Panoramic Photography
- Thread starter Bret Lucas
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I'm going to shoot a series over my cul de sac later. Just downloaded the trial version of ptgui. I know it adds a watermark, but it might be worth the price for the 360 degree panos. Quite the little hobby we have here ... flying is fun all by itself, but the opportunities for photos and videos are incredible.
No but that might depend on wind, it was pretty calm when I have tried it, I also noticed that when rotating you need to let it settle down for a few seconds it can swing back and forth a little until it "locks" I also make sure the shutter speed it pretty high, when I am shooting stills I do not use a ND filter just the clear UV.
Alan
What an incredible collection of pictures! I am trying to up my game. I have done a lot of aerial videos and single pics on other platforms. But the P3P sure seams the platform for the large pano and or night time pics.
I am trying to figure out what to do for new editing software both for stills and video. Currently I use Sony Movie Studio 12 for video and Gimp2 for pics.
I see the Adobe stand alone programs and then the CC that require monthly fees. All a bit confusing on what does what, and what I need to get. My initial reaction is that I would rather buy something than make a monthly payment. But if the payment method is the way to go, I would do that. I just don't think I want a $50 a month payment if I don't get good use out of the "everything" plan.
What is a good starting point? Where can I go to get some unbiased info to decide my direction? What do you guys use for some of the awesomeness above?
I am trying to figure out what to do for new editing software both for stills and video. Currently I use Sony Movie Studio 12 for video and Gimp2 for pics.
I see the Adobe stand alone programs and then the CC that require monthly fees. All a bit confusing on what does what, and what I need to get. My initial reaction is that I would rather buy something than make a monthly payment. But if the payment method is the way to go, I would do that. I just don't think I want a $50 a month payment if I don't get good use out of the "everything" plan.
What is a good starting point? Where can I go to get some unbiased info to decide my direction? What do you guys use for some of the awesomeness above?
Re: slow saves for RAW...
Is this based on the write speed of the micro sd card or some other hardware limitation of the camera and processor? In other words, could you buy a faster SD card and get faster writes?
Has anyone been able to test the write speeds on JPEG vs raw vs both?
Is this based on the write speed of the micro sd card or some other hardware limitation of the camera and processor? In other words, could you buy a faster SD card and get faster writes?
Has anyone been able to test the write speeds on JPEG vs raw vs both?
Well this is a hard question to answer. The adobe software will be a large learning curve. If you are happy with your video editing then you can do the subscription for photographers and that is $10/ month. That gives you Lightroom and Photoshop. Lightroom is pretty easy to learn and is basically a cataloging system with some pretty advanced non-destructive editing capabilities. Photoshop is very powerful and has a huge learning curve. Probably for what you are doing now Lightroom will do quite well for you. You can buy a stand alone version of Lightroom although Adobe does not make it easy to find it, you need to change it at the last minute of the checkout.
Lightroom will give you pano ability, although there is better software out there. It will give you full editing capability, and cataloging capability. Lots of tutorials available. Lightroom is non-destructive, in other words all the editing you do is not modifying the actual image until you export a copy of it. So you can easily go back and change edits, often after something sits for day I can find things I want to change. This is a simplistic explanation.
The all access subscription is probably overkill unless this is going to be your primary income source. Lightroom will easily process the raw files from the P3 and also do the lens correction.
Gimp works fine and can do a lot of what photoshop can do.
Answering what software to get is always a difficult thing to answer, it is like a stranger asking "what car should I get?" There are lots of answers and opinions, this is just mine.
I use standalone Lightroom 6, Photoshop CS6 and Premiere Pro CS6, Ptgui and now more and more Resolve. But then I also use other software for my other cameras, like Capture One, etc. I have been doing this for a very long time. (photography that is) Since the old film days.
For video an interesting alternative is Davinci Resolve, I have not used it a lot, but the free version is quite nice and lots of features and interesting color grading capabilities.
