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Air 2s Drone light painting (Huawei P30 Pro or Nikon 3100) ?

RonanCork

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Hey Guys,

I'm going to try my hand at some drone light painting (have the Air2S).

I've a tripod (which can hold phone or DSLR). I also have the below 2 and was wondering which of them would be best to capture the image ?
  • Huawei P30 pro: 32MP, f2.0. Spec is here
  • Nikon 3100 DSLR: 14MP, spec is here
Any guidance/help would be great

Thanks Ro
 
You forgot the most important part. What is the light source you plan on painting with?
 
You forgot the most important part. What is the light source you plan on painting with?
Heya.

Don't worry. Didn't forgot that part :---)

I've an idea how to do the drone part from some YouTube videos (at least to make an initial stab at it).

It was more the ground based camera part I was curious about.

Thanks Ro
 
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Heya.

Don't worry. Didn't forgot that part :---)

I've an idea how to do the drone part from some YouTube videos (at least to make an initial stab at it).

It was more the ground based camera part I was curious about.

Thanks Ro
Without knowing the light source, the cameras don't matter. It's all about the minimum EV the cameras will do without serious noise - and without the light source and what amount of light it will be producing on the subject, the entire question is moot.
 
Your Nikon D3100 would be a better option than the cell phone as you have much more control over the settings than the cell phone.

I use my Nikon D3300 and a 10-20mm wide angle lens for light painting. I set the camera on a tripod and set it to manual focus, bulb mode and use a remote trigger to activate the shutter. Depending on how dark it is outside, how bright your background is and how bright the drone lights are, you will have to experiment with your ISO and aperture settings. I always try to keep my ISO down as much as possible to reduce noise as the sensors in the Nikon D3000 series cameras are not the best at managing noise.

With that being said I like using my D3300, 10-20mm combo as it is light, portable and compact and I don't feel like I am hauling expensive camera equipment out into dimly lit areas where I am all alone.

Here are a couple of examples: Both images below were shot at ISO 100, Spirals f/8, Stars f/9. For the spirals, the drone was programmed to fly all 3 sprirals, I just stopped and started the the shutter at the beginning of each spiral (3 stacked shots). For the stars, the image is a composite of 3 stacked images as well.


Spirals.jpg

Stars.jpg

Hope this helps.

Chris
 
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Your Nikon D3100 would be a better option than the cell phone as you have much more control over the settings than the cell phone.

I use my Nikon D3300 and a 10-20mm wide angle lens for light painting. I set the camera on a tripod and set it to manual focus, bulb mode and use a remote trigger to activate the shutter. Depending on how dark it is outside, how bright your background is and how bright the drone lights are, you will have to experiment with your ISO and aperture settings. I always try to keep my ISO down as much as possible to reduce noise as the sensors in the Nikon D3000 series cameras are not the best at managing noise.

With that being said I like using my D3300, 10-20mm combo as it is light, portable and compact and I don't feel like I am hauling expensive camera equipment out into dimly lit areas where I am all alone.

Here are a couple of examples: Both images below were shot at ISO 100, Spirals f/8, Stars f/9. For the spirals, the drone was programmed to fly all 3 sprirals, I just stopped and started the the shutter at the beginning of each spiral (3 stacked shots). For the stars, the image is a composite of 3 stacked images as well.


View attachment 135327

View attachment 135328

Hope this helps.

Chris
Heya thanks for this detailed information. Really appreciate you taking the time. Your shots look great. I'll try with my nikon 3100 this week. Before I'd read your post I did try one evening and got some passable first time shots (I'm try include here tomorrow as their on my other phone). The only drone lights I'd on were the landing light and the regular front back lights which are always on. I wanted to do a circle over my brothers house, countryside very dark - but I couldn't do the POI maneuver as it wouldn't lock on due to it being too dark. Is this one of the reasons that people use lume cubes etc for as my manual circle flying wasn't too smooth
Thanks Ro
 

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For drone light painting I use my older Phantom 3 standard and attach Polar Pro light bars. Lumecube used to make mounts for P3 Standard but hasn't for awhile and I haven't been able to find any, otherwise I would probably go with them. Many people who do light painting use Lumecubes because they are bright and you can change the colours with different gels. There are some cheaper knock-offs that you can look into as well. Ulanzi is a popular one.

I use mostly Dronelink and other 3rd party software to do light painting. Litchi would probably work too. Unfortunately your Air 2s is not yet compatible with Dronelink or Litchi. Illuminating your POI with a Lumecube or something similar may work with your Air 2s - you will have to experiment. Once DJI releases the SDK for the Air 2s software like Dronelink will work with your drone and you will have more options.

Dronelink has an easy to use OTF (On The Fly) feature where you select a few settings from prompts then the drone flies the mission - that's how I got it to fly the spirals in my previous post and the orbit of the moon below.

Chris

Moon.jpg
 
Heya thanks for this detailed information. Really appreciate you taking the time. Your shots look great. I'll try with my nikon 3100 this week. Before I'd read your post I did try one evening and got some passable first time shots (I'm try include here tomorrow as their on my other phone). The only drone lights I'd on were the landing light and the regular front back lights which are always on. I wanted to do a circle over my brothers house, countryside very dark - but I couldn't do the POI maneuver as it wouldn't lock on due to it being too dark. Is this one of the reasons that people use lume cubes etc for as my manual circle flying wasn't too smooth
Thanks Ro
Not bad for your first try. Keep experimenting. To get smooth circles you will need some form of automated flight or lots of practice. Good luck.

Chris
 
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