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settings for flying on snow mountains

Solomonenko

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Jan 31, 2019
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Hi!

What settings do you use for flying on snow mountains?
I tried to record video on 4K FFoV with 24fps, Dlog-M, 100 ISO, f5.6, 1/50, cloudy white balance, with 8ND filter PolarPro. The day was cloudy and has a lot of snow.
Some additional settings +1 Sharpness, 0 Saturation and 0 Contrast
The footage was very bright and dim light. It doesn't mismatch that I want
worst footage link
 
Hi,

I am no expert, but i would have used a higher ND filter for sure. Your settings look good but too much light is getting in so you probably needed to change your aperture, but with a stronger filter it would look much better. I have the same filters as you and I have been getting some really good results using the polarised filters too. Are you using any sort of post production software to edit the Dlog-M footage?

Looks like a really cool spot to get some great drone footage!
 
There are no magical settings - you will have to set them specific to the conditions you encounter. Especially if the sun comes out you will probably need a ND16 or ND32 depending on what aperture you wish to use. You can control all the variables, so there are many combinations that will yield the exact same exposure.

Your footage actually looks fine for Dlog-M, just slightly overexposed (roughly 0.7EV-1.0EV) so I would move up to a ND16 or ND32 and adjust aperture accordingly. Never change ISO off 100. You can also raise your shutter speed a little bit if you want, it doesn't become a problem until it gets really high. The footage also looks dull - if you are going to shoot in Dlog-M it needs to be fully color graded and processed after the fact - if you don't want to do that, shoot in one of the standard modes since Dlog is not a production-ready mode.

I'd also reduce that gimbal speed and increase gimbal smoothness - it looks very choppy when you move it around, but I don't know what look you're going for.
 
Hi,

I am no expert, but i would have used a higher ND filter for sure. Your settings look good but too much light is getting in so you probably needed to change your aperture, but with a stronger filter it would look much better. I have the same filters as you and I have been getting some really good results using the polarised filters too. Are you using any sort of post production software to edit the Dlog-M footage?

Looks like a really cool spot to get some great drone footage!

Thanks for your reply! I thought about using 16ND but the EV value on iphone screen was +3 that stopped me.
As I guess I can't change it in a MANUAL mode (M)?!
My filters are polarised too. Of course I will try to correction that footage on FCP, but I hope that it should be better or I is ok for that settings?
 
There are no magical settings - you will have to set them specific to the conditions you encounter. Especially if the sun comes out you will probably need a ND16 or ND32 depending on what aperture you wish to use. You can control all the variables, so there are many combinations that will yield the exact same exposure.

Your footage actually looks fine for Dlog-M, just slightly overexposed (roughly 0.7EV-1.0EV) so I would move up to a ND16 or ND32 and adjust aperture accordingly. Never change ISO off 100. You can also raise your shutter speed a little bit if you want, it doesn't become a problem until it gets really high. The footage also looks dull - if you are going to shoot in Dlog-M it needs to be fully color graded and processed after the fact - if you don't want to do that, shoot in one of the standard modes since Dlog is not a production-ready mode.

I'd also reduce that gimbal speed and increase gimbal smoothness - it looks very choppy when you move it around, but I don't know what look you're going for.

I understand that, but I think I have difficult conditions in my case - white snow everywhere, clouds are white too and time is about 1 pm. As I see, ND32 is more suitable for strong sun or isn't it?
 
I understand that, but I think I have difficult conditions in my case - white snow everywhere, clouds are white too and time is about 1 pm. As I see, ND32 is more suitable for strong sun or isn't it?

It all depends.

You shot that footage with a ND8 at F5.6, 1/50, and ISO 100. All else equal, if you used a ND32 (2 stops stronger than a ND8) and F2.8, (2 stops wider than F5.6) the exposure would be identical. So you have some flexibility there. There is no specific ND filter for a specific condition, it very much also depends on your other camera settings and what you are trying to achieve. The value of the ND filter has nothing to do with whether or not it's sunny or cloudy, you simply use them to alter your exposure based on the brightness of the scene and your desired camera settings. To put this another way, you could be in dark shade, but if you had the camera set to F2.8, 1/10 shutter and ISO 6400, you would probably need a ND64 or higher to get a normal exposure - even without any sun. Think of the ND filters in terms of exposure (the combination of the scene, and aperture, shutter speed, and ISO), not in terms of weather.

In my opinion your footage was fine, other than that it was unprocessed and overexposed. To remedy those two things, you will want to add a stronger ND filter (if you want to keep with those camera settings), and you will want to color grade and process that footage after the fact. If you don't want to process it manually after the fact, you might want to get out of D-Log and let the drone process it for you. If you don't want to use a stronger ND filter to reduce the exposure, your options are to use a smaller aperture (not recommended) or increase the shutter speed (you have a bit of leeway here, but it's up to you).

The other thing I would suggest is turning on the histogram - a scene of pure white snow fools the camera's meter into thinking it's brighter than it is (Even on a $5,000 DSLR it does this), so the EV calculation may not be accurate. You can trust the histogram.

You also mentioned your filters are polarized, so what is going to happen is any time you rotate the drone, your exposure is going to change. Polarization is strongest 90 degrees from the sun, and is completely eliminated at 0 degrees and 180 degrees from the sun. If the sun is directly overhead this is less noticeable, however as the sun gets lower it is very apparent. I would suggest not using polarized filters unless you have a very strict pre-planned flight path, otherwise you risk having uneven footage every time the drone changes orientation.
 
OP: A tip that may help you as it does me.

Fire up the aircraft on your landing pad or whatever and point it in the direction you plan to fly and record. Adjust the exposure to get 0EV by using Manual mode and changing the aperture (while maintaining the 2 x Frame Rate for shutter speed and ISO 100.) Write down or remember the settings. Fire up the PolarPro app and enter them. It will then tell you what strength ND filter to use for those conditions.

OR...

Just take a guess using the rule of thumb PP suggested. That will typically be very close, at least it has been in my experience. The problem in your case was the snow so next time, fire up the aircraft on the ground with the ND filter you THINK you need and again, adjust to 0EV. If you find you can't get there without really stopping down the aperture beyond 5.6, replace the filter with the next highest number. Truthfully, this is how I do it now and I no longer use the PP app although it was helpful in the beginning.

ALL the above applies only to video recording. You do not need ND filters for stills unless you want to do long exposure photography.

Hope that helps at least a little.
 
Pretty much what everyone else has said, I shoot for a positive EV in snow, ND filter to get there setting's you want, turn on and learn to use the histogram, Dlog really needs post processing. I live in snow eight months out of the year so I'm kinda use too it. Unless you have a clear blue sky it usually ends up cold.
 
Thanks to everyone!
I will try to use ND16 and experiment with settings.
There is the same settings on previous footage and that has the same problem with overexposure
footage via Mavic 2
 

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