Distorting bright areas when creating panoramas

[Just_user]

I often make panoramas from a series of shots. Sometimes the pictures are taken in backlight.
And when creating a panorama from such pictures, I encountered the fact that Affinity Photo unsuccessfully processes areas with bright areas and their neighbors.
That is, Affinity Photo actually "fills" very bright areas with white and fades to darker areas  makes it not smooth, but outlined with a Cyan color fill (as seen in the example below).
For example, I tried to make a panorama from such pictures in Adobe Lightroom 6.14 (last standalone version)
 LR handles such areas much more naturally and "gentle".

For example, I apply a panorama created in Affinity Photo, Lightroom and a photo of the central fragment, where the sun is in the frame.
All shooting was done on a Sony RX10 M4 camera in RAW format. And in Affinity Photo I upload exactly the pictures in this format (raw).
These may not be the best shots from a technical point of view, but they are frustrating and alarming, how Affinity Photo handles bright areas.

And, I must say that, in general, in Affinity Photo, the panorama turns out to be more dark than the original shots - this can be seen from the histograms.

I would like to believe that such an unsuccessful processing algorithm can be corrected in the future.
Especially when dealing with bright areas...

N.B. Affinity Photo's version is 1.10.4.1198

 

This is panorama created in Affinity Photo.

 

This is panorama created in Adobe Lightroom 6.14.

 

This is photo of the central fragment (RAW).

 

 

[NotMyFault]

You may try to preprocess the raw files and export as tiff/16. This is a bit more effort, but has some advantages:

• better control about development options
• full RAW development is used. Using RAW in stacks/panoramas uses a reduced/shortened process 
• you could use shadow & highlights adjustment to mitigate the brightness issue

Did you capture the individual images with auto settings regarding exposure?
When you have such strong differences in lightning, it might be better to manually control exposure, or even use hdr (RGB/32) to process the files.

[Just_user]

Thanks for an answer !  🙂

I agree that using NOT RAW files, but let's say "developed" RAW in tiff - will significantly improve the quality.
But, unfortunately, this lengthens the processing process and, ultimately increases the time to create a panorama.
For comparison, I tried to make a panorama from JPEG files taken on a Xiaomi MiLite smartphone with a resolution of 4000x3000 (6.4 MP) in HDR mode - in this case, the panorama looks much better and there are no such dips in bright lights ...

Answering your questions:
 - I always shoot panoramas with a fixed AEL (i.e. fixed exposure),
 - I didn’t try to shoot with manual exposure - I’m afraid that if there are areas with different illumination (sky and objects) - the finished panorama will be even more non-uniform in illumination,
- I tried to shoot in HDR mode on the camera, but there the output is an already processed JPEG in which part of the information is often already lost.
- I don't know, to be honest, what do you mean by the words -- "hdr (RGB/32)"

It just frustrates me that LR processes RAW files quickly and well and creates a good panorama, but Affinity Photo CANNOT do it as quickly and efficiently - but requires additional processing ...

[NotMyFault]

3 hours ago, Just_user said:

It just frustrates me that LR processes RAW files quickly and well and creates a good panorama, but Affinity Photo CANNOT do it as quickly and efficiently - but requires additional processing ...

Affinity is no 1:1 clone of LR for 1/10th of the price. It offers a wide range of similar functions, and some unique.

The stitching of such a panorama of images with high dynamic range is no exact science, it is an interpretation and includes tone mapping.

the results could vary, there is no true or false.

Affinity gives you more control over the workflow compared to other tools, at the cost of more effort, and a steep learning curve.

Feel free to raise a request in  the feedback section.

When I inspect you result, it seems you could use shadow & brightness or curve adjustment to get a similar result. 

 

[Just_user]

Thanks for the replies and advice..

Of course, I understand that Affinity Photo and Lightroom are different programs and their purpose is different.

I just want to hope that developers will read this topic and be able to improve the processing of RAW files when creating panoramas in Affinity Photo.
Or, if this is not included in their plans - place an explanation in online -help that gluing panoramas gives good results only FOR PROCESSED and PREPARED jpeg or tiff files.

I'm not creating a new topic so as not to clog this thread of the forum.

Edited February 24, 2022 by Just_user
Clarification

[kalee]

I cannot help but think that you expect too much from the panorama function.
Personally I have been quite impressed by the Affinity stitching.
Expecting it to handle extreme light levels with one button seems unrealistic.
I would not be happy with your lightroom example, and would expect to replace, or work on the sky.

[Just_user]

17 hours ago, kalee said:

I cannot help but think that you expect too much from the panorama function.
Personally I have been quite impressed by the Affinity stitching.
Expecting it to handle extreme light levels with one button seems unrealistic.
 

I'm also impressed by the panorama capabilities in Affinity Photo, and especially by the often smart behavior of the "Impaint Missing Area" tool.
But, let me disagree that I want too much ...
From my point of view, Lightroom is far from ideal and is not the most advanced program for processing RAW files.
And if AI is used in Affinity Photo to create panoramas and good panoramas, then why can't this AI be improved?  Moreover, in the same LR this task (to bring "extreme light levels" to an acceptable level in RAW images when merging panoramas) was solved almost 10 years ago...
Yes, the processing of "extreme light levels" is not a frequent task, but I dare to hope that it is not so rare either.
You can look at other similar programs (which process RAW images) - after all, AI has begun to be introduced almost everywhere. Yes, It is not perfect, it often makes mistakes - but "the road will be mastered by the one who walks", And if Affinity Photo started using AI even earlier, then honor and praise be to them. And I want to believe that efforts in this direction will continue, and the possibilities will improve...

[kalee]

To me, the panorama tool would seem to be plenty good enough. Of more concern are core functionality items. Currently, every time I look on the forum, it is people demanding more an more items to be incorporated - because it is on adobe. The raw converter is pretty poor, and is something that really does need addressing. With a better raw processor, you would also likely get better panoramas as a result?

[Just_user]

I think so - if the RAW processor is further improved, then Affinity Photo will only win.
Personally - I don't see the need to copy all Adobe tools - who needs Adobe - go for it. As for Affinity Photo, you can simply develop its achievements.
After all, any product is valuable for its originality, and not for copying other people's instruments...

The main thing I'm afraid of is that Affinity Photo will not turn into a niche product in which you can only process photo models, "mutilating" the human appearance beyond recognition...😂

Well, this is philosophizing 🙂