Camera Settings

hkdman · Feb 19, 2017

Hello - I am confused when it comes to camera settings. I have watched Tom's Tech time (as well as a few other Youtube videos) that discuss the fact that you should have your ISO as low as possible and your shutter spead should be twice your FPS. So for example I was messing around yeterday. It was pretty cloudy. I put my ISO on 100 and FPS was 30 so I set my shutter speed at 60. The image was way to bright. According to Tom's tech time you correct this by using filters. But here is my question - I have the Polar pro filters CP, ND 8 and ND 16. My understanding is that CP allows you to bring out the colors, ND 8 softens and smooths out the image and provides a more cinematic look and ND 16 you should use on a bright or sunny day.

So - after I set the camera to ISO 100 and Shutter speed at 60 - I tried each of the 3 filters and used a histogram to gauge results. Each one still seemed too bright - when I got to the ND 16 - I still found that I needed to adjust the shutter speed to darken the image a little to get the histogram right. Anythoughts?

Lastly - is there a way to change EV on your camera - or does this just change when you change shutter speed?

Thanks!

Brewsky666 · Feb 19, 2017

EV on manual. You can set it manually on sunny, cloudy etc. That way it does not change itself and get the "too bright" results.

Regarding the filters: on an very bright day you see you will need 32 or even 64.

And it depends on the frame rate you are shooting on. If you have 2k 24fps then you will need 100 ISO and 50 tot 60 fps. But if you do not have the 32 and the 64 filters you will have to up your fps. I think/hope the manual EV will do the trick for you.

Happy Flying
Brewsky

hkdman · Feb 19, 2017

Brewsky666 said:
EV on manual. You can set it manually on sunny, cloudy etc. That way it does not change itself and get the "too bright" results.

Regarding the filters: on an very bright day you see you will need 32 or even 64.

And it depends on the frame rate you are shooting on. If you have 2k 24fps then you will need 100 ISO and 50 tot 60 fps. But if you do not have the 32 and the 64 filters you will have to up your fps. I think/hope the manual EV will do the trick for you.

Happy Flying
Brewsky

I thought that the "sunny/cloudy" settings was to set your white balance? Also - on Manual - I don't see where I can set the EV? I can change the shutter dial and lower/increase shutter speed - which has the effect of changing EV. For example - today, really cloudy with spots of sunshine. My ISO was 100, shooting at 4k with FPS of 30. I set my shutter speed for 60 but it was way too bright. I put on an ND 16 filter - and it was still too bright. I ended up leaving the ND 16 on, but then changing my Shutter speed to about 320. The exposure looked good - but I don't understand how you can keep your shutter speed at twice the FPS. Like I said - I was shooting in a pretty cloudy day and yet ND 16 wasn't enough. Any ideas?

Brewsky666 · Feb 19, 2017

My mistake on the EV then. If your histogram is ok then your monitor might be to bright. Your histogram should be your guide in whether your footage is overexposed or not. If your histogram is ok then I think you will need 32 or 64 ND. Do you have Dlog/Art or anything else? That might make some (slight) changes. Sorry for so much questions but what do you use in postproces, because you can adjust much with the software.

Happy Flying
Brewsky

hkdman · Feb 19, 2017

I use filmora. It is ok for basic editing but not sure that it does color corrections. Still getting the hang of it

RlCK · Apr 4, 2017

hkdman said:
I use filmora. It is ok for basic editing but not sure that it does color corrections. Still getting the hang of it

I just started using filmora too. Looks like you can do color corrections on it:

ElGuapo · Apr 4, 2017

hkdman said:
I use filmora. It is ok for basic editing but not sure that it does color corrections. Still getting the hang of it

I know this thread is a bit old but take a look at this video, this should help. I went thru the learning curve with I first got into drones, this is way back when the Phantom 3 Adv first came out. What made it easy for me was practice. You have to do is first buy filters, then go outside different times during the day, as the sun brightness intensity changes as the hours go by, and just practice keeping in mind the rule of thumb. One thing to keep in mind is always adjust manually white balance, Sunny for bright sunny days, cloudy for cloudy or overcast days, etc.