Creating Photo Panoramas with TelloFPV

[raulvolador]

Hi all,

For sure you have noticed Tello photos are excellente quality, but you can go an step beyond making PHOTO PANORAMICS also called PANOS.

From Wikipedia:

Panoramic photography is a technique of photography, using specialized equipment or software, that captures images with horizontally elongated fields of view. It is sometimes known as wide format photography. The term has also been applied to a photograph that is cropped to a relatively wide aspect ratio, like the familiar letterbox format in wide-screen video.

It means you can get an incredible wide format images using only your little Tello and any Digital stitching software. I'll explain you my tecnique on detail.

First, plan your flight. It's better you wait for a zero wind calm day. It's not possible to shoot panoramic into strong winds due Tello leans against the wind. That means your photo horizon will be inclined. Software will be unable to stich images.

You have to take as many shoots as possible, turn slightly after each shoot. VERY IMPORTANT: Overlapping must be at least 30%.








Be sure not displacing Tello until you finish. We are lucky Visual Positioning System (VPS) will leave Tello still in the air.



Land safely and, when you are at home use your favorite stiching image software to create your PANO. I love the way Adobe Photosop -> Photomerge Assistant do the work by itself. You only need to point images and let it go.



At the end it's necessary to trim image results since the process leaves some gaps.



At first was difficult for me to get a complete set of useful images for creating a Tello PANO. From TelloFPV release v0.99 Photo taken has been al lot improved (thanks @volate!lo ). An intelligent timer let you enought time for photo downloading even in low signal conditions. Photo download process will be canceled when a problem happens, don't forget to shoot again.

I'll post some samples as soon as possible.

All the best.

raul.

 

[raulvolador]

This Pano has been created from nine single shoots using Photoshop Photomerge. It has a little post-process for increasing color saturation.

For now this the longest Pano I've ever created 6743 pixels width and 1875 pixels height. I printed it into a 20 x 60 cm poster and it looks amazing.

 

[raulvolador]

Another pano. It has been created from only three shoots. Photosop Photomerge and post-processed with HDR filter.

It's 3272 pixels width and 1756 pixels height. Unfortunaley you will notice it's impossible not loosing a few pixels height during stitching process.



Here you can see how original photos looked:

 

[raulvolador]

Another one. Three images too. A bit of HDR post-processing. Abandoned property land. Can you see me piloting Tello on the right side ?

 

[Flydrone]

really fantastic panoramic photos!

 

[GabrielK]

Hi all,

For sure you have noticed Tello photos are excellente quality, but you can go an step beyond making PHOTO PANORAMICS also called PANOS.

From Wikipedia:


It means you can get an incredible wide format images using only your little Tello and any Digital stitching software. I'll explain you my tecnique on detail.

First, plan your flight. It's better you wait for a zero wind calm day. It's not possible to shoot panoramic into strong winds due Tello leans against the wind. That means your photo horizon will be inclined. Software will be unable to stich images.

You have to take as many shoots as possible, turn slightly after each shoot. VERY IMPORTANT: Overlapping must be at least 30%.

View attachment 2900

View attachment 2901

View attachment 2902


Be sure not displacing Tello until you finish. We are lucky Visual Positioning System (VPS) will leave Tello still in the air.

View attachment 2903

Land safely and, when you are at home use your favorite stiching image software to create your PANO. I love the way Adobe Photosop -> Photomerge Assistant do the work by itself. You only need to point images and let it go.

View attachment 2904

At the end it's necessary to trim image results since the process leaves some gaps.

View attachment 2911

At first was difficult for me to get a complete set of useful images for creating a Tello PANO. From TelloFPV release v0.99 Photo taken has been al lot improved (thanks @volate!lo ). An intelligent timer let you enought time for photo downloading even in low signal conditions. Photo download process will be canceled when a problem happens, don't forget to shoot again.

I'll post some samples as soon as possible.

All the best.

raul.

Excelente trabajo!
Saludos

 

[volate!lo]

cool shots!

Does anybody happen to know the FOV of tello's photos? I never measured it but might come handy to know how many photos are required for a full 360.

 

[ihf]

@volate!lo Is an automated pano shot something you would consider adding to TelloFPV?

 

[volate!lo]

Has been on the list since first days, but will do only after VR and after fixing the mapping for strange controllers.

But most likely I won't do the stitching, as its just too heavy (the libraries required are way bigger than TelloFpv). I'd like to keep TelloFpv lean.
So I'd just let Tello do the turns and take photos at the different angles with an appropriate overlap. Photos will be saved with a prefix to identify they belong to one pano shot.

 

[Jesusfreak]

It is possible to get a good Pano with a bit of wind.... Just takes more work to make it all line up and correct for a slightly curvy horizon..... Here's one I took...All stitching and editing done on my Note 8...


And here's the original stitch before straightening and final grading... You can see how the tilt of the shots affected the horizon....

 

[Jesusfreak]

For anyone wanting to stitch directly on your Android device, Bimostitch does a pretty good job ?

 

[raulvolador]

cool shots!

Does anybody happen to know the FOV of tello's photos? I never measured it but might come handy to know how many photos are required for a full 360.

@volate!lo

Tello FOV is 83 degress when into fast mode (20mm equivalent focal length) and narrows to 59 degrees for slow mode. They said "it is similar to other higher-end DJI drones like the Mavic and the Phantom 4 Pro ".

See this comparison chart:



Info extracted from this great article: Tello Vs. Toys - How Does DJI's Tiny Tello Really Stack Up? - Half Chrome Drones

 

[volate!lo]

So now TelloFpv has an autopilot to do create 360° pano.

Copied from the TelloFpv Thread:
You can define the number of photos required for stitching under "Menu => Video & Photo => Photo". More photos result in more overlap for better stitching. I think 7 is the absolute minimum to have some overlap, 8 seems to be OK.
When activated Tello will do a photo, download it (or retry up to 3 times if a download fails / expires), rotate to the next position, do the next photo,download, ... until it has done a full 360°.
It does not stich by itself but it groups the pictures into subfolders for easy stitching using some app. Maybe you want to check if this is suitable for your preferred stitching app. I tried Bimostitch and it worked well. So well that I have no plans of integrating the stitching part into TelloFpv.

 

[raulvolador]

Great @volate!lo !

 

[volate!lo]

I just feel a bit sorry that you made the effort of the post above so shortly before I released that. pitty

 

[raulvolador]

don't worry. You are always an step beyond me

 

[volate!lo]

Actually your post gave the kick in the butt to implement this AP now. So it wasn't all lost

 

[Speleo]

My 'PanGazer' software might be of interest for viewing (and extracting images from) your panoramas. See: PanGazer - introduction

 

[WhatUserName]

Great work violate!lo.
I've been taking a break and just purchased your app, now I see you updated with this feature, can't wait to test it out ??

 

[volate!lo]

Works quite well, just make sure you have no wind, otherwise tello compensates for wind drift by tilting, and your photos have a tilted horizon. interesting