How is everyone getting still shots from the Mavic?

[hookalakupua]

DNG shooting all the way. For one, you can shoot in portrait, taking a still from a video will limit you to landscape photos. In post a RAW file can be pushed far more than a video can. There's a lot of detail in the RAW files that gets crushed out when shooting in video.

One large problem with taking screen grabs from video is that the frame you want may not be a true image frame, but an interpolated frame. The Mavic shoots video at a max of 60mb/s, which if you say that every 8 video frames is a true image gives you around 2-2.5MB per frame image, with the rest of the information being in the interpolation. By contrast 4:3 a RAW file is ~15MB on its own. So just from this alone you can see how much information is being lost by the video to fit within the 60mb/s limit.

You can quite easily push the highlights/shadows by a stop or two and the dynamic range is quite nice (as you can see in the second image which was shot facing nearly into the sun at sunrise). You can see the shadows from the trees, as well as the colour in the sky and cloud details. The haze in the second image is caused by mist and salt spray that was present that morning.

Here's a few of the shots after white balance and exposure pass:

You can view more here: (@rorogophoto) • Instagram photos and videos

That first one is stunning!

 

[hookalakupua]

Cameras rarely capture what the human eye sees due to the difference in the dynamic range they eye can capture. Some manipulation to get the picture to look like what you see may be needed. My sunset below I could not capture with a single shot or without some manipulation of the final product.

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Are you kidding me?! That's incredible! If I got that out of my Canon 7D I'd be thrilled.

 

[Goodpeopledrone]

I stop video. Hover drone and shoot RAW. Edit in Lightroom. Here is one from last night.

I'm a pro photographer who uses high end kit for commercial work. Are the mavic files ever going to be that level? Nope. Can I fly my dslr up there? Nope.

 

[collins]

I havent taken a lot of stills but I am pretty impressed by the quality of image you can get from the sensor

 

[Justrbloke]

I've been fairly impressed with the Mavic camera. I hear lots said about how it's not that great. But it is pretty good. I usually take several shots of a scene I really want, changing settings between each. At least one of them is usually ok. Considering the range of shadow and light in some of these, with no significant post work, I'm happy with it.

 

[juny21]

I havent taken a lot of stills but I am pretty impressed by the quality of image you can get from the sensor
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Very nice shots what color profile do you use when taking pictures? I always film with a d-log but was curious the profile you used for these shots.

 

[KiterTodd]

The pixel count is a bit higher when using the photo mode. You get the full 4000 horizontal pixel dimension, vs 3840 when shooting 4k. Plus, if you are shooting raw, you get a lot more dynamic range out of your still/video frame.

That said, if you are just doing web posts or instagram stuff the difference between a 4k frame capture and a dedicated still (.jpg) is negligible.

Wait... is there a way to capture stills (even at lower quality) while you are filming video?

2nd, is there a way, even after the fact, to pull frame grabs out of your videos using the App? (not phone screen captures, but full resolution frames) I do this all the time with my GoPro, but did not know if it was an option with the Mavic. If so, I may go back to shooting video.


So, to the original poster, I find I'm now using the Mavic more for stills than for video. It is way less effort (thus more likely for me to do it) to process a still image to share, than to deal with video. There are times for each, obviously.

 

[collins]

Very nice shots what color profile do you use when taking pictures? I always film with a d-log but was curious the profile you used for these shots.

Theoretically the color profile you choose shouldnt effect 'raw' because it is supposed to be the 'raw' data. (I say theoretically because DJI sometimes does some odd things with their files.) It is definitely worth shooting - each raw file has 23mb of data at least 5 times that of a jpeg and over 50 times what you get from a still grabbed off your video feed.

The other thing I do is set the shutter to 'AEB' which takes the same shot at different exposures. I dont really do this so that I can HDR - I do it because I can then be pretty sure that I have nailed the exposure in at least one of the shots.

 

[collins]

I have an observation BUT I think it is an IMPORTANT one.

First take a look at the photos in this link - there are 23 - from National Geographics Drone Photos of the year....

The Best Drone Photos of the Year

Did you notice anything (apart from the fact that they are very nice photos)?

I noticed this. Of the 23 photos I think that all except two were pointing directly down.

