Photography using DJI mavic air 2

[lukas123]

Hello. I am getting into photography with drones and have some general questions regarding the photography.

1. For the mavic air 2, you can either take single picture 12 MP or you can take 48 MP images. I dont understand why would anyone want to take 12MP pictures if they can take 48MP images. Can someone shed some light to me ? I imagine that the 48 MP picture would be much sharper and much higher quality, but I see many people still using 12MP option to take cinematic images.

2. What settings are best to use to leave more room for post editing?

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Hello. I am getting into photography with drones and have some general questions regarding the photography.

1. For the mavic air 2, you can either take single picture 12 MP or you can take 48 MP images. I dont understand why would anyone want to take 12MP pictures if they can take 48MP images. Can someone shed some light to me ? I imagine that the 48 MP picture would be much sharper and much higher quality, but I see many people still using 12MP option to take cinematic images.

2. What settings are best to use to leave more room for post editing?

We only take 48 MP are they are outstanding but we a good computer to process many people want to process using the Phones and I think that 12 MP is good for that.

To get an idea of how good the 48 MP is check out this post of my Crop .

Air 2 - AIR 2 - Favorite Feature: Super Size Ugly !

Why those 48 Mg Super Size pictures are so cool , little editing goes a long way in transforming Blah into something OK. This was captured last night in 20 mph winds : 20 Degrees at low lighting and did not look promising. Phantomrain.org Gear to fly your Air 2 in the Rain / Snow and Land...

mavicpilots.com

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic Air 2 in the Rain and Land on Water

 

[red_beard_1950]

The camera sensor has a Quad Bayer filter that breaks each pixel into four segments (1 red, 1 blue, and 2 green). There is a slight advantage to using the 48 MP image capture mode only when there is a brightly lit subject. Otherwise, sensor noise can make the 48 MP images worse than the 12 MP images that average out the noise. The big feature of Quad Bayer sensors is that they can produce HDR images in real time (at 1/4 the resolution) by using different exposure times within each group of four pixels. For more about Q-B sensors, see: https://www.gsmarena.com/quad_bayer_sensors_explained-news-37459.php

 

[Meta4]

I imagine that the 48 MP picture would be much sharper and much higher quality, but I see many people still using 12MP option to take cinematic images.

It's easy to imagine, but the results really aren't so different.
The 48 MP is mostly for marketing, to attract buyers who imagine a bigger number is automatically better.
The camera still uses a tiny sensor for all image capture.
See a comparison here:

 

[TnDronePilot]

I'm a professional video editor and videographer so I deal with 4K & 8K images all the time. For the most part, the 48MP Quad Bayer technology is sort of a gimmick and a way to impress the masses into thinking there's a 48MP sensor onboard. Don't get me wrong, the technology behind Quad Bayer is amazing and produces some stellar images but it's really just digital manipulation. As a test on a clear day, I put the MA2 in a 200ft hover and took both 12MP and 48MP photos over the city and even after pixel-peeping, it's pretty hard to tell the difference in quality. At 400% crop, the 12MP looked a bit cleaner but had a slight softness whereas the 48MP looked a bit sharper. Pull pull back to 100% and ya just can't say the 48MP is the clear winner.

The fact that the camera has such a wide field of view really cancels out whatever intended design differences there truly is between the two dimensions. Where you would be able to see the difference is if the lens offered an optical zoom feature where you could get in close on a subject. Also, professional photographers that have their 50 gazillion megapixel cameras, use very expensive lenses where they can adjust their DOF (Depth Of Field) to get to the sharpest part of the lens and use every bit of their sensor to capture the best images. Ours (at least the MA2) has a very wide wide fixed aperture which lends itself to let in a lot of light but handicaps the sharpness of the photo.

So in the drone world, you can shoot 48MP and have much better range to push & crop verses 12MP but, you're really not creating a cleaner/crisper image. You just have more room to play.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

The Beauty of the AIr 2 is that Extra Play you mention as there are so many times I have no idea what I really captured from the sky until I look at the 48 MP and see it , which gives me the ability to Crop nicely. The other thing I do think gets over looked is that the Stitching is done for you on the Air 2 which is a huge time saver . Now with that said I rarely see a picture that really shames the 48 MP after editing but on a Large Print I imagine than the Difference would show up ?

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Air 2 in the Rain and Land on Water.

 

[TnDronePilot]

The Beauty of the AIr 2 is that Extra Play you mention as there are so many times I have no idea what I really captured from the sky until I look at the 48 MP and see it , which gives me the ability to Crop nicely. The other thing I do think gets over looked is that the Stitching is done for you on the Air 2 which is a huge time saver . Now with that said I rarely see a picture that really shames the 48 MP after editing but on a Large Print I imagine than the Difference would show up ?

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Air 2 in the Rain and Land on Water.

