Better night settings

[7demo7]

check out this video shot in stock camera settings- I’m a camera noob but a flying expert- what setttings should I change to make the cars less blurry?

 

[jcamille]

You should try increasing the shutter speed

 

[7demo7]

You should try increasing the shutter speed

Is that the iso?

 

[jcamille]

Is that the iso?

Please consider synaesthesia post who provide us much better explanations about camera / digital photography than I've provided

No you have three parameters which will impact the exposure :
Shutter, aperture and ISO.
Shutter is roughly how long image is captured (So if something is moving you will have that blur effect if speed is to slowly)
Aperture is the opening available behind the lens (It will modify the depth of field)
ISO is the amplification used for the sensor.

If you want capture something moving like those cars => high shutter speed to avoid blur
But you have to increase aperture and ISO to get more light.
High aperture will cause low depth of field, high ISO will create some noise due to the amplification

I can't give you exact settings, but try the lowest ISO as possible anytime you can

Edit: As synaesthesia explained, Aperture is fixed on cheap camera (Like on most drones and smartphones) for the Mavic Air it's f/2.8, which let us only able to play with the ISO and shutter speed to adjust exposure.

 

[7demo7]

No you have three parameters which will impact the exposure :
Shutter, aperture and ISO.
Shutter is roughtly how long image is captured (So if something is moving you will have that blur effect if speed is to slowly)
Aperture is the opening available behind the lens (It will modify the depth of field)
ISO is the amplification used for the sensor.

If you want capture something moving like those cars => high shutter speed to avoid blur
But you have to increase aperture and ISO to get more light.
High aperture will cause low depth of field, high ISO will create some noise due to the amplification

I can't give you exact settings, but try the lowest ISO as possible anytime you can

Thanks so much- will try it again!!!

 

[synaesthesia]

So there are three things controlling light in a camera. Aperture, ISO, and shutter speed. These are called the exposure triangle.

Aperture is a literal iris in the lens that can be opened and closed to control the amount of light entering the lens. On a drone, and most cheap cameras, the aperture is fixed and cannot be changed. Aperture also gives you a depth of field effect at the larger end of the scale, while removing the depth of field effect with a smaller aperture.

This leaves you with ISO and shutter speed to adjust the amount of light hitting the sensor.

The general rule is that ISO should always be set to the lowest possible value. Increasing the ISO effectively amplifies the signal picked up by the sensor which in turn increases the amount of noise visible in the captured image. Noise will ruin a good picture which is why you want to be running ISO as low as possible.

The last value that can be changed in shutter speed. This is the literal speed the shutter remains open for, and thus the amount of time light can be captured by the sensor. A low shutter speed (ie 1/2) would open the shutter for half a second at a time, this will result in any moving objects captured in the frame being heavily blurred (because they moved while the shutter was open) but it will also let in the most light. A higher shutter speed (ie 1/1000th) means the shutter is only open for 1/1000th of a second at a time. This will result in far less (basically none) motion blur but also dramatically reduce the light captured by the sensor.

 

[Fmoots]

Try shooting at 60fps, this is commonly used to shoot fast moving action, extreme sports etc since it will have less motion blur and give you smooth motion for fast movement, like the cars in the your video. Increasing the framerate to 60fps will also increase the shutter speed, and as mentioned above this will mean less light can come in, which might not be ideal if you're shooting at night, although I can see the track is fairly well let so you'll probably be ok.

I'd recommend set it to manual mode, 2.7k 60fps, ISO 100, and then you'll notice as you change the shutter speed it will change the exposure (the higher you go, the darker it will get), so just play around with this until you get a nicely lit composition.

 

[7demo7]

So there are three things controlling light in a camera. Aperture, ISO, and shutter speed. These are called the exposure triangle.

Aperture is a literal iris in the lens that can be opened and closed to control the amount of light entering the lens. On a drone, and most cheap cameras, the aperture is fixed and cannot be changed. Aperture also gives you a depth of field effect at the larger end of the scale, while removing the depth of field effect with a smaller aperture.

This leaves you with ISO and shutter speed to adjust the amount of light hitting the sensor.

The general rule is that ISO should always be set to the lowest possible value. Increasing the ISO effectively amplifies the signal picked up by the sensor which in turn increases the amount of noise visible in the captured image. Noise will ruin a good picture which is why you want to be running ISO as low as possible.

The last value that can be changed in shutter speed. This is the literal speed the shutter remains open for, and thus the amount of time light can be captured by the sensor. A low shutter speed (ie 1/2) would open the shutter for half a second at a time, this will result in any moving objects captured in the frame being heavily blurred (because they moved while the shutter was open) but it will also let in the most light. A higher shutter speed (ie 1/1000th) means the shutter is only open for 1/1000th of a second at a time. This will result in far less (basically none) motion blur but also dramatically reduce the light captured by the sensor.

Great explanation and chart- printing it now....

 

[7demo7]

Try shooting at 60fps, this is commonly used to shoot fast moving action, extreme sports etc since it will have less motion blur and give you smooth motion for fast movement, like the cars in the your video. Increasing the framerate to 60fps will also increase the shutter speed, and as mentioned above this will mean less light can come in, which might not be ideal if you're shooting at night, although I can see the track is fairly well let so you'll probably be ok.

I'd recommend set it to manual mode, 2.7k 60fps, ISO 100, and then you'll notice as you change the shutter speed it will change the exposure (the higher you go, the darker it will get), so just play around with this until you get a nicely lit composition.

Thanks,, will do!

 

[7demo7]

Ok, guys, here is another video with low light. just used auto settings. If I tried manual control things just got dark
Mavic Air @ GGT Indoor Testing-