DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Issues with the images i'm getting from my 2 Pro

ArchiumPhotography

New Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2020
Messages
3
Reactions
2
Age
29
Location
Rhode Island
Howdy folks, new to the forums. Been lurking for a month as I try to figure this damned thing out.

So - I am a photographer, not really interested in video. I have shot on DLSR's for 5+ years now, and can comfortably expose my images, and shooting literally nothing but RAW, that goes for my drone as well.

The problem I am having, is that the images I get from my drone, on the SD card, tend to look extremely squished and grainy in the windows photo previewer, and also show more of the image than what I end up seeing in photoshop/Camera Raw. (see first attached photo)

Once in photoshop the focusing on the image seems soft, and ocassionally edits made to the image become muddy. When zooming in to the images in photoshop/CR, they start to fall apart, whereas my DSLR images, I can zoom in 100% and have no issues.

First image is the raw in preview on my PC, second image is an untouched jpg, converted a raw file. Final image is an edited image.

Finally, are my images just out focus or do I have a lemon? Any help is appreciated. Please comment if you need me to clarify anything, I would much rather rectify this with the help of you friendly folks, than sending it off to DJI
 

Attachments

  • Capture2.JPG
    Capture2.JPG
    174.7 KB · Views: 50
  • DJI_0093.jpg
    DJI_0093.jpg
    2.3 MB · Views: 54
  • PaulletteMatunuck1JPG.jpg
    PaulletteMatunuck1JPG.jpg
    3.6 MB · Views: 50
  • Like
Reactions: SmilingOgre
Welcome to the forums!

Also, my comments come from primarily a photographers viewpoint

First off, you don't say what DSLR you have (size of sensor), nor what kind of lenses you are accustom to (kit zooms, or premier prime lenses, etc.). But right off the bat, for most people, these drone shots just will not compare to your DSLR shots, period. They will break down in processing before your DSLR shots because, in all ways, they're inferior. It's likely a smaller sensor (than even the crop DSLR sensors) and the optics? Forget it.

That said:
  • I make no judgments based off the DNG preview, whether it's in DJI GO, or looking at it in Windows. The preview is always garbage. It's useful for general things, like composition. Also (and this is true with DSLRs to some degree), the previews are based off the JPG engine in the camera, which isn't a good gauge for how the DNG will resolve. (Personally, I stopped writing DNG + JPGs because I feel that the JPGs are useless, not as much garbage as the previews, but would still never be of any use to me.)
  • Softness: this is tougher for us to advise you. They WILL be softer because of the inferior optics (lower than a kit zoom lens on your DSLR), but I have had some acceptably sharp final products. You might want to not pixel peep too closely, at least not before applying post-process sharpening.
  • But you could have some softness above normal. Some people have reported softness to one side, which indicates a poorly mounted lens or even sensor. It might be tough for us to tell without a full sized sample
I've got some pretty sharp images at slow shutter speeds (thanks to the gimbal) and high ISO, in BURST mode with mean stacking in photoshop. But then, I'm not expecting DSLR quality. In fact, I'm about to put a bunch up on a photo hosting site for print sales and am considering limited the size they can order drone prints at (but not limit the DSLR shots).

Chris
 
  • Like
Reactions: SmilingOgre
Welcome to the forums!

Also, my comments come from primarily a photographers viewpoint

First off, you don't say what DSLR you have (size of sensor), nor what kind of lenses you are accustom to (kit zooms, or premier prime lenses, etc.). But right off the bat, for most people, these drone shots just will not compare to your DSLR shots, period. They will break down in processing before your DSLR shots because, in all ways, they're inferior. It's likely a smaller sensor (than even the crop DSLR sensors) and the optics? Forget it.

That said:
  • I make no judgments based off the DNG preview, whether it's in DJI GO, or looking at it in Windows. The preview is always garbage. It's useful for general things, like composition. Also (and this is true with DSLRs to some degree), the previews are based off the JPG engine in the camera, which isn't a good gauge for how the DNG will resolve. (Personally, I stopped writing DNG + JPGs because I feel that the JPGs are useless, not as much garbage as the previews, but would still never be of any use to me.)
  • Softness: this is tougher for us to advise you. They WILL be softer because of the inferior optics (lower than a kit zoom lens on your DSLR), but I have had some acceptably sharp final products. You might want to not pixel peep too closely, at least not before applying post-process sharpening.
  • But you could have some softness above normal. Some people have reported softness to one side, which indicates a poorly mounted lens or even sensor. It might be tough for us to tell without a full sized sample
I've got some pretty sharp images at slow shutter speeds (thanks to the gimbal) and high ISO, in BURST mode with mean stacking in photoshop. But then, I'm not expecting DSLR quality. In fact, I'm about to put a bunch up on a photo hosting site for print sales and am considering limited the size they can order drone prints at (but not limit the DSLR shots).

