ND filter for blue sky

[MGVision]

What would be the best filter when there is clear blue sky with no clouds and sun is shining? ND 32 or ND 64?
ND 16 is best when there is sun with clouds?

 

[CanadaDrone]

There is no way to answer that question accuately without measuring the scene. It also depends on the aperture, shutter speed and ISO chosen.

At ISO 100, 1/60 sec shutter and F2.8, you would be looking at a ND16 or ND32 for most sunny scenarios. ND64 wouldn't be necessary unless you were flying over something incredibly bright, such as sunlight over snow. ND8 for overcast/cloudy and ND4 for dusk/dawn. Those are ROUGH guidelines though and not rules. You can get away with fewer ND filters if you want to play with the aperture as well.

There is no magical ND filter, especially with a M2P where you can change the aperture, but you don't want to go much beyond F4 as diffraction starts to set in after that. Always use base ISO, raising it only as a last resort if the scene is still too dark at F2.8 and no ND filter.

 

[tjdowling]

Agree with above. Canada’s answer is also the answer to the question, “why do you have so much photography gear?” [emoji4]

My 2 cents: I’ve had the most luck getting the “correct” exposure at 1/60” shutter speed with an ND32 on a bright, sunny, clear day. That’s at ISO 100 and f/5.6 plus or minus.

 

[fozzzy]

If your wanting to retain deeper blues in the sky it may be a graduated ND filter your after.

 

[CanadaDrone]

If your wanting to retain deeper blues in the sky it may be a graduated ND filter your after.

That would require him to fly a very specific flight path, never moving the horizon from the transition area. They *can* be very useful, but if you want to fly around unrestricted they will do more harm than good if you are after even footage. Everything is a compromise unfortunately.

 

[supergimp]

A polarizer can be used to deepen the blue sky, but you have to set it (rotate it - fixed polarizers are useless) to the proper angle and it is only good at that angle so you have to use a fixed flight path.

PolarPro makes a great app that will calculate the proper ND to achieve 180 degree shutter given your current conditions. You fire up your drone, dial in correct exposure and note the current settings. Enter them into the calculator and it will return the proper ND filter value to achieve the "correct" shutter speed for those conditions. It's free and tells you the ND value necessary so is applicable to all ND filters, not just PolarPro.

I live in sunny Southern California and pretty much leave an ND32 on my M2P most of the time and switch it out when the conditions require.

 

[jason38]

Why dont you try to make the sky deep blue by editing your photos or videos ?
As Im still flying my mavic pro 1, I dont know about mavic 2 's photography quality,(with HDR and its 1' sensor) but I tried to have some well balanced pictures or vids , trying with ND filters or other settings, but I never managed to have some great deep skies...
I tried with editing, and you can easily make your sky deeper using local adjustments!

 

[brettbrandon]

This pic is exported untouched from the raw file. If I remember correctly I was using the PolarPro ND8/CPL on this shot. I have been playing around with settings to see what the camera can do.
Edit: I forgot to mention - ISO 100, F11, 1/200 sec.