Filming

[Deleted member 21971]

I'm new to some of this. The problem is, any time there is light colored dirt or soil patches in the grass, it seems to wash out all detail on the ground. The grass and everything else looks great, but the brighter soil comes out pure white with no detail, like small rocks or holes. It just looks all white. Same with the hazy sky. I have tried several filters, including the "polarized" ones. Same problem. Any info. would be great. Thanks.

 

[4wd]

I'm new to some of this. The problem is, any time there is light colored dirt or soil patches in the grass, it seems to wash out all detail on the ground. The grass and everything else looks great, but the brighter soil comes out pure white with no detail, like small rocks or holes. It just looks all white. Same with the hazy sky. I have tried several filters, including the "polarized" ones. Same problem. Any info. would be great. Thanks.

Sounds like exposing for the dark areas over-exposes bright areas.
Unavoidable to some extent. Using D-Log and more serious editing afterwards would probably help, otherwise some compromise will be required in some scenes.
With more sophisticated editing software you can pull down highlights and lift shadows.
Generally results are much better with sun behind you and early or late in the day.
Try using the Histogram and/or over exposure indication.
It's tough relying on what you see on screen when it's barely possible to see it on bright days.

 

[Kilrah]

You always want to expose for the highlights and make sure nothing clips except reflections or such (zebra helps). You can push the shadows to some extent (limit being the noise) but what's blown you can't do anything about on a camera that shoots 8-bit video.

 

[Deleted member 21971]

What would be a good editing software? I would need an easy one.LOL

 

[Pathogen]

What would be a good editing software? I would need an easy one.LOL

I think before worrying too much about editing software, it might be the effort (which can be fun with the correct mindset), to do a bunch of test recording. By that I mean, find the kind of scene you like, and then record it a hundred and forty eight thousand times (roughly), but keep changing the camera settings. For me, that gave me a much more useful comprehension of how the system behaves, and my success and failure at getting good shots is becoming less and less random. With photos, we can cheat by doing 'auto exposure bracketing' to capture extreme ranges of bright and dark, but with video we are locked down within a small contrast, and so getting the exposure dead on when shooting is critical.

I strongly recommend this approach rather than an alternative approach of trying to get an editor to fix a 'bad' shot. As mentioned, the sensor in this teeny tiny little camera has its limits, and so it is more difficult to get a good shot than a camcorder of a quarter the Mavic's price tag, and impossible to do some shots at all.

Also, there is an editor built into the DJI Go app, just saying.

 

[geigy]

Good advice here from several people. 10 minutes expermentation with setting a negative EV will probably show you the solution to this issue.

Zebra is the nickname for Over Exposure Warning in Camera settings.

 

[Deleted member 21971]

I think before worrying too much about editing software, it might be the effort (which can be fun with the correct mindset), to do a bunch of test recording. By that I mean, find the kind of scene you like, and then record it a hundred and forty eight thousand times (roughly), but keep changing the camera settings. For me, that gave me a much more useful comprehension of how the system behaves, and my success and failure at getting good shots is becoming less and less random. With photos, we can cheat by doing 'auto exposure bracketing' to capture extreme ranges of bright and dark, but with video we are locked down within a small contrast, and so getting the exposure dead on when shooting is critical.

I strongly recommend this approach rather than an alternative approach of trying to get an editor to fix a 'bad' shot. As mentioned, the sensor in this teeny tiny little camera has its limits, and so it is more difficult to get a good shot than a camcorder of a quarter the Mavic's price tag, and impossible to do some shots at all.

Also, there is an editor built into the DJI Go app, just saying.

Thank you for the great advice. I'll try these things. I do have a lot of learning to do.

 

[Pathogen]

Thank you for the great advice. I'll try these things. I do have a lot of learning to do.

np. One thing that would have saved me time at the start, was to bring up the histogram, and study how what the Mavic sees, gets graphed on it, and then take a few shots while messing with the ev dial as geigy said. That should kick things off well for you. Cheers!

 

[geigy]

A lot of people fall in love with the histogram. Try to make it a short lived affair, since it tells you very little about the relationship of the image to the blown out areas. The zebra stripe warning pattern is a superior guide for that reason.

 

[Pathogen]

A lot of people fall in love with the histogram. Try to make it a short lived affair, since it tells you very little about the relationship of the image to the blown out areas. The zebra stripe warning pattern is a superior guide for that reason.

I just tried that zebra thing, so unless I'm seeing things wrong, it seems to mark areas that are not quite overexposed but close?

 

[Michael Ainsworth]

If you are going to be serious with showing your videos/photos
You will very soon need a good editor.
There are a number around ranging from free through basic free and pay for full programme and up to the monthly extortion of Photoshop and Lightroom.
I am now using the Beta Resolve 14 and hoping to upgrade to their full programme.
A lot depends on your computer as all this is very power intensive to get a video processed.

 

[geigy]

I just tried that zebra thing, so unless I'm seeing things wrong, it seems to mark areas that are not quite overexposed but close?

It shows areas that are pure white in all channels. This is fine for small areas, but not for large areas of sky or water, for example.

Often you need to go one or two clicks further - a lot of skies for example have banding in them because one or two of the channels (green or blue usually) are blown.