AEB .7 & 1.4 - can this be increased in any settings

[Dougcjohn]

The AEB is nice, and realize it’s probably fixed at .7 & 1.4.
Just checking if anyone has found a way to change or if it’s adjustable in a setting.

I’d like to increase the range… more like 1 & 2, or more.

A 3 shot AEB is only a +/- .7 and 5 shot +/- 1.4.
Be nice to have 3 shot be +/ 1.4 and 5 shot 2 or more.

Curious, what the software chosen to use:
Lightroom
Skylum HDR
On1 HDR
Capture One

 

[GadgetGuy]

Unfortunately, no. Would love to see DJI change the AEB bracketing stops to at least one, if not two full stops, as DNG's already have a +/- 2 stop range. You'll have to shoot larger bracketing stops manually.

Lightroom for me.

 

[PHZ]

When I do this (and I am going to do it a lot more often with my Mini 2, because it only shoots three AEB shots), I set the under exposure by a full stop, shoot then, set it to overexpose by a stop and shoot again. Agreed, we all wish the .7 was adjustable by the user. DJI, hope you are listening.

 

[Dougcjohn]

Yep, I hadn't done a lot of AEB / HDR on drone... I do on A7Riii but never focused in on it for aerial.
The M3's MFT sensor and the speed of the Cine's SSD make 5 shot AEB's more worthwhile and opened my options.
I unknowingly looked around for a bit in menu; surely there was a way to bump out to 1-2 stops... then realized it was a fixed .7 stop.

The 3 shot... -/+ .7 is essentiality worthless, with a MFT Sensor you can easily under/over shoot by 1 or 2 stops depending on subject and image has enough to normally recover the highlights or shadows.

The 5 shot is useful... but almost as a 3 shot, ignoring the two 0.7 frames.
My goal is construction, a structure may have shadows on 1 or 2 sides and to retain a nice sky and retain detail on shadow sides require AEB... 2 stops would be preferred.

I'm not certain... hadn't used it much... was the M2P a fixed amount too? I thought I recalled a craft had adjustable AEB values... maybe it was the I2's X5S or X7 in the Go4 App.

 

[Dougcjohn]

on the preferred tool... I was using Lightroom.
I was playing with Luminar's HDR product, received a email for new Luminar Neo HDR module that bumped my interest again. Lightroom is more quick & simplistic with great results, and On1 HDR I still need to explore a bit, and recently purchased Capture One to explore the whole product.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Yep, I hadn't done a lot of AEB / HDR on drone... I do on A7Riii but never focused in on it for aerial.
The M3's MFT sensor and the speed of the Cine's SSD make 5 shot AEB's more worthwhile and opened my options.
I unknowingly looked around for a bit in menu; surely there was a way to bump out to 1-2 stops... then realized it was a fixed .7 stop.

The 3 shot... -/+ .7 is essentiality worthless, with a MFT Sensor you can easily under/over shoot by 1 or 2 stops depending on subject and image has enough to normally recover the highlights or shadows.

The 5 shot is useful... but almost as a 3 shot, ignoring the two 0.7 frames.
My goal is construction, a structure may have shadows on 1 or 2 sides and to retain a nice sky and retain detail on shadow sides require AEB... 2 stops would be preferred.

I'm not certain... hadn't used it much... was the M2P a fixed amount too? I thought I recalled a craft had adjustable AEB values... maybe it was the I2's X5S or X7 in the Go4 App.

DJI has unfortunately always only offered fixed 0.7 stop AEB increments, even on all prior aircraft, including the M2P and P4P.

 

[Coskier]

For HDR composition of bracketed images, I use Photomatix. Wasn't one of your options, but I have been using it for years and like it. Lightroom for everything else.

 

[Dougcjohn]

For HDR composition of bracketed images, I use Photomatix. Wasn't one of your options, but I have been using it for years and like it. Lightroom for everything else.

Great share!
Yep, several others... Photomatix I used years ago, nice product!

