If I am up in the air and my EV is far away from 0, do I change my shutter? If I am filming 30 fps I keep it on 1/60, but of course sometimes I fly up and realize I have the wrong filter on. How far can I change my shutter to get this EV I desire and at what EV value should I consider changing the shutter?
This is all assuming I do post editing work btw so please keep that in mind.
I am not a photographer so please ELI5.
I'll try and explain it so you understand.
ISO: low ISO (100) will give you a cleaner image but needs plenty of light. High ISO (1600) will work in lower light but will give you a noisier (mushy) image.
Shutter: Low shutter (25/30) will let more light into the sensor but will introduce motion blur. High shutter (2000+) will capture each frame but needs lots more light to hit the sensor.
Finding the balance of shutter and ISO to get good exposure is fairly simple. Start at the lowest ISO (100) and shutter as low as possible and as long as the image isn't under-exposed (too dark) you are good to go.
If its over-exposed (too bright), just keep raising the shutter till you get a good exposure. If it is too dark with the lowest shutter, you now need to bring the ISO up to make the sensor more sensitive to light at the expense of noise in the image.
Now, applying this to video is where it becomes a little trickier because in the example above I was discussing a single frame. In video there are many frames per second. This is how we deal with this.
In this example I want to capture at 2.7k@24fps for the cinematic look. To achieve this I know I will need a shutter speed of 50 (180 degree shutter rule). So I will lock this off first. Next I need to evaluate the scene I'm shooting. Its a bright sunny day and there is plenty of light. So I'll need to start at the lowest ISO (100) and have a look at the live feed. It still looks way over-exposed. I cant lower the ISO any more and I don't want to raise the shutter. My only option here is to use a Neutral Density filter to block some of the light coming in. Imagine sunglasses for your Mavic. In this case an ND32 will bring my exposure nearly to 0 (+- 0.3ev)
In this example. I want to capture some action shots of my friend on his dirt bike. He wants to be able to slow some parts down to show off his moves so now I know I want to be capturing the footage at least at 60fps. We head out to the track. Now, as I'm capturing some action shots and I want to be able to slow them down but at the same time I want each frame to have as little motion blur as possible I will need to set my shutter (using the 180 rule). I will set it at multiples of 60, so starting at 120, next available is 240, then 480 and so on. I set up my Mavic. I will lock my camera off at 1080p@60fps and set the shutter to 120 and the ISO at 100, as long as the image isn't under-exposed I will start to adjust the shutter speed, starting at 120 and going up till I get the correct exposure. Ideally I want a shutter of no more than 480 so if it goes above this Ill need to use an ND filter, probably a ND4 or ND8 will be enough. If the image is under-exposed at ISO100@120 I will need to bring my ISO up, not more than 400 though as at 400 its manageable but not the best.
In this example I want to capture a 4k evening shot of the town. I know it will be dark but with the street lights and buildings to give illumination to the scene. I set my Mavic to 4kc@24fps. I know I need as much light as possible to hit the sensor so need to use as slow a shutter speed as possible so I'll lock this at 24. Ill send my Mavic up to have a look at how the shot looks from the air because I now need to adjust my ISO to expose the image correctly. Starting at ISO200, it appears too dark, ev value shows -0.7 so I know I need even more light to get through. Ill push the ISO to 400. I have to remember, I'm shooting a fairly dark shot and want the lights to stand out so I don't worry too much about slight under-exposure.
Hopefully these examples will help you.