That's hard for me to answer because I'm too used to image quality of $100,000 cameras and would never consider printing a super-cropped drone photo for a client. That being said, I absolutely LOVE the photo and video quality that these drones put out and plan on selling both types to clients. With my MA2, I never shoot at 48MP just to get a sharper image but, I do capture both dimensions just so I have more latitude and, I always take the 5 bracketed shots as that offers the most dynamic range in post. And just so you know, I wouldn't crop in any more on a 48MP photo than I would on a 12MP (percentage-wise). At least not for a client who's after the sharpest image possible. If it's just a generic photo where they're after a certain object in the shot and don't mind the extra zoom in, I will do that for them. Hope that makes sense.

To your point about stitching, our 4K video monitors we use for color correction are actually four 1920x1080 signals stitched together (with hardware) to produce a full 4K image. It's seamless and totally amazing to look at. Fun fact, each inch of the screen costs $1000 and we use 42 inch monitors. Perks of working for a corporation ?

 

[lukas123]

Thanks all for the answers! Could you explain what you by saying 5 bracketed shots?

 

[Meta4]

Thanks all for the answers! Could you explain what you by saying 5 bracketed shots?

Using the AEB feature to shoot a group of photos with different exposure settings.
This example shows two brackets of 3 shots:

 

[lukas123]

So it just takes the same image with different exposure values and then you can decide which one you like the most?

 

[Meta4]

So it just takes the same image with different exposure values and then you can decide which one you like the most?

That's one reason to use the AEB feature.
Or with difficult lighting situations, you could combine the 3 or 5 images to bring out detail in shadow and highlight areas.

 

[lukas123]

Okat but what are the drawbacks? I would assume that you fill your sd card much faster since you get multiple images instead of a single image. Is that it? If that is the only drawback , I think everyone should be using it!

 

[Meta4]

Okat but what are the drawbacks? I would assume that you fill your sd card much faster since you get multiple images instead of a single image. Is that it? If that is the only drawback , I think everyone should be using it!

There are no drawbacks.
The smallest SD card you can buy holds many thousands of images so filling the card is no problem.
I use it when I am shooting fast moving subjects and want to be sure that I get the exposure right.

 

[Romanbydrone]

Okat but what are the drawbacks? I would assume that you fill your sd card much faster since you get multiple images instead of a single image. Is that it? If that is the only drawback , I think everyone should be using it

Some photographers use the multiple images to combine to produce a single image. The finished image can be pleasing although it is an unnatural look. In life shadows do exist. IMO a slight lightening of darker areas when editing still retains a natural look.

 

[TnDronePilot]

Okat but what are the drawbacks? I would assume that you fill your sd card much faster since you get multiple images instead of a single image. Is that it? If that is the only drawback , I think everyone should be using it!

You only use bracketing if you know how to blend them all together in programs like Photoshop or Lightroom. Those programs take those brackets and blend them together so that your shot has full dynamic range like our eyes typically see. Cameras no matter how expensive, cannot capture all that information in one image. There are times when ND filters or extra lighting or reflectors will help "level" the scene but that's not what we're taking about here with our drones.

Here is a link to various software that can process HDR (High Dynamic Range images) and some are free ones.

For example, lets say you're shooting a photo of someone and the sunset is behind them. You have a choice, expose for the person or the sunset. In one single shot, you can't do both without crappy results (or lighting help). Expose for the person (brighten or let more light in) and the sun already being bright, will be blown out. Expose for the sunset (darken or allow less light in) and the person will be too dark to see and become a silhouette.

In my world when we do video shoots inside people's homes, if time permits and we have enough of it, we put huge ND filters over the windows so that the cameras don't blow out the outside world when we're "balanced" for the inside of the home. If we wanted the ocean views coming through the huge windows to show up and didn't have ND to lessen the amount of light coming in, the inside of the house would go dark.

So, bracketing allows the camera to individually capture the lowest of the lows and the highest of the highs so that when the software blends all five shots, everything is perfectly exposed and then you can be finished with the image or take it into the program and tweak it however you want. Some cameras allow you to choose 3 brackets but with SD card sizes being so inexpensive, why not allow the camera to take as many as it can? More dynamic range means a better image.

Lastly, unless you're using a 2GB-4GB card (see attached image), you should have plenty of room on a card for bracketed shots. An 8GB card can store almost 200 photos at 12MP which I believe is the only setting the MA2 will do bracketing in. I could be mistaken and even if it allowed 48MP bracketing, you're still talking about 50 images on an 8GB card. If you have at least a 32GB card, you're talking about 150+.

Also know that not every photo you take will need bracketing. If you're in best part of a sunny day and there aren't a lot of shadows you want to make sure are correctly exposed, you don't have to bracket that shot. Cool note; when the drone takes the 5 shots, it's within one second and even if there is some very slight camera movement (windy day), most programs like Photoshop and Lightroom can adjust for that.

