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Confused about exposure settings

Rogerc

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Been filming in the beautiful California sun but have one problem.
When viewing my video regardless of what framerate I shoot the scene will either darken or lighten by a small amount several times during the video. It is very distracting.
I though if I had the white balance NOT set on auto white balance I would not get any changes in the scence. I have the white balance set to SUNNY.
What is best for exposure settings to get no changes in the lighting?
Thanks
RC
 
It's the exposure which you need to set manually, the exposure will then be consistent whenever the light conditions change
 
I used to get similar big shifts in brightness when I was shooting in shutter priority. Meaning, when I would explicitly set my shutter speed, then the camera would adjust the aperture during my shots causing the big changes in exposure.

If you’re comfortable shooting in full manual, you can set shutter speed and aperture so that nothing changes during the shot. Or if you go to full auto, the Mavic can adjust the shutter and aperture and will hopefully make more subtle changes. I hope that helps!
 
I always shoot in fully automatic and it does change settings slightly while filming but to me they are fairly slow and quite subtle. I find it especially valuable if I transition from looking a bit toward the sun and either yaw or tilt the gimbal down away from the sun. Obviously this is all subjective and maybe I am not too picky.
 
Unless you're really comfortable around a camera set to full manual, I would recommend aperture priority mode. And also only when you know specifically what / which direction you will be shooting

Manual might be nice until you swing your sun around to a much brighter scene, at which point everything will be blown (all white).

I too have noticed visible shifts in brightness when using shutter priority. I've been meaning to test it further, but until I have, I totally avoid it.

PS: is reference to your original post, just to be sure: white balance has nothing to do with exposure; that is, it is not part of the exposure triangle that will affect brightness or darkness. That is all shutter, aperture, and ISO. White balance is all about adjusting color, nothing more. (Pedants will mention here that changing white balance can affect the exposure slightly, but believe me, it's not the thing you want to change when you need to adjust exposure.)

Also, frame-rate is not part of the exposure equation either.

Chris
 
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I always fly in full manual for the exposure. I also notch the exposure negative by .3 or .7, sometimes 1.0 to get an image that is more pleasing to me.

Those exposure shifts on automatic can really spoil a shot. The newer DJI drones manage this automatic exposure shifts more gracefully than the earlier ones, but it is still bothersome.
 
My personal preference is to shoot with a custom White Balance @ 5700 kelvins. It is pleasing to my eye and easy to boost in either direction if need be during post processing.
 
Try using aperture mode with exposure peaking to detect any exposure issues that you can swiftly correct with the exposure-control wheel on the controller.

My personal preference is to shoot with a custom White Balance @ 5700 kelvins. It is pleasing to my eye and easy to boost in either direction if need be during post processing.

White balance has nothing to do with exposure. White balance is the color of colors. From a blue tint to a warm tint. Under or over exposure can happen regardless of white balance.
 
My personal preference is to shoot with a custom White Balance @ 5700 kelvins. It is pleasing to my eye and easy to boost in either direction if need be during post processing.

Do you always shoot under the same lighting conditions? The reason white balance is even there is to compensate for different lighting, cloudy vs. sunny, etc.

Edit: different lighting color / temperature, not brightness.
 
My personal preference is to shoot with a custom White Balance @ 5700 kelvins. It is pleasing to my eye and easy to boost in either direction if need be during post processing.
Your suggested degrees Kelvin setting will still not affect exposure values, it only affects the way colour is shown on your screen. So if you want a warmer skin tone or more golden (or more red biased) light, you go higher than your mean setting you mentioned, which, at 5,700 degrees Kelvin is about mid day sunshine looking colour. If you want a cooler looking effect, such as a winter colder or bluer light effect, you would reduce down from your 5,700 degrees Kelvin. To better understand white balance or degrees Kelvin, the morning is the cooler or lower number in natural light, with mid day being around the 5,700 mark and the later in the evening the more red or golden the colour shift which means the numbers go up (above that 5,700 mark).

