Photography with the Pro

[Santiego]

Very interested in how other landscape photographers are setting up and using the photography options available? I'm thinking my go-to would be f/6 to 9, iso 100, and changing shutter for exposure. Also bracketing for any scenes with a larger dynamic range.

 

[SpanishSurfer]

Yep, that's about what I do with the MPP; however look into layer stacking, it has made a dramatic difference to my photos. More time post processing but man is it worth it!

 

[parkgt]

Yep, that's about what I do with the MPP; however look into layer stacking, it has made a dramatic difference to my photos. More time post processing but man is it worth it!

Could you elaborate on "layer stacking" as opposed to bracketing?

 

[SpanishSurfer]

I'm probably gumming up the terminology but here's what I meant: A Practical Guide to Creating Superresolution Photos with Photoshop

 

[GringoLoco]

I'm guessing manually blending the bracketed exposures with layers in Ps instead of using the built in HDR mode or automated HDR in Lr?

Edit: typed too slow.

 

[GringoLoco]

I've tried that superresolution trick once, after reading the same article lol. I couldn't really find anything noticeably different, aside from file size. I only tried it that once though and I have zero Ps skills, there's probably some learning curve.

 

[SpanishSurfer]

If you follow the steps you should see very noticeable results. I took it a step further and first edited the photos in lightroom, exported them as JPGs and then began the super res process (less memory required). Makes a big difference when the original photo vs the superres are held side to side in large prints OR big 4k Monitors.

 

[GringoLoco]

I don't have a nice monitor, so I was basing my results on side by side pixel peeping. I just didn't see a lot of extra detail like I did in the example. I also only tried it once, on a wide angle shot of a lake with trees in the background. There really wasn't anything closer than hundreds of feet away. Maybe I just found the resolution limit of a consumer grade wide zoom on a crop body.

 

[white venom]

The dynamic range from the mavic 2 pro is quite impressive...
Mavic 2 Pro dynamic range by RJ Prusik, on Flickr

 

[gnirtS]

Sweet spot is likely to be around f/5.8 if there is one.
Generally you'd lock that and pick the lowest ISO possible to yield an acceptable shutter speed (1/120th minimum in my view, likely twice that for a good still).

Im hoping to need to do substantially less bracketing on this model.
The MP1 camera is awful, even average scenes need manual braketing.

 

[KONY]

Sweet spot is likely to be around f/5.8 if there is one.
Generally you'd lock that and pick the lowest ISO possible to yield an acceptable shutter speed (1/120th minimum in my view, likely twice that for a good still)..

also 5.8 at night ?

I would have imagined night shots would require "lowest" aperture around f2

but i know little about photography

 

[gnirtS]

Sweet spot is where the lens is sharpest.

Night is going to require a wide open aperture and an iso as low as possible whilst maintaining an acceptable shutter speed.

 

[KONY]

by wide open aperture, you then mean around f2 right ?

want to make sure i get you right

 

[gnirtS]

Camera Basics 101 The Exposure Triangle will explain it better than i can.

 

[genesimmons]

by wide open aperture, you then mean around f2 right ?

want to make sure i get you right

whatver the lowest is onthe mav2, i thought it was 2.8-f11 range?depends also on what u want in focus, the whole point of fstop is to allow a different focal plane, on a full frame camera f2.8 is very shalow great for portaits and f8 is very wide good for lanscapes and if u want natural sun stars use f22 if u have it,

 

[KONY]

thank you genesimmons

 

[gnirtS]

whatver the lowest is onthe mav2, i thought it was 2.8-f11 range?depends also on what u want in focus, the whole point of fstop is to allow a different focal plane, on a full frame camera f2.8 is very shalow great for portaits and f8 is very wide good for lanscapes and if u want natural sun stars use f22 if u have it,

Doesn't apply on the M2. Small sensor and lens that when you run the numbers mean even wide open at f/2.8 everything from 4m onwards is in infinity focus so theres no scope for selective blurring here. You'd expect diffraction to start kicking in above f/8.

 

[GavieboyDji]

Gradual filters make the job so much easier every drone pilots should have them in their tool's definitely for sunsets and sunrises. I do use the layer stacking way but the poler pro gradual filters are brilliant I'm not to sure if the others do them freewell. I use them all the time on my Mavic or spark.

Here's a video on how they work and make your Drone videos show much more better I even use them on my Sunset photography photos.

 

[parkgt]

Gradient filters are easy to apply in post. You can get them exactly the way the scene requires. Some parts of footage may not need them at all so they can be selectively applied.

 

[jwischka]

Gradient filters are easy to apply in post. You can get them exactly the way the scene requires. Some parts of footage may not need them at all so they can be selectively applied.

But filtering digitally after the fact isn't actually doing the same thing. One of them is doing math on sampled data. The other is actually changing what is sampled in the first place. Filtering in analog is better - if you can do it - for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is that you can get even more detail in the shadows by exposing to the right than you would if you didn't have the analog filter on in the first place. In essence, you're expanding your dynamic range with the analog filter. The problem with a drone, of course, is that you can't take the filter off once you've got the thing in the air, which makes the process a lot more difficult. Additionally, if you shoot any kind of stitched images, you run into problems because you've got an uneven exposure across the frame. All that to say, I wouldn't use graduated filters on a drone for practical reasons, but they are absolutely a good idea to use for landscape photography if you're in a situation that benefits from it.

The dynamic range from the mavic 2 pro is quite impressive...

Last night's sunset with the shadows pushed about +3 EV:



The DR is impressive for a 1" sensor (and certainly for a small drone), but it's not anywhere close to a modern ILC/SLR. But it flies, which can make all the difference.

Very interested in how other landscape photographers are setting up and using the photography options available? I'm thinking my go-to would be f/6 to 9, iso 100, and changing shutter for exposure. Also bracketing for any scenes with a larger dynamic range.

The real limitation on the bracketing for the M2P is the 0.7 EV interval it uses. In the end, that means you're only really buying yourself an additional 3 stops or so of exposure latitude, which isn't worthless, but can be more trouble than it's worth. That said, I typically use bracketing because it gives me a better chance of getting a "perfectly" exposed to the right image. Just beware, though, that you shouldn't expect to do some wide 5 EV brackets and then merge in HDR. So far I've found (post-processed) HDR on the Mavic images to be ... not really much better than the best single-layer exposure.

My typical setup is to shoot 6 images using the 5 AEB bracket: 2 rows of 3. I typically stitch in Lightroom (PTGui if that doesn't work), and typically use either an Equirectangular or Transverse Mercator projection (depending on what I'm wanting to do). That said, the above shot was taken with the standard 180 degree panorama mode on the drone with DNGs, then stitched (21 images) in Lightroom after the fact. I wish the whole exposure had been +0.7 EV brighter, but... needs must.

As for settings, base ISO all day long, f5.6, usually, and 5 AEB bracket always. Change the shutter to expose to the right as much as possible, since DR is actually an issue compared to most "real" cameras. You can get great results, but it's a lot less forgiving.