Sometimes the best advice is use what you have until it no longer gives you what you need then move up, sometimes you can go back a couple of steps if you change your "world" with large learning curves. Or change things slowly if you can. Whatever works best for you.
Anyone can always pm if you want more opinions of it still on topic on the forums.
Alan
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Your last paragraph describes how I've gone through several video editors. Every change creates a learning cure that sets me back before I can move forward. I think I will try the Adobe CC for pics as a opposed to trying to learn new pic and video software at the same time. I'll see if I can create some of those fantastic pano and night shots that I see
Another alternative is to upload the photos to Google and it'll auto-stitch them for you. Then you can use either the Google Photos app or Snapseed (owned by Google) to do any post and color correction. Granted it's nowhere near as powerful as a full fledged Lightroom, but it does a pretty decent job considering you can do it all on your mobile device. Here's one Google stitched for me, and I did some color correction in Snapseed.
I have Adobe CC Photog plan and I love it. Lightroom is easy to learn, and while Photoshop is more difficult to learn in and out, I find it easy to learn how to do 'things'. There are more free Photoshop tutorials out there than you can shake a stick at. Read around the net and you will get ideas, then if you can follow instructions, you can do it.
I have photoshop CC and it is amazing. I tried lightroom for a while, but once I switched to PS I won't go back, in spite of the learning curve. Add the NIK plugins and editing is not only a breeze, it's fun. Thank goodness for youtube tutorials, though !! My next task is premier pro CC, which I now can do on the "must know" level of basic editing and rendering, but am looking to expand my skill set. I've been using photoshop since version 3, and there really is nothing like it for photo editing for me.
The NIK plugins as well as most others will work with Lightroom as well. Lightroom is intended as an asset management as well as editor.
Alan
Alan
Have you used Lightroom much recently? It has way more power than it used to have back in the PS3 days. I prefer it over using bridge, plus it is a better catalog. I do all my quick edits, taking advantage of the non-destructive nature. From there, if needed, I push it to a plug-in or PS for more advanced editing. With every release, Lightroom seems to pull in the PS functionality I use, so I spend less and less time in PS.
I am with you on NIK -- Color Efex, Silver Efex, HDR Efex and Sharpening are my favorite modules. I have also played some with On1. If you have not tried them, they do some cool things with tones. They have given their core product away free a couple times and I have been impressed. I am just don't have the time to go that far often enough to warrant a full purchase.
Topaz also makes great plugins, their Denoise is quite good, and they have some other interesting plugins as well. Topaz infocus can sometimes help with slightly blurred images as well, but it has to be slight, it does a form of deconvolution.
Alan
Alan
Agreed. I've grown used to Bridge so I don't mind it, but you have a point about Lightroom, for sure. Also agree with the idea that Topaz has some nice plugins. I guess the key is to develop a good workflow in whatever environment is most comfortable and then keep the photos and videos coming! My issue with lightroom early on was that it lacked full "layer" functionality, and now I use layers for everything I do. Haven't tried it since, but I'm not sure how many things I am capable of learning and mastering at this point in my life. 
Heading out for a sunset flight right now, so I'll be busy "doing it my way" later tonight. Happy and safe flying!
Edit: PS - Nik is amazing in one sense ... they keep upgrading for free, and are great with customer service.
Heading out for a sunset flight right now, so I'll be busy "doing it my way" later tonight. Happy and safe flying! Edit: PS - Nik is amazing in one sense ... they keep upgrading for free, and are great with customer service.
Agreed. I've grown used to Bridge so I don't mind it, but you have a point about Lightroom, for sure. Also agree with the idea that Topaz has some nice plugins. I guess the key is to develop a good workflow in whatever environment is most comfortable and then keep the photos and videos coming! My issue with lightroom early on was that it lacked full "layer" functionality, and now I use layers for everything I do. Haven't tried it since, but I'm not sure how many things I am capable of learning and mastering at this point in my life.
Edit: PS - Nik is amazing in one sense ... they keep upgrading for free, and are great with customer service.