Chris

Thank you for the quick response. I managed to miss out on quite a few details in my haste.

I shoot with a Nikon d7200, which PS tells me is 24MP. Glass I have ranges from kit stuff to pro lenses.

And yes I think I might be expecting too much, but either the images are poorly focused (my problem) or I got one of the versions you mentioned with the poor mount. The final image I posted, as well as the second should both be full sized. If not, I can always resize and resend.

Thanks again!

-Antonio
 
  • Like
Reactions: SmilingOgre
You bet.

I forgot to mention, the wide-angle aspect of this lens means that the DOF is not shallow, so it's easier to keep stuff focused. But I believe (some may disagree) that the AF-C system is faulty. If you're in that mode, learn it better or turn it off -- it has been the cause of a lot of focus frustration for some folk.

Chris
 
  • Like
Reactions: sonof40
The problem I am having, is that the images I get from my drone, on the SD card, tend to look extremely squished and grainy in the windows photo previewer, and also show more of the image than what I end up seeing in photoshop/Camera Raw. (see first attached photo)
First up .. WindowsPhoto cannot read your dng images.
What's it's showing you is a small embedded jpg preview image ... that's why it looks grainy.
Once in photoshop the focusing on the image seems soft, and ocassionally edits made to the image become muddy. When zooming in to the images in photoshop/CR, they start to fall apart, whereas my DSLR images, I can zoom in 100% and have no issues.
second image is an untouched jpg, converted a raw file
Final image is an edited image.
Finally, are my images just out focus or do I have a lemon? Any help is appreciated. Please comment if you need me to clarify anything, I would much rather rectify this with the help of you friendly folks, than sending it off to DJI
I don't see enough to tell that there's a problem from those images.
Your second image looks OK when I tweak it a little but it's not a good image to judge the camera's performance since there's little hard detail and it's all distant so it's not possible to tell if the focus was juts a little off or not.
Your third image looks like it's probably good but a little overexposed and the highlights in the wave crest and white water are blown out.
The issue might just be that your editing wasn't as good as it could have been.
Where there is hard detail, I think it looks sharp.
The subject isn't ideal for critical comparison, but I think the image is probably OK.

To get an idea of how good/bad the camera really is, try shooting something with hard detail not too far from the camera.
Something like a house wall is ideal.

Here are my tweaks of those images
 
  • Like
Reactions: SmilingOgre
DJI in the meta data for the lens, has a crop factor, which LR ACR read and apply. They also apply the lens distortion info, as if you look up or down with the camera, you will get a curved horizon, which is not shown in LR/ACR as they are reading the info supplied by DJI.

If you want to see just how much of the image (and it's significant), is being cropped, down load Capture One, and browse your files, go to the crop tool and you will see a border around the image. This shows how much of the file is cropped if you allow C1 to read the meta (it's show as Manufacturers Profile). You can use the crop tool to expand this and pull in the entire image, however odds are the edges will suffer in sharpness. LR/ACR will not allow you to recover this part of the image which is cropped and I feel LR/ACR pulls more noise out of the files (just my opinion).

Net, the raws, need a lot of work to get a nice image (at least for me) but with Capture One, I feel I can usually get a good final image.
You need to stay at F4 or smaller, as larger aperture will show diffraction softness
Bracket your shots ( I shoot everything in 5 shots), as the DJI algorithms on this sensor are not really great for stills, you can't pull up shadows much and highlights are easily blown.
Stay at ISO 100, even 200 has more noise and noise will allow for more loss of details.
Note, Capture One will apply it's default noise reduction, which is way too much for the files and you will need to adjust the sliders down.

It could be a lot better, but it's the only 20MP sensor that flies for a reasonable price besides the P4 Pro, (and that drone has plenty of issues).

I use AF one time to hit on a distant subject, and then switch to MF, which locks in focus. As you can't zoom to 100% to check focus IMO trying to dial in sharp focus manually is a total waste of time. You can zoom in but the image doesn't stay sharp enough to really focus. I never use AFC, as it's possible for the drone to attempt to focus on sky or a dark area and it will odds are miss focus.

Use the histogram also, as on a Mac device screen, even with max brightness you can be fooled by what your captured exposure is, and a quick look at the histogram will tell you all you need to know. With the SC, I have less need for this as the screen handles bright daylight much better than a iPad or iPhone (again IMO).

