Mavic 2 Pro Color Problem

[Mpb4mavic]

Hello, I am having a color issue with JPEG's taken using my Mavic 2 Pro with smart controller. There exist no profiles when shooting stills, just, "None." I understand this camera system uses a special Hasselblad profile, but perhaps it is not being read or translated by the controller? Pictures come right off the card with colors looking very off and unnatural - too cyan, green or yellow. Please see the attached images directly from the card with only resizing to 1920p for posting.

I am having a great deal of difficulty manually correcting these colors. I recently updated the smart controller, but no change. Colors are far from accurate. I'm using PS and ACDsee Ultimate primarily for color adjustment when needed. Is there a correction or conversion profile in Lightroom for this camera, or some other profile from DJI/ Hasselblad I can download and install to fix this? Would it be a good idea to get a standard controller with a smartphone and use that instead, in hopes the proper updates to the software would be installed?

Oddly enough, when shooting video in H264 with the normal setting, I don't really have this problem. Input from the community would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

 

[SethB]

Hello, I am having a color issue with JPEG's taken using my Mavic 2 Pro with smart controller. There exist no profiles when shooting stills, just, "None." I understand this camera system uses a special Hasselblad profile, but perhaps it is not being read or translated by the controller? Pictures come right off the card with colors looking very off and unnatural - too cyan, green or yellow. Please see the attached images directly from the card with only resizing to 1920p for posting.

I am having a great deal of difficulty manually correcting these colors. I recently updated the smart controller, but no change. Colors are far from accurate. I'm using PS and ACDsee Ultimate primarily for color adjustment when needed. Is there a correction or conversion profile in Lightroom for this camera, or some other profile from DJI/ Hasselblad I can download and install to fix this? Would it be a good idea to get a standard controller with a smartphone and use that instead, in hopes the proper updates to the software would be installed?

Oddly enough, when shooting video in H264 with the normal setting, I don't really have this problem. Input from the community would be greatly appreciated. Thank you View attachment 165361View attachment 165362

If I recall, there are separate White Balance controls for video and stills in DJI Go 4 on the Mavic 2 Pro. I don’t have one in front of me but I’ve used one with Smart Controller quite a bit.
- If the *stills* WB is on Auto, try Manual 5500 for jpg.
- If it’s on Manual, try Auto for jpg.
- Since you have Photoshop, it would be well worth trying a Raw/DNG test at 5500 and see how it looks in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) on Photoshop, and if it has the color adjustability in ACR that you expect.

This should have *nothing* to do with using the Smart Controller vs. tablet or phone. The same controls will be present.

Except that the Smart Controller has separate still trigger and video trigger buttons, and many people don’t use the on-screen trigger. It’s the on-screen trigger that has to be set to Stills to access the correct White Balance by selecting the sliders icon on-screen.

 

[Mpb4mavic]

Thank you for your response! Is 5500k a sweet spot or magic color temp setting for this system? I've tried adjusting WB manually (its on Auto lately) but the results are still not right, as colors shift too far usually. I will, however, try your suggestion. On a couple of shoots recently, sliding a little to blue, and then hitting 'auto levels' made a big difference, but not with this shoot (posted pics)..

 

[waynorth]

What if you shoot in RAW, and open the files in a RAW-converter like Lightroom, Camera Raw or others? Does the images still have this colour shift? Or is it only in JPG?

 

[DougMcC]

Shoot in raw and expose by the histogram. That should move all color issues into post processing. LightRoom can deal with the rest. As stated waynorth.

 

[SethB]

Thank you for your response! Is 5500k a sweet spot or magic color temp setting for this system? I've tried adjusting WB manually (its on Auto lately) but the results are still not right, as colors shift too far usually. I will, however, try your suggestion. On a couple of shoots recently, sliding a little to blue, and then hitting 'auto levels' made a big difference, but not with this shoot (posted pics)..

