LR 6 Pano functionality

[MikeFromMesa]

I bought LR6 yesterday and have been playing around with the HDR and Pano functionality. I was reasonably pleased with the HDR functionality as my normal HDR app is SNS-HDR and it is Windows based and that means that I have to access my Parallels VM to use it on my Mac. This is considerably easier. Perhaps not as good an HDR rendering, but then I now have all of LR's functionality to further adjust it.

However I seem to have run into some problems with the Pano functionality. I have had the habit of taking panos from right-to-left instead of left-to-right. All of my other pano apps have allowed me to reverse the order of these images so it can put the pano together properly but I have not found any way to do that with LR and it tries to stitch them together in the wrong order. It gives me some interesting Panos, but not anything that looks like it should. So this morning I renamed my pano shots to order them left-to-right alphabetically and, if viewed in Finder, they are in the "correct" order. I then imported them, but LR still imported them in the wrong order. That is, it is still trying to put them together in the wrong order with the right-most shot as the left-most shot. Perhaps it is looking at the time the images were shot. I don't know.

Is there any way for me to re-order the shots in LR so that it (LR) will try to put them together properly?

 

[Jim Wilde]

Generally speaking the "order" shouldn't matter.....I've shot panos left to right and right to left and LR will usually stitch them without any problem. I've even taken a small 6 shot pano and deliberately jumbled the order of them in a collection, and LR still did the pano merge correctly.

So there's likely some other explanation for the problem you're having. If there's insufficient edge detail to allow LR to "see" the correct order, that may be tripping it up. If you're happy to upload a set of SOOC images (e.g. to Dropbox or similar) we could download and run the merge to see if we can figure out what's happening.

 

[MikeFromMesa]

Generally speaking the "order" shouldn't matter.....I've shot panos left to right and right to left and LR will usually stitch them without any problem. I've even taken a small 6 shot pano and deliberately jumbled the order of them in a collection, and LR still did the pano merge correctly.

So there's likely some other explanation for the problem you're having. If there's insufficient edge detail to allow LR to "see" the correct order, that may be tripping it up. If you're happy to upload a set of SOOC images (e.g. to Dropbox or similar) we could download and run the merge to see if we can figure out what's happening.

I apologize for the delay in getting back to you as I was out of the house and could not respond until I returned.

I have several sets of these problem images - some LR will not put together at all and some LR puts together completely incorrectly. I am providing links to an example of the latter. If you also want links to some images that LR can not assemble at all I will certainly provide them, but please let me know that you have downloaded these images so I can remove them from dropbox. My space is limited.

Here are the links to 4 pano images. As I said they were taken from right to left and are of a lake.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/58j06ek89kq25t7/IMG_0036.CR2?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h7qcymofk3wkzok/IMG_0037.CR2?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2k2iro7br1d8ffc/IMG_0038.CR2?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vo9bw0bpowg5knt/IMG_0039.CR2?dl=0

Here is a link to the image created by Panorama Studio 2 from these images

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0v53o42nu0dbtu0/Pano-36-39.jpg?dl=0

And here is a link to the image created from these same 4 files in LR

https://www.dropbox.com/s/c7129sk1bc8hx0t/LR-Pano-36-39.jpg?dl=0

I have not cropped it so you can see how LR has put it together.

 

[Jim Wilde]

OK, I've downloaded the images. Will have a look at them later, but you can go ahead and remove them from your DB account if you wish.

 

[MikeFromMesa]

OK, I've downloaded the images. Will have a look at them later, but you can go ahead and remove them from your DB account if you wish.

Thank you.

I have also taken a closer look at the second set of Panos, the ones that LR will not assemble at all, and I might have found one of the problems. The images were taken with a Canon 24-105 lens and the Pano consists of 3 images. Two of those images were shot at 24mm but one was shot at 28mm. Panorama Studio puts them together properly, but gives me a warning. LR will not assemble them at all but perhaps the problems is the changed focal length.

Since you have downloaded my images I can now post the second set if you wish. But, if the focal length is the problem, then you probably don't need them at all.

 

[Jim Wilde]

The focal length is definitely the problem with the second set, LR will not merge to Pano unless all the images are the same focal length.

Regarding the first set, I get a similar (but not identical) false result:

Nothing we can do here apart from reporting the issue to Adobe....the more problems we tell them about, the better the tool should eventually become. If you wish, I can raise a bug report on your behalf, though it would obviously be necessary to share the four images with Adobe. Let me know if you're happy with that, or if you'd prefer to raise the bug report yourself (using the link at the top of the page).

 

[MikeFromMesa]

The focal length is definitely the problem with the second set, LR will not merge to Pano unless all the images are the same focal length.