Another one enjoyed is NIK HDR.

 

[SrMi]

I am using Lightroom for HDR, shoot 5-shot bracketing and use only the brightest and darkest shots for HDR merge.
Here is Adobe’s document on HDR merging and recommended settings:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/high-dynamic-range-images.html

If bracketing is not possible because of shutter speed constraints, I use stacking.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I am using Lightroom for HDR, shoot 5-shot bracketing and use only the brightest and darkest shots for HDR merge.
Here is Adobe’s document on HDR merging and recommended settings:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/high-dynamic-range-images.html

If bracketing is not possible because of shutter speed constraints, I use stacking.

Great link, suggesting that the -1.4 and +1.4 ends of the 5 shot DJI bracketing are all that one needs for an HDR merge in LR, because the bracket ends are within 3 stops of each other, exactly as you are doing!

 

[CanadaDrone]

All modern image sensors have the dynamic range to handle a 2 stop bracket. The days of needing more than 3 shots to cover the dynamic range of a scene are over for all but the most extreme scenarios. I do professional Real Estate photography and rarely need more than 3 frames - that is with a full frame camera but it's not much different for something like the M3. You only need enough shots to cover the dynamic range of the scene, any more is a waste with modern software.

On a drone I just do it manually, it only takes a couple seconds with the control wheels. It might even take you longer to select AEB from the menu. YMMV.

If you still want to use AEB, the best you can do is shoot 5 frames and keep the lowest exposure, middle (0.0EV) and highest exposure and just use those, but the best you will get is -1.4EV, 0EV, +1.4 EV which is OK but not ideal. You might even find you get a similar result from a single image and maxing out the shadow slider and highlight protection slider because in many cases the sensor will be able to handle a 1.4EV shadow push and a 1.4EV highlight reduction as long as you exposed correctly and as long as the scene's contrast isn't too extreme.

Not having more options is stilly though, as all the camera does is change it's shutter speed to alter the exposure during AEB. Even more useless is offering 5 frame AEB but keeping the increment at 0.7EV, because in every case there will be 2 useless frames.

 

[Dougcjohn]

All modern image sensors have the dynamic range to handle a 2 stop bracket. The days of needing more than 3 shots to cover the dynamic range of a scene are over for all but the most extreme scenarios. I do professional Real Estate photography and rarely need more than 3 frames - that is with a full frame camera but it's not much different for something like the M3. You only need enough shots to cover the dynamic range of the scene, any more is a waste with modern software.

On a drone I just do it manually, it only takes a couple seconds with the control wheels. It might even take you longer to select AEB from the menu. YMMV.

If you still want to use AEB, the best you can do is shoot 5 frames and keep the lowest exposure, middle (0.0EV) and highest exposure and just use those, but the best you will get is -1.4EV, 0EV, +1.4 EV which is OK but not ideal. You might even find you get a similar result from a single image and maxing out the shadow slider and highlight protection slider because in many cases the sensor will be able to handle a 1.4EV shadow push and a 1.4EV highlight reduction as long as you exposed correctly and as long as the scene's contrast isn't too extreme.

Not having more options is stilly though, as all the camera does is change it's shutter speed to alter the exposure during AEB. Even more useless is offering 5 frame AEB but keeping the increment at 0.7EV, because in every case there will be 2 useless frames.

Yep, agree... as post # 5 above, shoot 5, keep 3.
In manual, you're shooting 3 singles.... little more time between each shot compared to M3's AEB 5 shot. That equates to a little more possible movement if mild wind. Still not bad, I'll shoot a 360 Pano spanning much more time without issues.

That is a nice benefit of the M3 Cine version, the speed images are written to the SSD vs SD is a big difference.

Agree, 2-3 stops would be my preference!
I'll have to try manual and check the results.

