Get stable long exposures

[mattitech07]

I'm trying to get a good multiple seconds exposure with my Air 2 , but I have to try over and over since the drone seems to rotate a slight bit during the shooting and introduces trailing in the shot. I tried tripod mode with 6-8 seconds but it still is hit or miss. Is there a reliable way to get a sharp long exposure?

 

[Meta4]

I tried tripod mode with 6-8 seconds but it still is hit or miss. Is there a reliable way to get a sharp long exposure?

"Tripod" mode is misnames and confuses people.
It does nothing at all to hold the drone or camera steady, like a tripod would.
Tripod mode just slows down the speed that the drone flies at and slows the joystick response to allow smooth, slow flying.

To achieve what you want, forget Tripod mode.
Choose a calm night and leave the drone hovering for a couple of seconds before pushing the shutter button.
If you are going for very long exposures, you'll probably need to shoot multiple times for each to improve your chances of getting a good shot.

 

[DARKSeifer]

It's a hit and miss, specially at night were the drone can't use the OA sensors to lock in place.

For doing fireworks I usually work at f/9, 3 seconds exposure or so and is quite consistent, from 5 to 8 seconds you will miss a lot.

You can leave the drone hovering in place a few seconds and correct the framing if it drifts, after a while it should stay more or less in place. You can also press the button to reset the gimbal (looks down 90º then you press it again to move to 0º)

 

[BobaFut]

I'm trying to get a good multiple seconds exposure with my Air 2 , but I have to try over and over since the drone seems to rotate a slight bit during the shooting and introduces trailing in the shot. I tried tripod mode with 6-8 seconds but it still is hit or miss. Is there a reliable way to get a sharp long exposure?

6-8 seconds is a looooong time. Obviously there's no hard-and-fast rule, but I try to keep my long exposures under about 3 seconds. I think with my Air2s I could get sharp 2 second photos fairly consistently, 3 seconds required a few attempts, and any more than that there was a very low chance of a shot being a keeper (with my Mavic 3 Pro that probably ups to 4-5 seconds I can get decent results from multiple attempts). YMMV but this may be a matter of expectation-leveling rather than any technical issue.

 

[Meta4]

It's a hit and miss, specially at night were the drone can't use the OA sensors to lock in place.

OA sensors don't do anything to hold the drone steady.
Maybe you are thinking of the VPS sensors, but they can only assist if the drone is low enough for their limited range and the ground texture is suitable, so there aren't going to be many situations where they would be any use anyway.

 

[EssenYVR]

I'm trying to get a good multiple seconds exposure with my Air 2 , but I have to try over and over since the drone seems to rotate a slight bit during the shooting and introduces trailing in the shot.

I'd consider it a small miracle to get a good, sharp exposure of even 2-3 seconds from a camera platform wafting on the breezes in the sky...

 

[akdrone]

Agreed with all of the above. You are really asking for more than you can expect to get. Following the above recommendations try 8 or so exposures of the same thing to see if you can get one good one. You couldn't even hold a camera in your hands for an 8 sec exposure and expect it to be sharp....

 

[jephoto]

I'd consider it a small miracle to get a good, sharp exposure of even 2-3 seconds from a camera platform wafting on the breezes in the sky...

I find I have the best luck at .8 to 1 sec and beyond that many soft frames.
But allowing it to settle for a bit after any movements improves chances. And choosing as calm a night as possible for wind.
Anytime you want to do Long exposures though, just need to shoot a lot of frames…,.

 

[MavicFlyer2]

Thanks everyone for chiming in on this...I've never tried the long exposure shots but might have to try it now ?

 

[Droning on and on...]

OA sensors don't do anything to hold the drone steady.
Maybe you are thinking of the VPS sensors, but they can only assist if the drone is low enough for their limited range and the ground texture is suitable, so there aren't going to be many situations where they would be any use anyway.

Further, rotation/yaw isn't sensed by thr cameras, but rather by the compass/gyro, which senses the earth's magnetic field, not anything reflecting light. When calibrated and working properly, there shouldn't be any visually noticeable change in heading while hovering in place.

 

[dgibbphoto]

I think it is a luck of the draw when doing time exposures. I usually take several or more shots hoping to get one decent one out the series...after all it is kind of floating in air.

 

[davidarmenb]

Another thing you can try, which is a long-time photography technique called long exposure stacking, is to take multiple shorter exposures and then align and combine them in post to achieve your longer exposure look. It will look and feel very similar to an actual long exposure.

The downside to this is that it requires dedicated software (such as Adobe Photoshop) that can combine photos in the specific way you need, which is called “Mean” stacking, which combines the exposures of every image, as opposed to just averaging them out. With Mean stacking, the total exposure time of the final image will be roughly equal to the sum of the individual exposures.

 

[Yaros]

I'm trying to get a good multiple seconds exposure with my Air 2 , but I have to try over and over since the drone seems to rotate a slight bit during the shooting and introduces trailing in the shot. I tried tripod mode with 6-8 seconds but it still is hit or miss. Is there a reliable way to get a sharp long exposure?

Don't use tripod mode, the name is confusing, but it makes the drone's reaction to sticks smoother, it doesn't affect its stability in the air.

I had an Air 2, and from experience I would say that the best thing you can do is set the ISO to 800, and the shutter speed to 3 seconds maximum, not more.
Always take RAW photos, and edit them in Lightroom or similar software to get good exposure balancing and noise reduction. The new Noise Reduction features in Camera Raw by Adobe are incredible, they're based on AI, and I was able to achieve amazing results.