White balance adjustments for faithfulness to the scene are based on the color temperature of the light source. With most drone photo/video being illuminated by the sun, the color temp doesn’t change much. Yes, it does change a little. Even on overcast days, though technically there is a big numerical difference in the light’s color temp, the change on images is little.

With that background, somewhere around 5500, 5600, 5700 is a default value for the color temp of the sun.

Auto White Balance aka AWB is usually the first thing to turn off, because it attempts to determine color temp from the shot, which might be mostly green, blue, or brown/red, depending.

People have their reasons for shooting jpg, which bakes in a white balance setting. jpg ideally means that no adjustments are needed in post.

On the other hand, as pointed out by me, @waynorth, and @DougMcC shooting raw/DNG takes the sensor data to a file, also inserting a white balance value as determined auto or manually in the file. The sensor data is not processed with this value at the time of exposure, and the white balance is not baked in - it’s just noted.

When you open a raw file in Lightroom, Photoshop/Adobe Camera Raw, or other processing program it sets the color temp slider to the value noted in the file. At this point with a raw file you can losslessly select any color temp you want - probably around 5500, 5600, 5700, but maybe you want it warmer or cooler.

Back to jpg, the point of it is to get good on the color temp so that you can use it as-is, or only need to make a slight adjustment.

Although other posters are correct that shooting raw is best for quality, in that you defer decisions to post processing where you have lots of time and a good monitoring situation with great adjustability for temp and exposure and so much more, a raw workflow isn’t for everybody. jpg works just fine for many people; it’s up to the OP what serves them best!

 

[Mpb4mavic]

Thank you. These are very welcome suggestions. I usually shoot jpg because of the general ease of use and file sizes. Plus, I've never had this problem with my Phantom 4 advanced or other models. Jpeg image quality has been fantastic and colors good. I feel like this might have something to do with the Hasselblad color engine in the M2P camera not converting right somewhere? I think they call it HNCS. It doesnt make sense to me otherwise, or this camera is not intended for jpeg shooting. I just cannot find a download to correct this situation.

 

[DougMcC]

I would agree with SethB’s excellent explanation. I shoot with both a JPEG AND a Raw DNG image and keep all options open on important photos. Memory today is very inexpensive and a 128 GB micro card can hold many flights of photo data.

 

[Mpb4mavic]

Thank you for your input and response! As a final question on this topic, I was hoping someone could tell me if it is normal for me to be seeing the option of only, "None" under jpeg picture styles in the smart controller?

 

[Meta4]

I feel like this might have something to do with the Hasselblad color engine in the M2P camera not converting right somewhere?

You haven't mentioned what your White Balance is set to.
That would be a good place to start.

 

[Mpb4mavic]

My white balance is usually always set to auto, although I have also tried changing the kelvin balance manually within a couple hundred degrees of the AWB point in sunny daylight... I'm still wondering if it is normal to not have any jpeg picture styles in the Go4 app, only "None."

 

[Meta4]

I'm still wondering if it is normal to not have any jpeg picture styles in the Go4 app, only "None."

Yes, it's normal

 

[Mpb4mavic]

I just realized I did reply to DougMcC's post last year with the same exact concern about the missing color profiles, but the thread stopped after that...

Post in thread 'Color profiles missing' Color profiles missing

 

[Mpb4mavic]

Thank you for that information. Since there are no options under color styles, colors should be accurate enough when shooting jpeg; however, they aren't. It almost seems I should be opening the images with a different colors space/ profile than everything else. It's got me baffled. I dont have this problem with my Phantom 4 Adv, Canon DSLRs or smartphone pics. Anyway, thanks for the help. I will try some other techniques in hopes of getting around this problem. This is a phenomenal drone in every other respect.

 

[Xitor]

I love RAW files and the control I get with them. However I'm not a fan of subscription software so I havent invested in lightroom, but someone on these forums suggested Affinity Photo 2 for HDR merge and Color corrections. Works great, even allows me to create luts much faster than I can with my video software and then pull those luts into the video. Cost is ~$70.

