How to take a still pic of waterfall

[Carb63]

On a sunny day, just film traffic going by and analyze the picture after. You'll get a feel for how much blur. Look at the metadata and note the exposure time the camera used.

You probably should put camera in Shutter Priority mode ("S") and practice using that and the filters on a sunny day. As meta said above, you need a slow shutter speed, under 1/60 for sure ( the shutter speed is responsible for the blur). On a sunny day, it'll be over-exposed though. Just choose a strong enough filter that allows keeps the image from being overexposed.
There is a "zebra stripe" feature that you can enable that shows "blown out" over-exposed parts of the image. You might consider turning that on. It's in the DJI GO 4 settings, can't remember the name of the option at the moment.

Thank you for your advice will do that the next time .

 

[ZX14-R]

Its called Photoshop!!! Or similar, Gimp....

 

[RickinWaST]

Cloudy days are you best choice. This comes from years of experience using my mirror less camera.

 

[gnirtS]

Cloudy days are you best choice. This comes from years of experience using my mirror less camera.

With or without a mirror. The reflections, hard light and dynamic range are just too much for a camera to cope with. A tiny little sensor like a mavic has no chance.

 

[Bernard]

There are some miniwaterfall pictures in this video from # 1':50, taken with a Lumix G80 on a sunny day (shutter speed 1/15). I didn't try yet with my M2Z...

 

[Citizen Flier]

Bright sunlight? So few seem to grasp that (with exceptions) the best times to shoot are dusk n dawn. There’s a reason they call it the “golden hour”.

 

[BigAl07]

Just asking a non-Pro question here.... if it's a stable enough platform can you not shoot multiples and just stack them? Shoot in AEB-3 or AEB-5 and then combine them?

 

[mwe]

You can get 7 frames max from the series function. If you use stacking, this is the option which will bring you on the side of good picture quality. However, for the look of those „filled up“ traces of waterfalls or waves at the beach, you often need more exposure time (=more time between pictures so as much moving of water as possible is captured). In this cases, a short sequence of video is the way to go as I mentioned. This reduces resolution to 4k, which is still sufficient for most publications of the final picture, including prints.

Edit: The stacking algorithm in Photoshop CC may recognize more than one 7-picture-burst as stackable, even when the drone driftet a little and the frame changed. I didn ´t try this yet but will when I am back home from my iPad-only holidays.

 

[johnmeyer]

If you decide to take video, have a look at this waterfall video that someone posted a week ago. It features some of the most amazing drone piloting I have ever seen:

 

[Sky King57]

Shot with a ND 256 4"s on auto ISO 100 full sunlight

 

[Carb63]

Shot with a ND 256 4"s on auto ISO 100 full sunlight
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Wow. Truly beautiful. What type of bird ?

 

[Sky King57]

Wow. Truly beautiful. What type of bird ?

Mavic Pro Platinum

 

[Carb63]

Wow. I am going to try tjose
Setting with my MP. I know it can’t be duplicated , lighting and time of day all has to be in line. But I’m gonna use the setting you shared and tinker with. It. Thanks brotha !!

 

[Thomas B]

If you decide to take video, have a look at this waterfall video that someone posted a week ago. It features some of the most amazing drone piloting I have ever seen:

Excellent flying. Cool vid.

 

[Thomas B]

Shot with a ND 256 4"s on auto ISO 100 full sunlight
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Love your photos!

 

[Bill combs]

View attachment 81102


This is 0.6 seconds at f/2.8 with a 16 ND filter, at dawn.

beautiful

 

[Carb63]

Shot with a ND 256 4"s on auto ISO 100 full sunlight
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Where did you purchase your filters and which company did you decide to go with?

 

[WithTheBirds]

As has been suggested you can arrive at the exposure time needed to create the motion blur in the water with ND filters.

Another effective method is to take multiple frames and then stack, align and blend in processing. The end result is, in most instances indistinguishable from that attained with a single linger exposure.

 

[Carb63]

As has been suggested you can arrive at the exposure time needed to create the motion blur in the water with ND filters.

Another effective method is to take multiple frames and then stack, align and blend in processing. The end result is, in most instances indistinguishable from that attained with a single linger exposure.

View attachment 81204View attachment 81205

Amazing work!!

 

[RickinWaST]

"Another effective method is to take multiple frames and then stack..."

Correct and it take a bit of knowledge to achieve the nice final image like yours! Well done and I would have first guessed it was from a still camera.