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What I've learned thanks to many of you.

ICE worked! It turns out I *do* have a -90 shot, so I'm not sure what the issue was with the dji software. No worries...I've already uninstalled that software. :-) Thanks again for the installer @chasco.

It seams that ICE doesn't like DNG. For my purposes at the moment, I'll probably just stick with the jpg's, and maybe later I'll figure out if I can setup the mavic pro 360 pano mode to take jpg/raw rather than jpg/dng; or just take the shots manually.

@R.Perry, you say you can get 4 to 5 panos out of a flight. So you do multiple panos on a single site? @chasco said the same. I'm curious as to why multiple panos on a single site? Is it because the sites are huge? Or...?

Again, I have zero jobs lined up for construction site progress, so this is a great time for me to learn this stuff! I *do* have those roofing progress jobs coming up mid-July, so i'm thinking that the "linear" type panos, cardinal position shots, and vids will be good for those. Depends on what my friend wants/needs, of course. He's never had any progress photos taken before, so it'll be fun to work with him to see what will be most useful for him. (He doesn't advertise, has *plenty* of work, and doesn't really want to expand his business, so...maybe it's just so I can build my portfolio. ??)
 
Just one site I had was 180 acres with nuemerous buildings under construction. I had ten panos on that site.

Here is UC Merced and this doesn't show the entire site. I don't know if you can zoom in enough to see where the panos are located.

The purpose is to give the client a birds eye view from almost any angle he or she chooses.

1623953798989.png
 
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Here is another example of a smaller site. Pano locations have pins

I try to positions the panos so the client doesn't need to look straight down, but can if need be.

I do all four of these with one pair of batteries and land with 30% battery remaining.

I've done so many of them it is just natural, so take your time when starting out. It is more important to get good photos than be in a hurry and need to do them over; don't ask me how I know that.

The other highlighted areas are for our ground photographer. Each arrow represents a photograph he takes on each visit. I also map this site and take several slide show photos.

1623954558853.png
 
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Oh wow...180 acres! That's amazing; now I understand the "multiple panos" thing. :)

The fact that you guys are actually making money and doing jobs is pretty amazing as well...that gives me hope!
 
What was fun was mapping that 180 acres. Took eight pairs of batteries.

That brings up another point. Situational awareness. I had a new pilot working with me, I was suppose to be training him, funny that was the blind leading the blind. We started mapping, next thing I know he sets the controller down, and goes and gets his coffee out of his truck. If he had been my employee he would have been fired right there.
Yes mapping is autonomous, but you still need to pay attentions 100 percent of the time.
Also, we have given up on spotters, especially on large sites, they don't stay focused so what is the point.
 
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R.Perry said:
Just one site I had was 180 acres with nuemerous buildings under construction. I had ten panos on that site.

Here is UC Merced and this doesn't show the entire site. I don't know if you can zoom in enough to see where the panos are located.

The purpose is to give the client a birds eye view from almost any angle he or she chooses.

View attachment 3085
Click to expand...
This is pretty much what we do as well. You just try to capture where the work is happening in a manner that the viewer feels like they can move to any position they want.
 
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R.Perry said:
Don't know if this link will work, but I got permission to post it. It is a pano from a while back.

This is UC Merced, it ended up with a a total of 17 panos.

Click to expand...
Nope; just goes to a login screen. But thanks for trying!

And coffee...that's *way* more important than focusing on a silly drone screen! o_O
 
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Ok, I'm officially hooked on 360 panos now. Just sayin'. ?

Are you guys manually setting your cameras (iso, ev, etc) when shooting your panos? Are you lowering the exposure as the bird turns into the sun? Or do you just set stuff to auto, and that works fine?
 
Normally I like shooting panos close to mid day. I just set camera to auto in most cases. I would never change the exposure setting from on frame to another, remember the software is threading these photos together so I believe you want consistent exposures.
 
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Hey guys, I've continued to learn, and have actually re-read this thread multiple times over the last couple of weeks.