Totally agree about sticking with a workflow, that does make for efficiency. Lightroom still lacks layers, so you may not find it satisfying still. Since I learned in what I could afford (Lightroom) I still have to 'think' about layers.
Good luck flying, and I hope you capture some amazing images.
Nik customer service is amazing. I had not used it for a while, and lost the install files in a HD failure. I emailed them my old keys, and within 24 hours I was up and running with all the latest. I was very happy to say the least. I sent them a thank you note, and they even responded nicely to that. I love to support companies like that.
Meta4- is that a 3 rows of 2?
No problems with the bottom row from extreme parallax distortion ?
Very nice!
Bret- similar question- how many rows & frames across? Wondering why it took 17 frames since p3 lens is so wide. How much overlap are you doing?
Again- really nice pano.
Went back in thread & read more- I see you are including all frames shot in brackets in your total.
So the pano I asked about is really 3 rows of 3 ? How did you get 17? Or??
No problems with the bottom row from extreme parallax distortion ?
Very nice!
Bret- similar question- how many rows & frames across? Wondering why it took 17 frames since p3 lens is so wide. How much overlap are you doing?
Again- really nice pano.
Went back in thread & read more- I see you are including all frames shot in brackets in your total.
So the pano I asked about is really 3 rows of 3 ? How did you get 17? Or??
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I purchased PTGui after some great advice from apsphoto, top man and thankyou, went out this morning and this is my first effort, I know there is plenty of room for improvement but I am chuffed to bits.
These are great panos - good work guys! I've done more videography with my P3P and not as many photos. In all, I might have taken 50 photos? Perhaps a little more. It's been mostly videos. With that said, I have to say, I didn't notice or paid attention to the write lags for photos. I'm going to run out and test that later but what are we talking about? 5 seconds per DNG? That seems so crazy considering how much data is generated by video.
As for the whole Lightroom/Photoshop discussion, I have both. Photoshop is the more flexible tool and can do pretty much anything you want or need it to. Lightroom on the other hand is unmatched when it comes to processing a ton of photos. With each iteration, it has gotten more powerful. I've not had to use Photoshop much, if at all, in the past year or so. I normally process a lot of photos with similar settings for each shoot/scene and in that regard Lightroom blows Photoshop out of the water. Depending on what you're doing and your needs, either can be powerful tools. For me it's Lightroom over Photoshop/Bridge all the way but your mileage will vary!
As for the whole Lightroom/Photoshop discussion, I have both. Photoshop is the more flexible tool and can do pretty much anything you want or need it to. Lightroom on the other hand is unmatched when it comes to processing a ton of photos. With each iteration, it has gotten more powerful. I've not had to use Photoshop much, if at all, in the past year or so. I normally process a lot of photos with similar settings for each shoot/scene and in that regard Lightroom blows Photoshop out of the water. Depending on what you're doing and your needs, either can be powerful tools. For me it's Lightroom over Photoshop/Bridge all the way but your mileage will vary!
You have some fantastic photos, I am very impressed. What is the file size of those at max resolution? Where would you get something like that printed so you could frame it on your wall?
Stan
This is one of my recent shots of quite a 'busy' citty panorama but I like the colours.
and more available on my 500px account.
I tend to use Lightroom for the photomerge nowadays as it uses the same engine as Photoshop.
I agree with the comment on needing to allow the Phantom to settle before taking the shot as often I have to retake because you notice a bit of drift.
I find the night shots in this thread to be the most impressive as controlling noise while maintaining detail is very difficult with the relatively small sensor on the camera.
and more available on my 500px account.
I tend to use Lightroom for the photomerge nowadays as it uses the same engine as Photoshop.
I agree with the comment on needing to allow the Phantom to settle before taking the shot as often I have to retake because you notice a bit of drift.
I find the night shots in this thread to be the most impressive as controlling noise while maintaining detail is very difficult with the relatively small sensor on the camera.
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