Drone photography/video

pete4130

I can't seem to find a dedicated forum for drone photography or videography on boards.ie but I could be mistaken.

I picked up a Phantom 4 about 2.5 weeks ago but only had 1 chance to really fly it with the weather here in Sydney recently (being winter). For y first flight I drove about 3 hours up the coast to some sand dunes where I was legally allowed to fly (even though its adjacent to an RAAF base, all the info I could find told me I could fly in this certain area of the dunes.)

My drone is a little older and I'm far from an accomplished pilot especially while trying to shoot photos and videos.

The video quality is pretty stunning but the RAW files leave a lot to be desired. My drone is 12MP (same as my near 12 year old Nikon D3 SLR I still use) but the stills seem to be lacking any real depth in the RAW files.

Here's a short video I made. Excuse the jerky camera movements, poor colour profile and blown highlights....I'm new to this flying video stuff.

Effects

pete4130 wrote: »

RAW files leave a lot to be desired. My drone is 12MP (same as my near 12 year old Nikon D3 SLR I still use) but the stills seem to be lacking any real depth in the RAW files.

I'd say that's down to the size of the sensor on the D3 vs the Phantom.
It's not about the amount of MP, but sure you know that already.

Chavways

I've been able to take some incredible drone pictures with my Phantom 3 over the last year (@gavinsheehan_photo Instagram). Yeah they are only 12mp so not suitable to be blown up massively but there is definitely a lot of detail in them and I can pull out shadows/blacks from the raw files very well.

dory

Chavways wrote: »

I've been able to take some incredible drone pictures with my Phantom 3 over the last year (@gavinsheehan_photo Instagram). Yeah they are only 12mp so not suitable to be blown up massively but there is definitely a lot of detail in them and I can pull out shadows/blacks from the raw files very well.

I just followed you on insta there. Hate to take this off topic but can I ask a quick question? Do you use the Sony app or just long exposure for your waterfall shots? I’m having awful trouble with long exposures on the Sony camera you have. Night time it’s fine but day times it’s way over exposed and can’t seem to change iso in shutter priority.

Chavways

dory wrote: »

I just followed you on insta there. Hate to take this off topic but can I ask a quick question? Do you use the Sony app or just long exposure for your waterfall shots? I’m having awful trouble with long exposures on the Sony camera you have. Night time it’s fine but day times it’s way over exposed and can’t seem to change iso in shutter priority.

I use ND filters and manual mode to get the daytime long exposures. The waterfall ones actually didn't need an ND filter as the daylight was fading anyway but ND filters are what I'd typically use if trying to get long exposures during the day.

the_syco

dory wrote: »

Night time it’s fine but day times it’s way over exposed and can’t seem to change iso in shutter priority.

MENU > CAMERA 1 > page 8/14 > ISO
?

dsaint1

Chavways wrote: »

I've been able to take some incredible drone pictures with my Phantom 3 over the last year (@gavinsheehan_photo Instagram). Yeah they are only 12mp so not suitable to be blown up massively but there is definitely a lot of detail in them and I can pull out shadows/blacks from the raw files very well.

You can go bigger by following this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmWr-XKMIGo&t=6s