My next question is: for construction progress "packages", is there any point in offering a "mapping" option if the site is tiny? Like, if I can get the entire site in a single "straight down" photo from 150', would there even really be a way to map it?

(There's a new building going up next door to where I work. I took some photos/videos before construction started, and have taken some every couple of weeks. The only visible change so far is that they've raised the level of the ground by about 1'...hard to show that from the air. I'm trying to find the right person to talk to about a "progress" package so I can make them a good deal since this would be my first. I don't think the person exists. :-) )
 
I've mapped an area as small as two acres. Remember with mapping you can get volume and pile reports, import to Auto Cad and other reports not available without mapping.
 
Interesting; I just mapped out this site on google maps because I thought "no way this place is 2 acres big!". Huh...it's 3 acres. :-D

"Remember with mapping you can get volume and pile reports"

Ah, good point! I suppose you just have to not fly as high in order to get the overlap needed?
 
WildDoktor said:
Interesting; I just mapped out this site on google maps because I thought "no way this place is 2 acres big!". Huh...it's 3 acres. :-D

"Remember with mapping you can get volume and pile reports"

Ah, good point! I suppose you just have to not fly as high in order to get the overlap needed?
Click to expand...
Plots look small on paper right?! Remember with mapping you get complete 3D control of the materials and cut/fill status. In order to get the correct overlaps depends on the speed of the drone and the interval set by the flight planning software. All of the top 3 softwares calculate this for you based on the percentage and AGL you input. If you are mapping small properties like that then fly at 125ft/nadir gimbal/80 front/65 side for terrain models. For structural models fly at 100ft/60deg gimbal/70 front/70 side with a crosshatch pattern. Make sure to extend your boundary out further with oblique missions or you won't capture faces close to the property line. If you don't have enough battery you can raise the altitude a little but I wouldn't go past 200ft unless you have a higher end camera on the drone.
 
WildDoktor said:
Interesting; I just mapped out this site on google maps because I thought "no way this place is 2 acres big!". Huh...it's 3 acres. :-D

"Remember with mapping you can get volume and pile reports"

Ah, good point! I suppose you just have to not fly as high in order to get the overlap needed?
Click to expand...

Actually you want to keep your altitudes consistent. Drone Deploy recommends 250 to 300 feet depending on the drone and camera you are using. Also with the Inspire 2 the lens is a factor in best altitude.
I have attempted lower altitudes to increase resolution but my experience has been it didn't help and really slowed down the mapping process. When you can get .5 to .7 inch per pixel your can get pretty decent photos.
 
R.Perry said:
Actually you want to keep your altitudes consistent. Drone Deploy recommends 250 to 300 feet depending on the drone and camera you are using. Also with the Inspire 2 the lens is a factor in best altitude.
I have attempted lower altitudes to increase resolution but my experience has been it didn't help and really slowed down the mapping process. When you can get .5 to .7 inch per pixel your can get pretty decent photos.
Click to expand...
Maybe 250-300ft with an Inspire. My configuration is based on 20MP 1" sensors with 23-24mm lens.
 
You guys rock! We'll see where this goes. So far, it's simply a learning exercise that I'm happy to partake of, but with an eye toward the future. :-)
 
chasco said:
Maybe 250-300ft with an Inspire. My configuration is based on 20MP 1" sensors with 23-24mm lens.
Click to expand...

I use the 15mm lens for mapping and normally do a cross hatch flight. If my clients are happy, I'm happy.
Personally I find the lower altitude with the 23mm lens very low, but I guess is is based on what you need to capture.
If I flew that low on most of my jobs I would be flying below the cranes, not a good idea for an autonomous flight. I have flown videos under the crane booms though.
Here is one of the examples of my early videos.

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I also mapped this site once a week for two and half years during construction. The mapping site is about 160 acres. Needless to say it would have been impossible to map this site much lower than 250 feet, I normally mapped at 300 feet and that gave me a .7 inch per pixel.
 

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