Stereographic mode you mention next. I know I am missing the back 180* of my globe but will that mode give me anything close to the shape of your "Winter Sunrise"?
In retrospect, I think my post was incorrect...when I did the tiny planet, I was in "Sphere" mode not "180" mode with my P4P. My tiny planet was comprised of 34 frames stitched.

Looking at your 180, I'm sure you could bend it into a planet, but the problem would be how do the left and right edges connect - they are quite different - and there probably isn't enough data for the straight down shots to complete the stitching. SORRY about that...didn't mean to mislead, I likely hadn't had enough coffee when I replied :) It may however work with your 35 image pano, but only if it was shot in Sphere mode.

Here's my tiny planet - My World

myworld.jpg
 
In retrospect, I think my post was incorrect...when I did the tiny planet, I was in "Sphere" mode not "180" mode with my P4P. My tiny planet was comprised of 34 frames stitched.

Looking at your 180, I'm sure you could bend it into a planet, but the problem would be how do the left and right edges connect - they are quite different - and there probably isn't enough data for the straight down shots to complete the stitching. SORRY about that...didn't mean to mislead, I likely hadn't had enough coffee when I replied :) It may however work with your 35 image pano, but only if it was shot in Sphere mode.

Here's my tiny planet - My World

myworld.jpg

Awesome!! Great sphere shot. :)

I’ll have to give ICE a run with the 34 shot sphere pano. PTGui has had some trouble stitching DJIs 34 shot pattern unfortunately. Otherwise I use PTGui with great success.

For hand shot spheres and panos or other auto pano modes Lightroom and PTGui have been great. PTGui is my goto since I Shoot a ton on hdr panos as well (those are all by hand).
 
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Awesome!! Great sphere shot. :)

I’ll have to give ICE a run with the 34 shot sphere pano. PTGui has had some trouble stitching DJIs 34 shot pattern unfortunately. Otherwise I use PTGui with great success.

For hand shot spheres and panos or other auto pano modes Lightroom and PTGui have been great. PTGui is my goto since I Shoot a ton on hdr panos as well (those are all by hand).

Interesting about PTGui and the 34 shot pattern. I was thinking of purchasing because I want to more multi row panos, just order a Nodal Ninja NN6. Wish the DJI app would let us bracket each exposure when doing panos, there can be a big difference in dynamic range across any given scene and of course you can't lift the shadows like you can with a dslr.
 
Interesting about PTGui and the 34 shot pattern. I was thinking of purchasing because I want to more multi row panos, just order a Nodal Ninja NN6. Wish the DJI app would let us bracket each exposure when doing panos, there can be a big difference in dynamic range across any given scene and of course you can't lift the shadows like you can with a dslr.

PTGui is fantastic normally, but I've had a really hard time w/ the 34 shot pattern. But the problem is really in the fact that the gimbal goes too far up so most of the upward shots end up being completely sky, so there really isn't anything to stitch on. When I shoot super low to the ground it handles it just fine.

This one down low stitched fine w/ the 34 shot in PTGui
Connecticut River Icejam - JeremyPollack.net

Definitely would be nice to do bigger brackets with the app and in pano. I usually end up shooting 15 exposures deep when doing big panos on the DJI birds since we can't go larger than a 2/3 stop bracket. Kinda hard to shoot an HDR with the sun and shadows at only 1 1/3 stop difference even with the crazy dynamic range of the sensors!

This is ~180 pics stitched and stacked: Aerial - Jeremy Pollack
20170603-DJI_0382And14more%20Panorama%20v3_hdr_HDR-%5B2560px%5D-2-X3.jpg

That's where PTGui becomes indispensable. Doing that repeatedly in photoshop is just not really feasible.


(I use it for architecture pics, too - nodal ninja or that style unit + PTGui = awesome. You can batch a whole job and have it 90% done just awaiting final tweaks in the same amount of time it would take to do a single stitch w/ LR + PS.)
 
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I tried out the trial version of PTGui and it kept putting the picture # 34 in the middle of the picture and complaining of no points to connect .
It was a picture of the ground with trees and stuff, can't understand why it could not be placed. I used ICE which worked properly but I don't see where the "planet" type stitching comes from as in KAOS's picture. MY first try.
 
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PTGui is fantastic normally, but I've had a really hard time w/ the 34 shot pattern. But the problem is really in the fact that the gimbal goes too far up so most of the upward shots end up being completely sky, so there really isn't anything to stitch on. When I shoot super low to the ground it handles it just fine.

