Photo Quality

BGloss18 · Sep 4, 2020

So I've had the Mavic Mini a few weeks now and I took some photos last night which look... weird. I'm not sure what phrase would be used to describe the effect on the fields but they look grainy and almost like a sketch filter has been applied. If anyone with more experience than me could tell me off for being stupid, that would be great! I used all the automatic settings (maybe my first issue) and adjusted the EV until the image looked right to me.

1st Image. The effect described above is most noticable to the left in the green field, the cloud cluster to the left and the distant features on the horizon.

2nd Image. Most noticable in the basketball court and again along the horizon where the built up area is.

Edit: After posting the thread and viewing the images, the effect is much less. Maybe the issue is partly with the photos application native to Windows 10?

swat9uk · Sep 11, 2020

i think you will find its the low light conditions what causes grain or noise ect drones only have small sensors what dont make them brill in low light, even my full frame normal camera will have these issues try same shot in nice bright daytime,

adcimagery · Sep 12, 2020

What you're seeing is noise. This comes from the camera trying to boost an underexposed area - it essentially has to "guess" at the information where it didn't get enough light, and so you see that gritty effect. In this case, there was a lot of noise reduction applied - this blurs and blends the noisy areas in an attempt to make it less noticeable. This all ties back to the amount of light the camera is making the exposure with - you can google those terms to read more about how they connect to digital cameras.

There's no simple solution for this, particularly in a very contrasty scene like you shot here, because the camera has to balance exposing for the brighter sky and the darker foreground. If you make the exposure brighter in camera, by lengthening the time the shutter is open, you'll get less noise in the foreground, but the sky may become too bright. You can also try setting an HDR mode if available - this takes separate exposures for bright and dark parts of the scene, then combines them.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like the Mini shoots raw photos - this would give you the opportunity to tweak the exposure to a greater degree in post-processing software like Lightroom. Perhaps a Mini-owning photographer can chime in, but for other cameras, you'd want to set the ISO lower or reduce the noise reduction setting.

BGloss18 · Sep 12, 2020

adcimagery said:
What you're seeing is noise. This comes from the camera trying to boost an underexposed area - it essentially has to "guess" at the information where it didn't get enough light, and so you see that gritty effect.

Thank you for your very detailed reply. That makes perfect sense, its best to know the limitations of the camera as well as the drone itself.

adcimagery · Sep 13, 2020

BGloss18 said:
Thank you for your very detailed reply. That makes perfect sense, its best to know the limitations of the camera as well as the drone itself.

Happy to help! Digital photography is an entire set of considerations beyond drone operation.

Andrex · Sep 17, 2020

This is the reason many people go for drones such as the Mavic 2 Pro - it has a larger sensor and better camera, as well as shooting RAW. You get what you pay for.

P.s. Good photos of Aughton.

Jack43 · Sep 17, 2020

BGloss18 said:
Edit: After posting the thread and viewing the images, the effect is much less. Maybe the issue is partly with the photos application native to Windows 10?

Hi BGloss18,
I did remove the noise with a program called "Neat Video" I looks way better now. And I also removed the glare in the second photo
cheers Paul

BGloss18 · Sep 18, 2020

Jack43 said:
Hi BGloss18,
I did remove the noise with a program called "Neat Video" I looks way better now. And I also removed the glare in the second photo
cheers Paul

Wow they look amazing, I'll definitely have to check out that software soon.