Photo Help

[ChattMavicPilot]

I am new to drones and I am sure that this has been covered in previous post, so please forgive me. However, I have been trying to take pictures of waterfalls utilizing my Mavic Air, but I can only get the shutter speed down to 1/50 before everything starts to blow out. However, this is proving to not be long enough to get the effect that I am looking for. Any thoughts as to how to get this better? Thanks for the help and insight.

 

[sjnovakovich]

You will need to use neutral density filters (ND filters.) They slide over the lens on the front of your gimbal. Polar Pro, as well as others make sets of filters.

 

[ChattMavicPilot]

Thanks for the information. Is it better to get the Polar Pro or the ones that are sold on DJIs website for the Air?

 

[CanadaDrone]

Thanks for the information. Is it better to get the Polar Pro or the ones that are sold on DJIs website for the Air?

Polar Pro's (Cinema Series) are definitely better than the ones DJI sells.

Also, your image did not necessarily blow out because you didn't have a ND filter - we would need to know the exact camera settings to answer that question. Only when the exposure exceeds the desired camera settings would you need to fit a ND filter.

And keep in mind long (still) exposures from drones are difficult at best because the drones are not very stable at all for that type of work - you will be lucky to get 0.5-1.0sec sharp, but that may be all you need for a decent waterfall shot.

 

[ChattMavicPilot]

Thanks. The camera setting from the last shot I took were shutter - 1/50, f2.8 4.5mm and ISO 100. When I stepped it down one more shutter speed, it showed as almost all white in the phone display.