This one down low stitched fine w/ the 34 shot in PTGui
Connecticut River Icejam - JeremyPollack.net

Definitely would be nice to do bigger brackets with the app and in pano. I usually end up shooting 15 exposures deep when doing big panos on the DJI birds since we can't go larger than a 2/3 stop bracket. Kinda hard to shoot an HDR with the sun and shadows at only 1 1/3 stop difference even with the crazy dynamic range of the sensors!

This is ~180 pics stitched and stacked: Aerial - Jeremy Pollack
20170603-DJI_0382And14more%20Panorama%20v3_hdr_HDR-%5B2560px%5D-2-X3.jpg

That's where PTGui becomes indispensable. Doing that repeatedly in photoshop is just not really feasible.


(I use it for architecture pics, too - nodal ninja or that style unit + PTGui = awesome. You can batch a whole job and have it 90% done just awaiting final tweaks in the same amount of time it would take to do a single stitch w/ LR + PS.)

Beautiful work, Jeremy!

Before P4 series came out, there was a free app called Drone Pan that would automate the image capture process. The developers are revamping it now for the P4P and I2, it is in beta. They are including a bracketing function which should be interesting. If you are on FB, there is a group of users there and you can get a copy of beta if you want to test it out.

I supposed with the DJI app you could just run it multiple times at different base exposures to make your own bracketed sequence, but you'd have to process each individual image set before stitching or attempt to merge to HDR several stitched panos, would take a fast computer with a lot of memory. Or perhaps use luminosity masks for blending...just thinking out loud :)
 
I tried out the trial version of PTGui and it kept putting the picture # 34 in the middle of the picture and complaining of no points to connect .
It was a picture of the ground with trees and stuff, can't understand why it could not be placed. I used ICE which worked properly but I don't see where the "planet" type stitching comes from as in KAOS's picture. MY first try.

In ICE, choose Stereographic as the pano type, then click, hold and drag upwards on center of your image inside the grid until it becomes circular like a planet. You can tweak it some in ICE, then finish off in LR
 
Beautiful work, Jeremy!

Before P4 series came out, there was a free app called Drone Pan that would automate the image capture process. The developers are revamping it now for the P4P and I2, it is in beta. They are including a bracketing function which should be interesting. If you are on FB, there is a group of users there and you can get a copy of beta if you want to test it out.

I supposed with the DJI app you could just run it multiple times at different base exposures to make your own bracketed sequence, but you'd have to process each individual image set before stitching or attempt to merge to HDR several stitched panos, would take a fast computer with a lot of memory. Or perhaps use luminosity masks for blending...just thinking out loud :)

Thanks re work. [emoji5] And re dronepan. I’m in that group but haven’t tried out the app in months. I’ll go check out the latest updates. Does it use the pano API? I have shots hundreds of panos by hand but it’s so much slower - that’s what got me so excited about the api. A 10 fold speed up plus super consistent is always nice.

I’ve shot multiple brackets of dji pano. It works okay, but I’d far prefer to shoot the brackets at the same time. The problem typically is that the clouds in the sky will have moved in the 60-70 seconds between brackets and that just effs everything up, either the sky or the ground tries to match leaving the other one offset.
 
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I tried out the trial version of PTGui and it kept putting the picture # 34 in the middle of the picture and complaining of no points to connect .
It was a picture of the ground with trees and stuff, can't understand why it could not be placed. I used ICE which worked properly but I don't see where the "planet" type stitching comes from as in KAOS's picture. MY first try.

PTGui is complicated. It’s incredibly powerful. But it has a learning curve. And this is coming from someone who is a power user of most software - it took me a while to really get my arms around it.

An image being put in the middle means it didn’t match control points. Under advanced mode you can set control points manually. Also, for the top and bottom shots sometimes you need to stitch those separately.

Or, If it is working, just use ICE. unless you’re doing commercial work and need the quality or are otherwise a stickler and wNt full control, I know a lot of people have had great success with ice and it’s a lot easier than PTGui. (Understatement alert!)
 
Thanks re work. [emoji5] And re dronepan. I’m in that group but haven’t tried out the app in months. I’ll go check out the latest updates. Does it use the pano API? I have shots hundreds of panos by hand but it’s so much slower - that’s what got me so excited about the api. A 10 fold speed up plus super consistent is always nice.

I’ve shot multiple brackets of dji pano. It works okay, but I’d far prefer to shoot the brackets at the same time. The problem typically is that the clouds in the sky will have moved in the 60-70 seconds between brackets and that just effs everything up, either the sky or the ground tries to match leaving the other one offset.
I have not used DronePan since the full release with my P3P a couple years ago. I'd rather not be a beta tester, just monitoring to see when (and if) a fully functional release is made.
 
Love the idea of this new in-house Pano function, but it's sorta basic until you can do AEB panos with this thing... sounds like that is not supported by the Pano shooting mode?
 

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