How is everyone getting still shots from the Mavic?

[Moose408]

"Print Screen" is going to give you crappy resolution. If you are shooting in 4K video you can get decent still frames but you need to use a video editor to grab them.

As for me, I pause the video and take the photo, then restart the video. I don't want 28 mins of video anyway. 1-2 mins max for a video and then edit them into a 1-3 min max end product.

 

[Logger]

I am also generally unimpressed with the stills without going to a lot of effort with settings or post. Raw or Jpg.

So, I simply snip from the video using the Windows 10 inbuilt Photos app. Dead simple. saves a JPG with no extra software required. It can also lossless trim the video with the same Won 10 Photo app too if required.
In 10 sec of video I may have 300 frames to choose from whereas only 3 or 4 stills taken in camera mode. So I am using the machine gun principle to get the shot

 

[twitchyzero]

pause video, take a photo (without switching to camera mode), does this write a RAW file when photo is set to JPG+RAW? or can you only take RAW photos within the camera mode and not a in video mode paused?

 

[Kilrah]

When you press the photo button on the remote while in video mode (but recording stopped) it switches to photo mode automatically.

 

[djmarvin]

VLC Player has a snapshot function that preserves video resolution and quality.

 

[MPPilot]

Cameras rarely capture what the human eye sees due to the difference in the dynamic range the eye can capture. Some manipulation to get the picture to look like what you see may be needed. My sunset below I could not capture with a single shot or without some manipulation of the final product. Its not exactly what I saw but I like the photo.

 

[RIchard Host]

I'm really happy with the Mavic photos. I take in 16:9. The JPEG looks a little better than raw for some reason. Here are 3 examples unprocessed.

 

[LordJones]

I'm really happy with the Mavic photos. I take in 16:9. The JPEG looks a little better than raw for some reason. Here are 3 examples unprocessed.

Yes I like the 16.9 ratio, the JPEG will look better than RAW straight out of the Mavic as the JPEG is already processed, put the Raw image through a photo editing software and it's even better really pleased with the camera

You can also take multiple shots of the same image to boost the pixel count should you need to blow the image up


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[danroc]

if you are any serious about their photography, please do yourself a favor and start learning how to shoot in RAW mode, learn about exposure and manual exposure, then learn Lightroom for post processing.

"JPEG looks a little better than raw for some reason"

Of course it does. JPEG comes out already interpreted by DJI's algorithm. It will get it right many times until it doesn't and you'll wish you'd have the tonal range that only a RAW/DNG file provides you.

It is like shooting the video without any color grading. It will come out dull and bland. If you want it to look amazing, you gotta put some work in it!

 

[sosmaverick]

I'm really happy with the Mavic photos. I take in 16:9. The JPEG looks a little better than raw for some reason. Here are 3 examples unprocessed.

These are nice, but you should really look into shooting RAW and processing them. I've managed some outstanding shots using RAW with the mavic. It's basically all I use it for, haven't figured out how to record decent footage with it yet, but love taking stills with her.


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[larkin]

Cameras rarely capture what the human eye sees due to the difference in the dynamic range they eye can capture. Some manipulation to get the picture to look like what you see may be needed. My sunset below I could not capture with a single shot or without some manipulation of the final product.

View attachment 7159

Holy cow that's great. Can you tell us a little about your process on this one?

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[sosmaverick]

Some recent examples of what you can achieve using raw, mavic and work in post...

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[RIchard Host]

These are nice, but you should really look into shooting RAW and processing them. I've managed some outstanding shots using RAW with the mavic. It's basically all I use it for, haven't figured out how to record decent footage with it yet, but love taking stills with her.


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Ok. You've convinced me. I'm going on a holiday (which is why I bought the Mavic) and will set it to take Raw + JPEG so I have every option open to me.

 

[sosmaverick]

Ok. You've convinced me. I'm going on a holiday (which is why I bought the Mavic) and will set it to take Raw + JPEG so I have every option open to me.

Look forward to the results!


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[MPPilot]

Holy cow that's great. Can you tell us a little about your process on this one?

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It is a combination of stitching shots together to make a panorama and HDR processing. First I took 3 sets of 5 pictures each. The 5 pictures were of the same shot but at different exposures. So some pictures had the sky blown out but the ground looked good and others the ground was dark but the sky was looking good, and everything in between. I took the 5 shots, then rotated the drone about 2/3's or the image over so there would be some overlap. Took 5 more the same way and repeated the process another 2/3's over. When I was done I had 15 shots. I probably could have gotten away with 9, but what's a little overkill? Pulled the photos into Photoshop Elements and stitched each set of 3 panorama shots of the same exposure. I ended up with 5 panorama shots of different exposures. I pulled these 5 into a program call Photmatix Pro (there are other HDR programs that can be used equally as well, but I like this one). I allowed Photomatix to do its thing and it presented me with a number of different styles of the photo you saw above. I picked this one and tweaked the light just a little and Voila! You want to see some photos that will blow you away? Go to stuckincustoms.com, there is a real master.

 

[MPPilot]

Holy cow that's great. Can you tell us a little about your process on this one?

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Oh, and it helps to have a great sunset with a nice set of clouds. I hate clear skys, they're boring.

 

[islamshafei]

Did someone take still image with shutter speed more than one second?
I try it but the image is blurry, almost every 6 pictures I could get sharp image.
Anyone can assist on this issue.

 

[collins]

Did someone take still image with shutter speed more than one second?
I try it but the image is blurry, almost every 6 pictures I could get sharp image.
Anyone can assist on this issue.

The Mavic's image stabilisation is pretty incredible but getting a 1 second exposure is asking a bit much. For a hand held camera shot you really need a shutter speed of at least 1/focal length = 1/30 second.

 

[collins]

(1) Really taking a still from a video isnt ideal. The shutter speed you need for video is really too long for a really sharp still. Taking a screen shot will also reduce the quality of the photo. You can get the best quality out of video by taking a snapshot in something like Premiere and saving it as a tiff.
(2) Shooting in 'raw' is pretty essential for high quality videos and will give you a lot more leeway in post. Also it is worth shooting multiple exposures 'AEB' so you can nail the right exposure in camera.
(3) You can create high quality photos by taking multiple shots and then stitching in post.

Here is a 42 shot stitched photo I took yesterday. Using Litchi panorama mode and then stitched in 'hugin' (available for free). It is approximately 9000 pixels square...



And here is a close up of some detail in the image....

 

[hookalakupua]

So far the still pictures have been so unimpressive that I have kind of decided to just keep the video rolling. It may be me and not the camera. I may need to play with it more but so far I am not impressed.

Completely agree! Would love to see some quality examples from others as well as their settings.