 

[Ty Pilot]

My white balance is usually always set to auto, although I have also tried changing the kelvin balance manually within a couple hundred degrees of the AWB point in sunny daylight... I'm still wondering if it is normal to not have any jpeg picture styles in the Go4 app, only "None."

I know it has been asked several times but I will try a different approach. Can you answer these three questions?

1] So you usually/always have WB on Auto. So were the two pictures you posted in this thread taken on auto WB?

2] You've said a couple times that when not using Auto WB you try to 'manually' set it. How? Are you looking at the screen of the SC and guessing or are you using a dedicated meter to get proper color temp?

3] Have you tried ANY of the other WB presets?

As to your question, when shooting in photo mode, my only choice is "Normal" I am using standard controller with Go4 app on an Iphone

 

[Mpb4mavic]

Interesting. Maybe the iPhone shows "Normal" as a mode when shooting JPG, instead of "None" on the smart controller? The thing is, when shooting video in auto WB, colors come out correctly. So, in order to get jpegs that have proper color, I am having to pull stills from 4k video clips - and then go through the process of cropping to 3:2 ratio, etc... This serves the purpose to a degree, but I would much rather be able to get the high-res jpegs directly from the drone with normal colors, as I can with my Phantom 4 Adv, etc. Aside from the color being very off, the jpeg image quality and detail is great, and it's even applying distortion correction so this whole thing is a shame!

I've also just tried shooting in DNG. My colors are correcting to better accuarcy, but when done with all of my RAW editing my other details still don't look quite as good as the in-camera processed jpegs. Of course, I've never been an expert with RAW processing anyway and jpeg shooting and processing has served me well all these years.
Yes, the jpegs posted were shot in auto WB. I have also tried the other presets, such as "cloudy,' etc. and tried adjusting the temperature but still get colors that are way off. For me, it's easier to adjust color when shooting in auto and my results are generally more accurate. I don't have a separate meter and haven't had to use one with any of my other gear. Thanks for your input. I'm still wondering why you have "normal" mode and I don't. Are you getting other modes as well? I'm now wondering if I should get a standard controller and an iPhone to see if that fixes the problem...

 

[Mpb4mavic]

I love RAW files and the control I get with them. However I'm not a fan of subscription software so I havent invested in lightroom, but someone on these forums suggested Affinity Photo 2 for HDR merge and Color corrections. Works great, even allows me to create luts much faster than I can with my video software and then pull those luts into the video. Cost is ~$70.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm looking into it. I wonder if there's a specific profile fix for this drone.

 

[Xitor]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm looking into it. I wonder if there's a specific profile fix for this drone.

I've used the the D-Log to Rec 709 LUT below. Interesting it says Mavic 3 because I think I downloaded it before the MAVIC 3 was even released. I've also have some good luck with just gopro raw luts, and others I've found on line. And the Skygrade luts made for Air2S

D-Log to Rec.709 LUT - Download Center - DJI

At the DJI Download Center, learn and downloadD-Log to Rec.709 LUT

www.dji.com

I also bought the skygrade luts online, cant remember where I got mine, but found here:

SkyGrades Natural LUTs for Mavic 2 Pro

Rich, natural LUTs for the DJI Mavic 2 Pro's Dlog-M profile.

www.thefilmpoets.com

DLog lut with your own color grading though is probably better when you get the hang of it.

 

[Mpb4mavic]

Thanks for that info! I've tried applying the LUT in Vegas for video from the 2 pro, but I dont think it applies to the jpeg photo engine. I finally re-subscribed to Adobe LR, after not using for a number of years, in hopes there would exist a fix to the jpeg color problem. Sure enough, I believe it's there - simply opening the DNG file in LR applies the fix and corrects the color. So, in order to start doing my usual editing process in ACDsee and/ or PS, I have to a first export the opened DNG as a jpeg, etc. using LightRoom. I feel there are too many useless presets in LR and always thought it had a somewhat unfriendly interface, but I guess I'm back to using again. I'm not sure why this fix seems exclusive and proprietary between Mavic 2 pro and LR only, and why it doesnt apply any other way.