Troubleshooting
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      Inconsistent Lighting / Striping - PIX4Dmapper

       

      Issue

      The Orthomosaic has visible stripes that correspond to the mission flight lines:

      Orthomosaic_Lighting_Striping_PIX4Dmapper.png

      Causes

      1. Side overlap is insufficient.

      2. Reflective surfaces, for example, areas with sand, snow, or water.

      3. Optics vignetting or camera lens filter occluding edges of the image.

      4. Flying with an oblique angle into and away from the sun

      Solutions

      Possible solutions to the previously listed causes are proposed below.

      Cause 1, side overlap

      Cause 2, reflective surfaces

      • When flying over highly reflective surfaces we recommend performing the mission in
        cloudy weather and avoiding direct light sources (sun at midday) that reflect from the
        surface.

      Cause 3, optics

      • Consider using a lens with less vignetting or increasing the side overlap in order to
        eliminate the presence of the vignetting.
      • Remove the lens filter that occludes the images.

      Cause 4, flying with an oblique angle

      • Fly at a time when the sun is higher in the sky or reduce the camera angle. Potentially
        consider finding the camera settings that work best for the lighting conditions and
        lock the camera settings in the drone controller app before starting a capture
        mission.

      Additionally:

      In most cases, the lines are only visible in the Preview Orthomosaic and they do not appear in
      the final Orthomosaic. This is due to the fact that the color balancing algorithm is applied in the
      final Orthomosaic and corrects the lines in most cases. The color balancing is not enabled for
      the Preview Orthomosaic.

      Try disabling the color balancing algorithm in order to see if the results are better:

      • Close PIX4Dmapper.
      • Open the .p4d file using a text editor, e.g. Notepad++.
      • Search for the following keyword: mosaicGainc.
      • Replace <mosaicGainc>true</mosaicGainc> with <mosaicGainc>false</mosaicGainc>.
      • Save the .p4d file.
      • Open PIX4Dmapper.
      • Re-run Step 3. DSM, Orthomosaic and Index.