Regarding the first set, I get a similar (but not identical) false result:

Nothing we can do here apart from reporting the issue to Adobe....the more problems we tell them about, the better the tool should eventually become. If you wish, I can raise a bug report on your behalf, though it would obviously be necessary to share the four images with Adobe. Let me know if you're happy with that, or if you'd prefer to raise the bug report yourself (using the link at the top of the page).

I assume that the end result of the merge will depend upon how the individual images have been adjusted prior to the merge so I understand why your attempt might be slightly different from mine. But, as you say, it is also a false merge.

I have no problem with you sharing those images and it would save me the trouble if you would be kind enough to file the defect yourself. I will dig back into my backups to see if LR will do any better with some of my other panos. This is a disappointment for me as I bought LR6 specifically for the HDR and Pano functionality. I am guessing that the raw conversion and processing in 4.4 is the same as in 6.1 for my images since all of my raw images were supported in 4.4. Aside from HDR and Panos I am not sure there is anything in 6.1 that is actually of any help to me beyond what 4.4 will do.

Thank you for taking care of filing the bug report.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

I think the main problem with this panorama is that the images mainly consist of water and sky. Both change during shooting (especially the water, of course), so they are not easy to stitch correctly. I'm sure that other panorama software will do a better job, but this remains challenging (and you will always see stitching errors in the waves).

 

[MikeFromMesa]

I think the main problem with this panorama is that the images mainly consist of water and sky. Both change during shooting (especially the water, of course), so they are not easy to stitch correctly. I'm sure that other panorama software will do a better job, but this remains challenging (and you will always see stitching errors in the waves).

I am sure you are right, but I have almost never had this problem with other stitching software. Perhaps the LR implementation is still new and I am sure it will improve and I always have an alternative, but it is a disappointment.

Most of my panos are taken in the mountains so I will see if this is a general problem. I guess I have 30 days to test it and see if I want to keep it. One interesting thing - there does not seem to be a trial version of LR (or at least I have not found one), but the download, when run, asks if you want to use it as a trial or as a purchased install. Since I had already bought it there did not seem to be much question, but it is a bit surprising that there is even a trial option if the software cannot be downloaded from anywhere as a trial. This is, of course, LR 6 and not LR CC.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

The panorama stitching is definitely not yet at the same level as other software. Sometimes I try to stitch 4 or 5 images, and then Lightroom comes back with a good stitch, but only three or four of them. It simply forgets one. Sometimes Lightroom does make a stitch, but rather poorly. Sometimes it says it can't stitch at all, even though PTGui has bo problems with it.

 

[Jim Wilde]

I am sure you are right, but I have almost never had this problem with other stitching software. Perhaps the LR implementation is still new and I am sure it will improve and I always have an alternative, but it is a disappointment.

Most of my panos are taken in the mountains so I will see if this is a general problem. I guess I have 30 days to test it and see if I want to keep it. One interesting thing - there does not seem to be a trial version of LR (or at least I have not found one), but the download, when run, asks if you want to use it as a trial or as a purchased install. Since I had already bought it there did not seem to be much question, but it is a bit surprising that there is even a trial option if the software cannot be downloaded from anywhere as a trial. This is, of course, LR 6 and not LR CC.

I see the occasional problem, similar to those described here: missing images, stitching errors, strange artefacts, etc., but hopefully the tool will be improved over time.

No, there isn't a 'Trial version" in the sense of being a separate download.....there's only one download, which if not activated will run in the 30-day trial mode. If you have already bought a license then you just need to activate it.

 

[MikeFromMesa]

I see the occasional problem, similar to those described here: missing images, stitching errors, strange artefacts, etc., but hopefully the tool will be improved over time.

No, there isn't a 'Trial version" in the sense of being a separate download.....there's only one download, which if not activated will run in the 30-day trial mode. If you have already bought a license then you just need to activate it.

Yes. I have already activated it. I was just surprised that if there is no way to download the binary without paying for it, then it did not make any sense to me that there would be a trial. I think of a trial version as something your run without having to pay for it so why does the paid download have a trial version?

It is not important. Just one of those curiosities of life.

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

I think of a trial version as something your run without having to pay for it so why does the paid download have a trial version?

It's a trail period of the fully functionality of the software. However, after this period serious functionality remains for free...

 

[Jim Wilde]

I was just surprised that if there is no way to download the binary without paying for it....

The point is that you CAN download it, and run it for 30 days at full functionality, without paying for it.....after that you either pay for it if you want to retain the full functionality, or you don't pay for and can still use everything bar the Develop and Map modules.