 

[Dougcjohn]

Haven't played with manual AEB yet on M3.
I did do a little "pixel peeking" on several 5 shot AEB with Cine storage recently on a construction project... using 3 shots.
.
Zooming in on hand rails, roof AC systems, window frames of a 8-9 floor equivalent high (6 floors but 3 are Courtrooms extra high)... that consumes a full city block... so the M3 is a little distance away to capture the whole structure. (Sorry, restricted to share). I've purchased the Wide Angle adapter lens but haven't experimented yet. When using the Inspire 2 X5S and use a 12mm lens with similar FOV.

Zoomed in on the HDR images, notice they have pixle digital blocks compared to the single shots at same zoom, display the normal zoom blur image.

Comparing HDR between various products, the On1 HDR and Luminar HDR appear the best... defaults for all. I'm assuming that's photo alignment of the images, because at normal to mild zoom they all look super sharp & great!

That's been my concern to use HDR on Aerial platform for construction or high detail zoomed. Tripod is great, but aerial is moving. The other variable is the speed of shutter 1/240 to 1/60. The 1/60 may be bluring causing the stack to align poorly. Raising ISO with ND will raise shutter speeds but introduce more noise too. With size of building, I normally use f8-f11 to obtain DOF.

Started exploring HDR recently due to Summer days with clear skies and harsh shadows. Wanted to improve the image for Clients to examine and present a better overall image at regular view. I'd prefer overcast days, but that isn't the norm this time of year.

 

[SrMi]

Yep, agree... as post # 5 above, shoot 5, keep 3.
In manual, you're shooting 3 singles.... little more time between each shot compared to M3's AEB 5 shot. That equates to a little more possible movement if mild wind. Still not bad, I'll shoot a 360 Pano spanning much more time without issues.

That is a nice benefit of the M3 Cine version, the speed images are written to the SSD vs SD is a big difference.

Agree, 2-3 stops would be my preference!
I'll have to try manual and check the results.

I think that in AEB mode shoot 5 keep 2 gives the best results (also Adobe's recommendation).

 

[Dougcjohn]

I think that in AEB mode shoot 5 keep 2 gives the best results (also Adobe's recommendation).

I've tried both ways... both good results; lean a bit to 3 on M3. On a A7Riii, I do 2 shots at 2-3 stops with good results.

 

[edcMavicPilots]

The AEB is nice, and realize it’s probably fixed at .7 & 1.4.
Just checking if anyone has found a way to change or if it’s adjustable in a setting.

I’d like to increase the range… more like 1 & 2, or more.

A 3 shot AEB is only a +/- .7 and 5 shot +/- 1.4.
Be nice to have 3 shot be +/ 1.4 and 5 shot 2 or more.

Curious, what the software chosen to use:
Lightroom
Skylum HDR
On1 HDR
Capture One

I wish. I would never use their defaults if I had other options. I would us use 1 stop and sometimes 2 stop increments.

I know it isn't as fast but I still do my own manually during extreme contrast situations.

 

[Dougcjohn]

I wish. I would never use their defaults if I had other options. I would us use 1 stop and sometimes 2 stop increments.

I know it isn't as fast but I still do my own manually during extreme contrast situations.

Agree with ya... a 1 & 2 stop would be great!

 

[bkushner]

Unfortunately, no. Would love to see DJI change the AEB bracketing stops to at least one, if not two full stops, as DNG's already have a +/- 2 stop range. You'll have to shoot larger bracketing stops manually.

Lightroom for me.

Yeah HDR is usually 3 frames 0, -1 and +1 at the least. Sometimes I do -2 and +2 - Not sure why DJI didn't give us at least -1 and +1

 

[GadgetGuy]

Yeah HDR is usually 3 frames 0, -1 and +1 at the least. Sometimes I do -2 and +2 - Not sure why DJI didn't give us at least -1 and +1

Unfortunately, it's been that way forever! We complained about it back when AEB was first introduced on the P3P in 2016! Now, 6 years later, DJI still hasn't changed it, despite buying Hasselblad! Maybe one of the remaining Hasselblad photographer engineers can get it through to them!