Developing persona - please make it 360° seam aware

[1drey]

HI all,

I often face the need to convert 32bit 360° panoramic image, created with the aid of stitching  software, into tone mapped 16bit image. Affinity Photo does a decent job performing this task, but it always creates the seam, clearly visible when edited panorama is displayed in 360° viewer. It is really disappointing. Yes, there is a workaround  - to duplicate the source panorama, offset it (wrapping around), make identical development, put it as a layer over first development (ofsetted after development) and use respective area from the second development to cover the seam.  But it is time consuming

Same for the tonemap persona. Editing with  it creates even more visible seam and sometimes a tiny, but noticeable 'vortex' around zenith and nadir points.  

I hope it is relatively easy to implement.  

[1drey]

That's how the seam looks after the Tonemap persona. 

 

Edited May 14, 2019 by 1drey
added another illustration

[1drey]

[Jeremy See]

I paid for Affinity to work on HDR 360 photos and the seam is a huge turn off.... Affinity, listen to your users complaining about this for years!

[fde101]

Does one of the options under Layer -> Live Projection work for you?

[James Ritson]

Hi @1drey and @Jeremy See, please check out this post I've made in another thread as I'd love to get some feedback about whether these macros can solve your issue: 

 

Alternatively, here's a download link: http://jamesritson.co.uk/downloads/macros/jr_360.zip

And a copy/paste of the post:

On macOS, you can drag-drop them straight into Affinity Photo and it will automatically import them and open the Library panel. On Windows, you'll need to open the Library panel manually (View>Studio>Library) then click the top right icon and Import Macros.

There are four macros:

• Tone Map SDR (seam aware)
• Local Contrast (seam aware)
• Clarity (seam aware)
• Inpaint alpha (transparent) areas

I've tested on a variety of imagery from HDRI Haven, HDR Labs, some customer files and my own 360 images. By and large, the three seamless macros will work very well. The only problematic one may be Clarity, in which case you'll end up with a seam that runs through 1/4 of the edge rather than all the way around, so it's much easier to retouch.

I have found that Clarity in particular may also expose any existing stitching errors that usually wouldn't be obvious without heavy pixel modification, so bear that in mind as well.

Hope the above helps!

[dkallan]

Just saw this thread after replying in another topic.  This is even more relevant than where I replied.

While familiar with Affinity Photo for DSLR photos, I'm now just dipping my toes in the water for 360° photography.  The output of my 360° camera's stitching software is a "raw" DNG that preserves the full dynamic range of the two sensors' data (and for HDR images, I have the option to export multiple DNGs for an HDR Merge).  Naturally this opens in the Develop persona.

The Develop persona (just asked for a 360° "preview" option there) works perfectly with some adjustments: Exposure, Enhance, White Balance—I think even Curves does its job—without creating a seam at the edges.  But if I play with Shadows/Highlights or Tone, I can end up with a gnarly seam.  Same with HDR Merge.  If I wait on adjusting tone or shadows/highlights until after development, I lose all that beautiful latitude from the raw image.

I don't know of a way to duplicate/wrap around the edges of a raw DNG file and still have it be a DNG.  Layer live projection is only available in the Photo persona.  Has anyone found a better solution?