Exposure stepping

[Phoenix Drone]

I turn off AE, use Shutter priority, and make minor wheel adjustments to maintain an acceptable exposure using the histogram (and keeping it as close as possible to the 180 rule).

Even minor adjustments cause a jump in exposure which is hard to fix in post.

When flying, are you leaving the exposure alone and fixing it in post?

 

[The Editor]

I turn off AE, use Shutter priority, and make minor wheel adjustments to maintain an acceptable exposure using the histogram (and keeping it as close as possible to the 180 rule).

Even minor adjustments cause a jump in exposure which is hard to fix in post.

When flying, are you leaving the exposure alone and fixing it in post?

So are you saying you are altering the exposure whilst flying and recording?
If so, you may as well just use auto exposure!

 

[zocalo]

When flying, are you leaving the exposure alone and fixing it in post?

Generally, I try and avoid panning the drone around when I know it's going to have a massive effect on the exposure settings. Take stock of the lighting angles and conditions before you take off and have a workable plan of how you're going to shoot that takes that into account, and if that means chucking the 180 rule out of the window then so be it.

In a pinch, you can turn slowly so you can compensate (or use auto exposure), or do the pan then reset the exposure before continuing knowing full well that you are going to need to either cut the pan in post or do some post-processing to sort it out, but another option might be to just wait a bit. Getting even a small amount of cloud in front of the sun can make a huge difference to the overall DR of the landscape, and it's much easier to pump up clarity and saturation in post than it is do deal with huge swings of exposure.