Now take a look at the photos posted on this thread. I think around 80% of them are taken in a 'photographers landscape way'. By that I mean sort of 1/3 sky, 2/3 land, horizon between the two. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with that although I feel it does end up looking a 'bit ordinary'.

And dont get me wrong. A lot of us are photographers. We stand on the ground and 'see' a beautiful landscape before us, we think how great it will look if we send the drone up 50m. So we do and we get the shot.

But realistically the 'real beauty' of a drone camera is that we can take photos from an entirely different perspective - we can take shots of what 'we cannot see'. So I think it is no coincidence that most of the NG drone shots were taken pointing directly down. And I think 'we photographers' need to train ourselves, to see and think different when we shoot with drones.

 

[KONY]

Collins that's a great observation and absolutely true

i just came back from a fantastic trip in southern China (Guilin) and took extensive beautiful pictures of nature with my drone : hundreds of them...i came back home and realised maybe less than 10 of the drone pictures were pointing down.

And all those pointing down are sooooo unique...then i realized that the reason i didn't take more of those is not that the scenery would not be appropriate for that : it's just that, on me moment, i was never really thinking of shooting (photo or video) directly down.

Your post just reminds me that i should take that new habit of shooting straight down more often.

Here are the very few i took looking down

 

[collins]

Collins that's a great observation and absolutely true

i just came back from a fantastic trip in southern China (Guilin) and took extensive beautiful pictures of nature with my drone : hundreds of them...i came back home and realised maybe less than 10 of the drone pictures were pointing down.

And all those pointing down are sooooo unique...then i realized that the reason i didn't take more of those is not that the scenery would not be appropriate for that : it's just that, on me moment, i was never really thinking of shooting (photo or video) directly down.

Your post just reminds me that i should take that new habit of shooting straight down more often.

Here are the very few i took looking down

Nice shots. I am going to Guilen, Shangri-La and Dali this December.

Yes, once you think about it, it is really pretty obvious but I dont think I have ever met someone who when he first picks up a drone doesnt turn around and take a pretty landscape (with land/horizon/sky) as his first photo.

And here's a problem. I want to take panoramas of photo essentially pointing down (preferably in an automated manner).

However, if I look at the Pano modes in the DJI Go 4 and Litchi apps they all assume that I want to take a pano based on the 'horizon'.

I am sure there must be downward looking pano programs (simply to survey land) but I havent found one that works well yet.

 

[Robert Mitchell]

I have an observation BUT I think it is an IMPORTANT one.

First take a look at the photos in this link - there are 23 - from National Geographics Drone Photos of the year....

The Best Drone Photos of the Year

Did you notice anything (apart from the fact that they are very nice photos)?

I noticed this. Of the 23 photos I think that all except two were pointing directly down.

Now take a look at the photos posted on this thread. I think around 80% of them are taken in a 'photographers landscape way'. By that I mean sort of 1/3 sky, 2/3 land, horizon between the two. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with that although I feel it does end up looking a 'bit ordinary'.

And dont get me wrong. A lot of us are photographers. We stand on the ground and 'see' a beautiful landscape before us, we think how great it will look if we send the drone up 50m. So we do and we get the shot.

But realistically the 'real beauty' of a drone camera is that we can take photos from an entirely different perspective - we can take shots of what 'we cannot see'. So I think it is no coincidence that most of the NG drone shots were taken pointing directly down. And I think 'we photographers' need to train ourselves, to see and think different when we shoot with drones.

You are spot on, and your understanding of this will serve you well.

Doing traditional landscapes with a drone provide little advantage over a bridge or hilltop shot, other than the convenience of not having to find a bridge or hilltop.

Now, video is a completely different animal, as a flying camera provides dramatic foreground/background relationships while it moves, regardless of the camera angle.

 

[Mossiback]

I use a Galaxy Tab A as a monitor/controller and was only seeing low-resolution stills. The video was great but the stills were garbage. After triple-checking camera settings and banging a soft spot on my forehead, the idea that perhaps the program I was using to view the stills was the problem.

It turns out that the My Files app I was using to directly access the card only displays stills at a low resolution. When I switched to the Photos app the stills displayed properly.

Both apps came pre-installed on my Tab A.