Hi, I'm still struggling and frustrated with camera settings mainly over exposure.....appreciate any help / hints. Have tried many different settings combinations including filters to no avail
Hi...still struggling in getteing camera exposure correct ( over exposure mainly) will welcome any help
- Thread starter Azzopat
- Start date
Which drone?
Stills or video?
Is it the whole image that is overexposed or just sky?
What mode are you shooting in?
The two most common problems for people who have little experience in photography are;
1. the exposure compensation is set to a positive value. It won’t matter what setting you alter in AV, TV or auto mode the camera will add the exposure compensation value to what it thinks the correct exposure should be.
2. You are trying to use some arbitrary settings in manual mode without considering the resultant EV and or/selecting the correct ND filter value.
Stills or video?
Is it the whole image that is overexposed or just sky?
What mode are you shooting in?
The two most common problems for people who have little experience in photography are;
1. the exposure compensation is set to a positive value. It won’t matter what setting you alter in AV, TV or auto mode the camera will add the exposure compensation value to what it thinks the correct exposure should be.
2. You are trying to use some arbitrary settings in manual mode without considering the resultant EV and or/selecting the correct ND filter value.
WTB post above is good advice.
Look for the line of camera data near the top of your screen. It looks like this:
The number under EV is what's important.
Yours is probably set to something more than zero.
You need to dial that back to zero.
brett8883
Well-Known Member
For me an invaluable tool for exposure is to use the histogram which can be enabled in the camera settings under the menu that looks like a gear.
The histogram shows you the amount of light from black to white in your frame. The great thing about a histogram is it is an objective measure of your exposure and is independent of your screen brightness.
If you can’t see the end of your histogram to the right that means that there are parts of your image that are over exposed.
If you are doing video another tool is the spot metering mode which can be enabled by setting focus manually and then clicking on the green square in the upper right turning it into a yellow circle type thing. Do a practice run and find the brightest part of the scene and click on that part to set the spot to be metered. The camera will automatically set the brightness to that part of the screen and so even if your scene doesn’t start there when you do eventually get to that spot the camera will adjust exposure for that spot. If you prefer to set exposure manually then manually adjust exposure for that part of the scene as well.
It is hard especially when you have a dynamic scene so it’s all in the prep. I always have to tell myself to go for shooting quality not quantity and that always involves more prep.
The histogram shows you the amount of light from black to white in your frame. The great thing about a histogram is it is an objective measure of your exposure and is independent of your screen brightness.
If you can’t see the end of your histogram to the right that means that there are parts of your image that are over exposed.
If you are doing video another tool is the spot metering mode which can be enabled by setting focus manually and then clicking on the green square in the upper right turning it into a yellow circle type thing. Do a practice run and find the brightest part of the scene and click on that part to set the spot to be metered. The camera will automatically set the brightness to that part of the screen and so even if your scene doesn’t start there when you do eventually get to that spot the camera will adjust exposure for that spot. If you prefer to set exposure manually then manually adjust exposure for that part of the scene as well.
It is hard especially when you have a dynamic scene so it’s all in the prep. I always have to tell myself to go for shooting quality not quantity and that always involves more prep.
Marvic Pro. Both still and video. Whole picture's over expised not just the sky.
So are these the ideal settings ?WTB post above is good advice.
Look for the line of camera data near the top of your screen. It looks like this:
The number under EV is what's important.
Yours is probably set to something more than zero.
You need to dial that back to zero.
There's no "ideal setting" because people shoot different things in different conditions.
The ideal setting is what's ideal for what you are shooting, when you shoot it.
But if you are getting consistent overexposure, the answer is almost certainly what I explained in post #3.
Check that first.
You could turn on your 'zebra stripes', that would give you an indication of over exposure, then just dial it back with the thumbwheel?
You might find your ideal settings will be auto with exposure compensation set to 0.
JAW
Did I Just Back Into That Tree?
An ND filter isn't the solution to the OP's problem
If you are shooting Video, I would recommend just using the auto exposure settings,. attempting manual in mixed lighting will require a change to either shutter speed or aperture and will be more noticeable in post. Trying to fly in mixed light is difficult as you will need to change the shooting settings depending on the light. In midday light, I will go back to manual for flight video, but in sunrise, sunset shots, where I know I will be dealing with huge extremes of light, especially if panning, Auto is my setting for Video.
For stills, no way will the Mavic give you a huge single amount of DR in a single frame, raw or jpg. I prefer raw, as I have a lot I can to to the files in post, that the Drone can't do in it's jpg processing. However you might consider the lowest ISO range of 100, a aperture range of F 4 to F 5.6. Setup bracketing, 5 shots, as you can only get a .7 step, thus a 5 shot bracket will give you -1.34 to +1.34, not much but most times enough.
You may have to do some work in post, exposure blending, etc. Or use the HDR feature of the drone, which will give you a blended jpg output. If you use the HDR feature, then bracketing will not be allowed.
Bracketing either jpg or raw, will require work in Photoshop, LR or other image tool.
Paul C
For stills, no way will the Mavic give you a huge single amount of DR in a single frame, raw or jpg. I prefer raw, as I have a lot I can to to the files in post, that the Drone can't do in it's jpg processing. However you might consider the lowest ISO range of 100, a aperture range of F 4 to F 5.6. Setup bracketing, 5 shots, as you can only get a .7 step, thus a 5 shot bracket will give you -1.34 to +1.34, not much but most times enough.
You may have to do some work in post, exposure blending, etc. Or use the HDR feature of the drone, which will give you a blended jpg output. If you use the HDR feature, then bracketing will not be allowed.
Bracketing either jpg or raw, will require work in Photoshop, LR or other image tool.
Paul C
JAW
Did I Just Back Into That Tree?
In my case I constantly was dealing with the over exposure "zebra" stripes. The ND filters helped tremendously.
If you've got overexposure problems, the solution is to adjust the exposure properly.
Slap a dark filter on and the metering just adjusts to compensate for the filter and you still have an overexposure problem.
Stills do not use a filter. That isnt the issue.
You also dont say if youre using auto mode, manual, aperture or shutter priority etc so its hard to offer advice.
You also dont say if youre using auto mode, manual, aperture or shutter priority etc so its hard to offer advice.
brett8883
Well-Known Member
One last thing is to check your camera style settings. I prefer D-Cinelike and my style settings set to sharpness:0 contrast: -1, saturation:+1.
I think if you have your contrast set to anything above 0 you’ll experience the problems you describe and is an easy mistake for a beginner to make.
If the whole image is over exposed then either its manual exposure with the wrong settings or someone has hit the dial and set the EV bias to a positive number.
An image complete with EXIF data will show us which.
An image complete with EXIF data will show us which.
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