What the OP is asking is about his scene looking brighter and darker and that is all to do with exposure and nothing to do with white balance. Whether using aperture or shutter priority, it will still give you a brighter or darker scene as the drone is moved around the sky getting into the sun or away from it, because the amount of light will make the camera's light sensor open or close more. The only way to stop that happening is to choose full manual, as has been stated. However, you still need to determine a medium balance point to get the best possible exposure for both sides, that is into the sun or away from the sun, because even in manual, neither extreme is going to be perfect for you, there is always going to be a bit of a compromise when going to the extremes of light and dark areas in a shot sequence.
 
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Been filming in the beautiful California sun but have one problem.
When viewing my video regardless of what framerate I shoot the scene will either darken or lighten by a small amount several times during the video. It is very distracting.
I though if I had the white balance NOT set on auto white balance I would not get any changes in the scence. I have the white balance set to SUNNY.
What is best for exposure settings to get no changes in the lighting?
Thanks
RC

manual settinds
 
REally appreciate all the feedback. Flying today doing trial and error. Will probably end up doing shorter clips set for exactly what I want to shoot.
 
Unless you're really comfortable around a camera set to full manual, I would recommend aperture priority mode. And also only when you know specifically what / which direction you will be shooting

Manual might be nice until you swing your sun around to a much brighter scene, at which point everything will be blown (all white).

I too have noticed visible shifts in brightness when using shutter priority. I've been meaning to test it further, but until I have, I totally avoid it.

PS: is reference to your original post, just to be sure: white balance has nothing to do with exposure; that is, it is not part of the exposure triangle that will affect brightness or darkness. That is all shutter, aperture, and ISO. White balance is all about adjusting color, nothing more. (Pedants will mention here that changing white balance can affect the exposure slightly, but believe me, it's not the thing you want to change when you need to adjust exposure.)

Also, frame-rate is not part of the exposure equation either.

Chris
Chris, wouldn't a higher fps result in darker video? The shutter is opened for a lesser amount of time so the exposure should be darker?
 
Last edited:
Chris, wouldn't a higher fps result in darker video? The shutter is opened for a lesser amount of time so the exposure should be darker?

Don't confuse Frames Per Second with Shutter Speed.

FPS is how many frames per second are recorded. (Video)
ie. 24fps - The video will have 24 frames for every second of video.
This affects the "feel" of the video. (Classic cinema, videotape, etc)

Shutter Speed is how long the shutter is open for each exposure/frame. (Still and Video)
ie. - The shutter will only be open for set value for each image/frame exposed.
This affects the "look" of the image. (Motion blur, sharpness, motion conveyance, etc)
 
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Don't confuse Frames Per Second with Shutter Speed.

FPS is how many frames per second are recorded. (Video)
ie. 24fps - The video will have 24 frames for every second of video.
This affects the "feel" of the video. (Classic cinema, videotape, etc)

Shutter Speed is how long the shutter is open for each exposure/frame. (Still and Video)
ie. - The shutter will only be open for set value for each image/frame exposed.
This affects the "look" of the image. (Motion blur, sharpness, motion conveyance, etc)
So in video, comparing 30fps to 60fps, without changing aperture or ISO (not sure it applies to video), wouldn't 60fps appear darker as each frame has the shutter open for only half the time compared to a one second clip at 30fps?

I suspect I am missing something here but this is the rabbit hole I am in now. Thx.
 
Yes, frames per second is how much data is collected screen the shutter is open.
So if you're shutter is opened for too long and its over exposed, having a higher fps will only provide a better over-exposed footage.
So in video, comparing 30fps to 60fps, without changing aperture or ISO (not sure it applies to video), wouldn't 60fps appear darker as each frame has the shutter open for only half the time compared to a one second clip at 30fps?

I suspect I am missing something here but this is the rabbit hole I am in now. Thx.

No
Won't be darker.
I understand your point.

If it's recording at more frames per second , it'll have to be darker.
No. Because its digital, the shutter opens, for say 0.5 seconds, and records frames.
Lower frames means less detail and higher means more details.
But if 0.5 seconds was more than required, the image/footage will be brighter - regardless of frames recorded.

You need to master exposure independent of frames or bits.


Exposure is a combination of 3 variables:

iso
Shutter speed
aperture

The primary variable, shutter or aperture will be determined by your environment.
 
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