Paul C
 
  • Like
Reactions: SmilingOgre
If the lens is within spec then the MP2 DNG files will yield excellent results for photographers who use professional software workflows and shooting techniques. If the aforementioned is employed, then not only are native resolution images plenty for medium prints, two page spreads but they can often be up-rezzed for larger than native sizes.

I just got done doing a bunch of aerials for several articles on water scarcity and other agricultural images, all selects can be printed to 20x30 easily. Basically I never shoot above ISO 200 and never use an aperture smaller than F4.5. I also run the DNG files through DXO Optics Pro to clean up less than stellar corner sharpness before processing in LR or PS.

It's an excellent platform for those who know what the limitations are and how to exploit the strengths.
 
Most - if not all - of the posted comments contains nothing but true. However, despite the marketing hype, Mavic 2 Pro camera is anything but professional. No matter how resolute, sensor of this size can not and will not deliver image quality able to compete with your DSLR. Hasselblad did a magic, squeezing so much from a fingernail size sensor, but noise wise the picture fails terribly in shadows. Add a mediocre optics and you'll get nice looking, but not really when zoomed in, image. Add pre-baked, notorious over saturation and ladies will wow your creation when seen on a smartphone. Therefore an attempt to print 30" poster with a single M2P image may please only less demanding eyes.

That said, I had a great success with panoramic stitches of 100 - 150 MP size. With a generous dose of noise reduction applied in post, the cropped 3x3 stitch looks detailed enough for 60" print at 300 dpi.
 
I’m not sure what your background is but I have been a successful full time commercial, editorial and fine art photographer for well over 30 years, 26 of those years in digital.

So when I said that pre-processing MP2 DNG files allow me to post process and enlarge up to 30” from a single image for clients, that is not a weekend warrior opinion but one of direct practical experience with the full toolset. Sure, it is not going to equal files from my Z6, Z7, Leica M10-P, Hasselblad CVF-II or my large format film but it does present very well for the size and when printing an image with high impact and compositional mastery, it carries it self to the finish line with ease.

Maybe consider a different point of focus and certainly a more progressive workflow to overcome some of the gotchas you seem to be seeing?

Most - if not all - of the posted comments contains nothing but true. However, despite the marketing hype, Mavic 2 Pro camera is anything but professional. No matter how resolute, sensor of this size can not and will not deliver image quality able to compete with your DSLR. Hasselblad did a magic, squeezing so much from a fingernail size sensor, but noise wise the picture fails terribly in shadows. Add a mediocre optics and you'll get nice looking, but not really when zoomed in, image. Add pre-baked, notorious over saturation and ladies will wow your creation when seen on a smartphone. Therefore an attempt to print 30" poster with a single M2P image may please only less demanding eyes.

That said, I had a great success with panoramic stitches of 100 - 150 MP size. With a generous dose of noise reduction applied in post, the cropped 3x3 stitch looks detailed enough for 60" print at 300 dpi.
 
I’m not sure what your background is but I have been a successful full time commercial, editorial and fine art photographer for well over 30 years, 26 of those years in digital.

So when I said that pre-processing MP2 DNG files allow me to post process and enlarge up to 30” from a single image for clients, that is not a weekend warrior opinion but one of direct practical experience with the full toolset. Sure, it is not going to equal files from my Z6, Z7, Leica M10-P, Hasselblad CVF-II or my large format film but it does present very well for the size and when printing an image with high impact and compositional mastery, it carries it self to the finish line with ease.

Maybe consider a different point of focus and certainly a more progressive workflow to overcome some of the gotchas you seem to be seeing?
Virtually every aspect of fine photography is subjective. Every piece of art is a subject for criticism, for acceptance or not. I'm far from questioning your professional skills or taste. To me a single M2P DNG shot is not delivering what I'm expecting to see on a 30" wide print. Others may consider the same print as a masterpiece. Simple like that ...
 
are my images just out focus or do I have a lemon?

First image - no comment as the resolution is too low for anything to be seen. The black level is a bit high but that can be adjusted in editing.

Second image - Cannot see any focusing issue but just the tilted horizon. Adjusting the gimbal will solve the problem.

Third image - noise is definitely on the high side. It's noisier than the DNG produced by my M2P. Seems to be the result of sharpening in editing.

I see no evidence of your copy being a lemon.

Finally, it's just a 1-inch sensor. The Hasselbald logo wont make much difference. Comparing it with DSLR is a waste of time IMHO. The camera does not impress pixel peeping addicts like me in the past but it is well capable of producing stunning pictures.
 

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,599
Messages
1,554,262
Members
159,605
Latest member
petravka