camera settings

[brschaef]

looking for the best camera setting for a Air3 I know very little about photography, just for general use and best quality,
Thanks

 

[GFields]

looking for the best camera setting for a Air3 I know very little about photography, just for general use and best quality,
Thanks

Greetings from Birmingham Alabama USA, welcome to the forum! We look forward to hearing from you!

There is no way to provide precise camera settings as they will change based on lighting conditions. However, for best results, you want to keep the ISO as low as possible (100-400). Then use auto for the other settings

 

[MS Coast]

looking for the best camera setting for a Air3 I know very little about photography, just for general use and best quality,
Thanks

Set the camera to Auto mode for both exposure and focus, and choose the highest image resolution. Then forget about it.

You'll get excellent results in almost all situations, and you can focus on learning to fly the drone safely and well. Unless you're shooting in unusual conditions or want to achieve something specific, you'll probably find that you never need to change away from Auto mode.

 

[Jim Martin]

As GFields mentioned, there is no single "good setting". I would suggest learning how to take a good photo on manual even if you don't use manual all the time. Understanding the "triangle" of ISO/Shutter/Aperture will help you understand how to get the shot you want. (We can't adjust aperture on our drones but it's still an important concept to understand.)

There is nothing wrong with shooting on full auto or partial auto, it's just that you are letting the camera make the decisions instead of you. Auto will generally give you decent results, but you can't tell auto you want a long exposure or to freeze motion. Auto will do what it thinks is best.

If you aren't ready for all that manual stuff, try Smart Photo mode and shoot in JPEG + RAW. Smart mode generally makes good decisions about the shot, and you can bring the RAW images into Lightroom or another program capable of working with RAW images to further develop the photo.

Give yourself permission to experiment and learn even if it seems a bit overwhelming. It's really the best way to "get good".

 

[Droning on and on...]

Set the camera to Auto mode for both exposure and focus, and choose the highest image resolution. Then forget about it.

You'll get excellent results in almost all situations, and you can focus on learning to fly the drone safely and well. Unless you're shooting in unusual conditions or want to achieve something specific, you'll probably find that you never need to change away from Auto mode.

The only thing I'd add to this is many people find the image pipeline oversharpens, producing some embossing-like artifacts. You can leave this alone, but if you like the results better generally with sharpening reduced, that's another one you can pretty much set to your liking and then forget about it. That's what I've done.

Okay, one more thing. Learn about the EV (Exposure Value) setting in Auto. The effect is similar to a brightness control. When a shot is framed, an important part of the image may be under or over exposed, eliminating detail you want to capture. You can adjust EV to bring in that detail in shadow or highlight.

Opposite areas may get blown out, or too dark, but that's fine if those areas of the picture aren't important.

Sometimes I adjust EV just because I find the overall result more pleasing.

In any case, if shooting in Auto, get familiar with the EV setting to give you a little more control and flexibility.

Okay, one more : Learn about the auto-bracketing feature, and combining a set of shots into a high dynamic range image that shows detail in highlights and shadows. Almost every photo processing application can take an auto-bracketed set and combine them into an HDR photo, including many free ones.

You use auto-bracketing when you can't find an EV setting that meets your requirements for detail throughout a high contrast image.

These are suggestions for going a little bit further with Auto to achieve some more refined results.

Next items on your learning curve are, in order, ISO-priority, shutter-priority, full manual. Even more you can do with those modes, and some really compelling reasons to use them depending on the shot. For example, fixing a high shutter speed to freeze fast action, while letting the camera handle the ISO to get the exposure right. Shutter-priority does this.

 

[Dale D]

looking for the best camera setting for a Air3 I know very little about photography, just for general use and best quality,
Thanks

Select AUTO for your exposure and white balance. Select ISO 100.

 

[maggior]

I shoot in AUTO and use EV and/or exposure bracketing when necessary. Enable the over exposure warning which will put zebra strips in areas that are over exposed. You can adjust EV until they are minimal or don't appear.

You can't really use the exposure triangle with this drone since there is no aperture adjustment. With a drone you are mostly shooting wide landscapes so things like depth of field aren't really a factor; you don't really miss the aperture adjustment.

On a regular camera it's much different and I shoot in full manual.