** I forgot to mention that bracketing should be done in RAW mode and not JPEG. JPEG is a super-compressed format and should never be used if you ever plan on color correcting or treating the shot as there is very little of that dynamic range mentioned earlier. Don't get me wrong, JPEG produces fantastic quality these days and is perfect if you just want to take it right from the card and post it somewhere. I haven't tested both and don't plan on it as I have the space for RAW.

 

[volition]

This video goes through everything you asked and discussed in this thread. It’s the best MA2 video on photography around.

 

[TnDronePilot]

This video goes through everything you asked and discussed in this thread. It’s the best MA2 video on photography around.

His 48MP comparison proves that the true 12MP image is perfect if not superior than the 48MP gimmick in most cases. Anything digitally manipulated is just that, manipulated. The only thing beneficial to take from 48MP is the increased dimension if you need the extra size.

 

[lukas123]

You only use bracketing if you know how to blend them all together in programs like Photoshop or Lightroom. Those programs take those brackets and blend them together so that your shot has full dynamic range like our eyes typically see. Cameras no matter how expensive, cannot capture all that information in one image. There are times when ND filters or extra lighting or reflectors will help "level" the scene but that's not what we're taking about here with our drones.

Here is a link to various software that can process HDR (High Dynamic Range images) and some are free ones.

For example, lets say you're shooting a photo of someone and the sunset is behind them. You have a choice, expose for the person or the sunset. In one single shot, you can't do both without crappy results (or lighting help). Expose for the person (brighten or let more light in) and the sun already being bright, will be blown out. Expose for the sunset (darken or allow less light in) and the person will be too dark to see and become a silhouette.

In my world when we do video shoots inside people's homes, if time permits and we have enough of it, we put huge ND filters over the windows so that the cameras don't blow out the outside world when we're "balanced" for the inside of the home. If we wanted the ocean views coming through the huge windows to show up and didn't have ND to lessen the amount of light coming in, the inside of the house would go dark.

So, bracketing allows the camera to individually capture the lowest of the lows and the highest of the highs so that when the software blends all five shots, everything is perfectly exposed and then you can be finished with the image or take it into the program and tweak it however you want. Some cameras allow you to choose 3 brackets but with SD card sizes being so inexpensive, why not allow the camera to take as many as it can? More dynamic range means a better image.

Lastly, unless you're using a 2GB-4GB card (see attached image), you should have plenty of room on a card for bracketed shots. An 8GB card can store almost 200 photos at 12MP which I believe is the only setting the MA2 will do bracketing in. I could be mistaken and even if it allowed 48MP bracketing, you're still talking about 50 images on an 8GB card. If you have at least a 32GB card, you're talking about 150+.

Also know that not every photo you take will need bracketing. If you're in best part of a sunny day and there aren't a lot of shadows you want to make sure are correctly exposed, you don't have to bracket that shot. Cool note; when the drone takes the 5 shots, it's within one second and even if there is some very slight camera movement (windy day), most programs like Photoshop and Lightroom can adjust for that.

** I forgot to mention that bracketing should be done in RAW mode and not JPEG. JPEG is a super-compressed format and should never be used if you ever plan on color correcting or treating the shot as there is very little of that dynamic range mentioned earlier. Don't get me wrong, JPEG produces fantastic quality these days and is perfect if you just want to take it right from the card and post it somewhere. I haven't tested both and don't plan on it as I have the space for RAW.
View attachment 125810

Thanks for the information, but even if I do not want to blend the images together, capturing multiple images is still good since I have multiple copies of that image with different exposure settings right? It is the same as I would take image, manually change exposure, take image, manually change exposure and do that 5 or whatever many times?


Does the bracketing enhance the image quality or does it only combine the images together and selects the "most suitable" exposure for that particular picture?

 

[Meta4]

Thanks for the information, but even if I do not want to blend the images together, capturing multiple images is still good since I have multiple copies of that image with different exposure settings right?

Yes
When he said: You only use bracketing if you know how to blend them all together, he was wrong.
You also bracket your exposure if you are dealing with tricky lighting and want to ensure you'll get your exposure right.

It is the same as I would take image, manually change exposure, take image, manually change exposure and do that 5 or whatever many times?

Exactly the same.

Does the bracketing enhance the image quality or does it only combine the images together and selects the "most suitable" exposure for that particular picture?

Bracketing doesn't combine images at all.
That's another process that some photographers might choose to use occasionally.
Bracketing is shooting multiple images, all the same except for their exposure settings.

 

[lukas123]

Thanks for clarifying. I meant to say when I take multiple images with different exposure values, I then can choose to blend them all together. I wanted to know whether blending enhances image quality, or it just automatically edits my image based on some preset to make a cool image . I am trying to understand a little bit more about the blending process and whether it is something I should be worried about or not yet