I was asked by an aquaintance if I would take a still photo of part of the islands coast.
Simple enough, until all the 'I want this, I want that...' comes out.
He did show me a picture someone took from a plane, but he told me it isn't good enough, it's blured, it's cropped and not the part of the island he wants. You have to laugh, don't you.
I thought about the issues and planned for them.
1/ The coast line he wants is long. If I go out far enough and high enough, then it can be captured in a single frame. However, 12mp is not going to be sharp and detailed, is it?
2/ He specifically wants it sharp and detailed. I suggested a panorama shape and he had no objection to that. However, the coast juts out in the central portion, a long way. see map.
3/ The air needs to be crystal clear. No mist or vapour. That happens a lot here, but because it is weather, you never know until the day has started. Early or late are bad times for this project, because of full, low sun. Mid day is best even though the camera will face the sun. I will have the camera pointing down quite steeply, so it should work. And, no, ND filters and polarisers will not help.
4/ The tide has to be full so the dark rocks are hidden. It will clutter the image and detract from the sandy beaches. Another timing constraint.
I decided a trial run was needed, to check if my assumptions were valid.
I planned to stay parallel to the coast so the image would be distorted and look linear. The ends needed to be as far away as the central portion. That is why panning from a fixed central point will not work.
By moving along the coast, and turning at the central projection, there will be a lot of distortion between images. This is OK if I take lots of pics with massive overlap. As I said, it is not important to the guy who wants the pic that it looks linear. Ultimately the image will be given to an old man who has Alzheimer's disease. His love of the island and early memories are all he has left now.
If I have forgotten something in my planning, or you see a better way of doing this, I would love to hear from you. I want this to be awesome.
Thanks.

Very nice Pics.  I too have been doing Pano's a lot lately.  The detail in the image is incredible.  I would finish off by doing a 360 tiny planet as I am sure he would love that as well.  Great job here.

SparksBird Posted at 2018-5-15 08:09
Very nice Pics.  I too have been doing Pano's a lot lately.  The detail in the image is incredible.  I would finish off by doing a 360 tiny planet as I am sure he would love that as well.  Great job here.

The pano is the trial run. It has stitching errors and many other issues that will be corrected in the real image. Thanks though.

Great pics there

The panorama is awesome. Maybe fill up the gaps upper left and lower right with photoshop.

Very nice

Awesome pano ! Great work ! How many time flew the drone ?

Nice shots.

Very nice photos.

Nice pictures

Would a waypoint mission be a good way of doing this? Set the path, set the overlap and let the drone do the work?
It sounds like an awesome project for a great cause, I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out.  I’m hoping to learn from it.

AlansDronePics Posted at 2018-5-15 08:13
The pano is the trial run. It has stitching errors and many other issues that will be corrected in the real image. Thanks though.

You are correct about your trial run.
Zooming in on it you could see the stitching errors. Also thought it was a bit grainy and not sharp.
What program are you using to stich with?
I found taking 180 Panos with the MP takes a lot of guess work out of it and it does  extremely great Panos.
Thanks for sharing and asking the forum for advise.

Hi folkstone.
I thought the waypoint idea was a sound one. However it requires me to fly the route to get the best position for each shot. Having done that there is no need to use the waypoints. Thanks though.

B1houdini.
Perhaps i should have held back on the trial run here. Many seem to think this is the finnished article. It was only to explain the issues.  I now know that more overlap and greater height are needed. Photoshop cc is used. I reduced the resolution so it could be uploaded here.

astrofly Posted at 2018-5-15 10:55
Awesome pano ! Great work ! How many time flew the drone ?

about 300 times.
Only once for the trial shot so I could see what the challenges might be and how the pics needed to be improved. I think the weather will be ideal on Saturday, but that could change.
Apart from this picture for an acquaintance, I have a long flight mission to do at the same time. Several KM there and same back with a circuit over a very small island. total will be a tight 7km.

Very nice lovely photos

BAD NEWS
My acquaintance has just moved the goal-posts over the photo shoot.
I mention it in detail, so you can see how tricky people can be. It might save you from disaster if you accept that NO can be the right answer.

Dear Frank,
This project has grown. It was a few sandy beaches, now the whole island.
The Air Traffic Control may well veto it, because of the time I will be in the air, over critical air space.
There are other immovable factors to consider.
The drone is programmed NOT to fly over or near any airport. To get this lifted requires written authorisation which takes at least a day to get. If the wind and sun on that date and time are not satisfactory, then it has to be cancelled and done again.
The Tide time, so the island is sharply defined by high tide. Lots of rocks look bad.
This must coincide with both overhead sunlight and minimum cloud so the image is sharp and no side shadows that will spoil the clarity of the photo. Also, clouds will cause shadows over the land.
To be better than Google earth, the island will have to be scanned as 30 shots approx.. in 3 or more overlapping passes. This will involve several flights and it will be very difficult to pick up where the shots left off. If the overlap is not right, the images will not stitch. All this adds to the air time and uncertainty, so another reason ATC will (rightly) object. They won’t agree to all flights being stopped for a couple of hours. Don’t forget, if the image has faults, another flight will be required and the lighting will be noticeably different.
At some point, I will be above people and property. I don’t have insurance cover for that sort of risk.
The pics I took for the trial run are all over sea or waste land.
If I take from the sea, at that height and angle, I will have the sun to contend with. The vertical down like google earth is the only way to avoid that. That means flying as discussed above.
The best solution will be a 35plus MP camera (the drones have 12MP) and shoot from Longis side (Out of the sun) from a plane.
It looks like I am not able to help you.
Kind regards
Alan