Maiden Night Flight (How to take night photography?)

[edmundjp]

I am new to the Mavic. Just got my flight about 2 weeks ago.
Tonight I tried to fly at night to take some photos. This is the result (pic) at ISO100, 2sec, tripod mode with ND4 filter. The image is blurry.
I saw some of the night pictures taken by our forumers were crisp sharp. How did you guys do that?

 

[JoostGT3]

Congrats!
On the night photography (which I havent done yet with my mavic):
ND filters are there to restrict the amount of light that reaches the sensors. They are mainly used (with the mavic) to increase the shutter time, thus keeping the shuttertime in the ballpark of twice the amount of fps. This will yield the least flickering movies.
For night photography, you will generally want as short a shutter time as possible and as low an iso sensitivity as possible (as both, high iso and long shutter times will yield noise, and long shutter time will yield blur). So I would take the ND filter off (unless you were doing that to get these nice long streaks of the headlights).
No idea why the image is so blurry, probably the mavic moved a bit? Maybe some more experienced users know of some more advanced mavic control settings which make it even more stable?

 

[Blucenturion]

The Miami scene which was a stitch of two frames was sharp. He claimed a 1 sec exposure, though I doubt that. From an airborne a/c, it just doesn't sound doable to me. In yours, you're close. Definitely remove the ND, then see what 1 sec yields. Please report your result, here.

 

[edmundjp]

Thank you for the replies.
Will try again without the filter and definitely will report the result here.

 

[GlenT]

If it's a still night you can easily get nice sharp 2 second exposures with the Mavic. See my last ones here Night shots.
As suggested, remove the ND filter.
You do not have to use the "Tri pod" mode. This only affects the control aspect of the Mavic, not how well it remains stationary.
Regardless, to get decent exposure at night with such a small sensor you need a longer exposure time which will give you the streaky vehicle lights. If you keep the shutter speed down there will be loads of under exposed regions in the image.
It depends on what you're trying to achieve. The main thing to remember is, keep the ISO as low as possible. ISO 100 is as good as you can do, so adjust the shutter speed to give you the exposure you are happy with.

 

[edmundjp]

Fellas, thank you for your tips.
Took your advice, removed the ND filter tonight, and flew low to avoid wind velocity. And here are the result.
Much better, much sharper.
Thank you!

 

[GlenT]

Those are great shots. Nicely composed.
You can even do some bracketed shots to get better overall exposure. Take three or five photos in bracket mode and you can edit an image with improved dynamic range.
I haven't tried this yet with the Mavic, but intend to over the weekend.

 

[bennohimself]

Fellas, thank you for your tips.
Took your advice, removed the ND filter tonight, and flew low to avoid wind velocity. And here are the result.
Much better, much sharper.
Thank you!

Very nice, what settings did you end up using?

 

[edmundjp]

Very nice, what settings did you end up using?

ISO100, 2sec at lower altitude.

 

[RedDevils88]

did you have problems auto focusing at night?

 

[Memphis_Mavic]

AEB is a major key to getting sharp night time photos.

 

[Mattw996]

Sweet night photography guys

 

[Mattw996]

AEB is a major key to getting sharp night time photos.

View attachment 15132

That's a great photo. AEB?

 

[Skippy905]

That's a great photo. AEB?

AEB = Auto Exposure Bracketing

The Mavic will shoot 3 photos at 3 different exposure levels. This gives you the chance to edit them together to give you a shot that shows better details across the shadows/highlights.

 

[Memphis_Mavic]

That's a great photo. AEB?

Yes, It is a 5 photo AEB. This is usually done for HDR type shots or to make sure that you have shadows and highlights properly exposed but it also serves as focus stacking which will improve your sharpness.

 

[Mattw996]

Is this something I can do on the standard Mavic app?

 

[Memphis_Mavic]

Is this something I can do on the standard Mavic app?

Yes, for the 3 or 5 AEB shot. Now you have to process them in Lightroom or PhotoShop to combine the pictures into one.

 

[PM160Mavic]

ND filters shouldn't be used for still photography. The ND filters add cinematic blur to the movies we shoot to make them feel real. The blurry pictures could be the result of the Mavic moving ever so slightly while taking the picture. Couple that with the ND Filter and you will have blur in that still shot.

Nice shooting after removing and adjusting your settings.

 

[Skippy905]

ND filters shouldn't be used for still photography. The ND filters add cinematic blur to the movies we shoot to make them feel real. The blurry pictures could be the result of the Mavic moving ever so slightly while taking the picture. Couple that with the ND Filter and you will have blur in that still shot.

Nice shooting after removing and adjusting your settings.

Important notice/correction to the above. ND filters shouldn't be used for night time still photography. They should still be used accordingly in daytime still photography.

 

[Mattw996]

Important notice/correction to the above. ND filters shouldn't be used for night time still photography. They should still be used accordingly in daytime still photography.

That's what I was thinking. I've found great results with my ND4PL.