Best aperture for stills

[My Flying Eye]

Im a new M2 Pro owner and have read various recommendations as to the sharpest aperture to use for still photography with this drone.

Any suggestions/recommendations from experience would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Paulf10]

Im a new M2 Pro owner and have read various recommendations as to the sharpest aperture to use for still photography with this drone.

Any suggestions/recommendations from experience would be greatly appreciated.

Great question! If you do a search on You Tube you can find a lot of useful and helpful information on the subject.

 

[My Flying Eye]

Great question! If you do a search on You Tube you can find a lot of useful and helpful information on the subject.

Thanks for the info, which I have already researched but I was hoping to get some views from several M2P owners from a simple forum.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

I think you'll find that a lot of people here recommend f4 as the sweet spot. I've done well @ f5.6. It's generally known that the lens does not perform well with apertures smaller than that. With this lens having such a huge depth of field, I have also had good results wide open @ f2.8.

Chris

 

[SqFt]

There is no perfect answer for the OPs question. It depends on what effect you want with the background, light, etc. I think its best to learn and practice with what effect aperture, shutter speed, ISO and EV all have on the resulting image. Lots of info out there just google and read up.

 

[Thomas B]

I use F4-F5.6 when possible as this is the known sweet spot, but there’s no magic. I recommend manual settings and experimenting a bit.

 

[Hegemone]

Lower ISO, without ND filters if possible. My preference is lowest possible ISO first, any aperture before I have to out on a ND filter to maintain a low ISO. Finally I would prefer to be a bit under exposed rather then over exposed because once the detail is lost to being blown out you can't get it back but you didn't ask about that.

 

[My Flying Eye]

I think you'll find that a lot of people here recommend f4 as the sweet spot. I've done well @ f5.6. It's generally known that the lens does not perform well with apertures smaller than that. With this lens having such a huge depth of field, I have also had good results wide open @ f2.8.

Chris

Thanks Chris.

 

[My Flying Eye]

Lower ISO, without ND filters if possible. My preference is lowest possible ISO first, any aperture before I have to out on a ND filter to maintain a low ISO. Finally I would prefer to be a bit under exposed rather then over exposed because once the detail is lost to being blown out you can't get it back but you didn't ask about that.

Thanks for the extra info.

 

[My Flying Eye]

There is no perfect answer for the OPs question. It depends on what effect you want with the background, light, etc. I think its best to learn and practice with what effect aperture, shutter speed, ISO and EV all have on the resulting image. Lots of info out there just google and read up.

Thanks for the response.

 

[My Flying Eye]

I use F4-F5.6 when possible as this is the known sweet spot, but there’s no magic. I recommend manual settings and experimenting a bit.

Thank you for your reply.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

Lower ISO, without ND filters if possible. My preference is lowest possible ISO first, any aperture before I have to out on a ND filter to maintain a low ISO. Finally I would prefer to be a bit under exposed rather then over exposed because once the detail is lost to being blown out you can't get it back but you didn't ask about that.

An nd filter reduces light therefore will require a higher iso. It will lower your shutter speed so if you want blurry noisy shots snap on the nd.

 

[EricJT]

Lower ISO, without ND filters if possible. My preference is lowest possible ISO first, any aperture before I have to out on a ND filter to maintain a low ISO. Finally I would prefer to be a bit under exposed rather then over exposed because once the detail is lost to being blown out you can't get it back but you didn't ask about that.

How does under exposing jive with ETTR (expose to the right)? My understanding is that by using ETTR the blacks and dark shades are better captured and the white and lighter colors can be handled in post processing.

 

[Hegemone]

There is detail in the whites that progressively gets destroyed if blown out. Kind of like pinning the mic in audio recording. You can boost a low signal in post but you can't fix a signal distorted by blowing it out. I would assume that ETTR wouldn't tell you to move to the right if you are blowing out detail in the bright areas.

I also shoot raw and do all adjustments off camera. I don't trust software to judge what I will like.

I just know what works for me and my workflow. People always develop their own over time.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

How does under exposing jive with ETTR (expose to the right)? My understanding is that by using ETTR the blacks and dark shades are better captured and the white and lighter colors can be handled in post processing.

You’re right it doesn’t.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

There is detail in the whites that progressively gets destroyed if blown out. Kind of like pinning the mic in audio recording. You can boost a low signal in post but you can't fix a signal distorted by blowing it out. I would assume that ETTR wouldn't tell you to move to the right if you are blowing out detail in the bright areas.

I also shoot raw and do all adjustments off camera. I don't trust software to judge what I will like.

I just know what works for me and my workflow. People always develop their own over time.

While you shouldn’t overexpose under exposing and boosting it gives you more noise.
Depends on the situation.

 

[Hegemone]

I agree to a certain extent, but ISO is more related to sensor noise then slight under exposure. The noise is present but the higher ISO turns up the volume on that noise making it much more noticable. Photo in a black room with the only difference being ISO demonstrates how sever this can be.


Edited for clarity of example.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

I agree to a certain extent, but ISO is more related to sensor noise then slight under exposure. The noise is present but the higher ISO turns up the volume on that noise making it much more noticable. Photo in a black room with the only difference being ISO demonstrates how sever this can be.


Edited for clarity of exampl

Increasing ISO is basically the same as dragging the exposure slider to the right.
It’s an amplifier so yes increasing ISO will increase noise.
Take your low ISO black frame drag the exposure slider to the right.

 

[EricJT]

There is detail in the whites that progressively gets destroyed if blown out. Kind of like pinning the mic in audio recording. You can boost a low signal in post but you can't fix a signal distorted by blowing it out. I would assume that ETTR wouldn't tell you to move to the right if you are blowing out detail in the bright areas.

I also shoot raw and do all adjustments off camera. I don't trust software to judge what I will like.

I just know what works for me and my workflow. People always develop their own over time.

I should have clarified....when I use ETTR I am referring to the histogram.....I will compose the shot so the graph is more to the right than left in the histogram. This comes from my DSLR experience.

 

[Hegemone]

Increasing ISO is basically the same as dragging the exposure slider to the right.
It’s an amplifier so yes increasing ISO will increase noise.
Take your low ISO black frame drag the exposure slider to the right.

Though basically the same, one is tweaking the hardware and one is tweaking the raw file. I have a whole lot more options in post then I do on camera. So it a little bit of personal approach and preferences here. Not to mention there is still shutter speed and HDR captures to work with but that's just more things to make the whole convo more complex.

Lets be clear, I am also talking one or two stops before I go the ND filter route, nothing too dramatic. My thing is that I can also do selective edits in Lightroom on a raw image where I can't in camera with ISO. The luminance noise reduction in LR is getting very good and working with highlights and shadows allows for a whole lot more flexibility then just the exposure slider. So much is subjective and based on individual style and tolerances.

I agree with what you are saying. Don't get me wrong. I just approach it in a way that has gotten me good results and works with my work flow. What I do know is that if you don't watch how your clipping the highlights you could be loosing some important digital information.