Several questions on FILTERS . . . .

[DGNOO]

Hi Folks
Need advice on filters.
ND or ND/PL?
Please advise which to go for.
Doing real estate and general outdoor nature aerials.
Starting mapping soon.
Thanks
[emoji41][emoji576]

 

[charlas]

Nd for filming

PL for filming water/sky

So depends on what you want.

 

[BigAl07]

Welcome to the forum

 

[THE CYBORG]

A set of ND will generally be most useful

 

[Moose1967]

I have nd8, nd16 and nd32 - haven't need a pl yet - u could start with those three.

 

[DGNOO]

Thanks to all

 

[zocalo]

In the right conditions a CPL will give you much better results with punchier colours and better control of reflections, *BUT* you need to set the CPL rotation before you take off as you obviously can't adjust in flight.

For real estate that's probably not a major problem as you'll know the shot you want up front and the angle you'll be shooting from, so can set the CPL accordingly on the ground. Even so, if you want multiple views of the property, you'll need to land and adjust for any major change of angle to the sun for the best results. If your properties often have pools and/or a lot of foliage, a CPL is also going to give much more appealing shots for prospective buyers.

For mapping/surveying, unless you need to see through reflections on water (which does require a CPL) who cares? It's more about capturing the detail than the composition and colour tone the images, right?

General purpose landscape is more tricky, and it depends on how you approach a given scene. If you like to just fly around and grab shots that appeal then I suspect you'll find a CPL to be an exercise in frustration as it's going to be set sub-optimally far more often than not. In that case, you'll probably be better of defaulting to not having one fitted and maybe having one available in your bag just in case you happen on a scene that would really benefit from using one - then hope you've got enough time and battery to RTH, fit the CPL and get back to take the shot before the moment passes.

If you consider your shots and angles before you take off and don't mind making multiple shorter flights, then a CPL can deliver much better shots and can be worth perserving with. If in doubt, I do a recce without one first, get some shots in the bag, then go back with a CPL as often as necessary for any money shots - again, hopefully before the moment passes.

 

[ZX14-R]

ND8 and ND16 as well as ND8PL and ND16PL will cover 99% of stuff...

 

[DGNOO]

In the right conditions a CPL will give you much better results with punchier colours and better control of reflections, *BUT* you need to set the CPL rotation before you take off as you obviously can't adjust in flight.

For real estate that's probably not a major problem as you'll know the shot you want up front and the angle you'll be shooting from, so can set the CPL accordingly on the ground. Even so, if you want multiple views of the property, you'll need to land and adjust for any major change of angle to the sun for the best results. If your properties often have pools and/or a lot of foliage, a CPL is also going to give much more appealing shots for prospective buyers.

For mapping/surveying, unless you need to see through reflections on water (which does require a CPL) who cares? It's more about capturing the detail than the composition and colour tone the images, right?

General purpose landscape is more tricky, and it depends on how you approach a given scene. If you like to just fly around and grab shots that appeal then I suspect you'll find a CPL to be an exercise in frustration as it's going to be set sub-optimally far more often than not. In that case, you'll probably be better of defaulting to not having one fitted and maybe having one available in your bag just in case you happen on a scene that would really benefit from using one - then hope you've got enough time and battery to RTH, fit the CPL and get back to take the shot before the moment passes.

If you consider your shots and angles before you take off and don't mind making multiple shorter flights, then a CPL can deliver much better shots and can be worth perserving with. If in doubt, I do a recce without one first, get some shots in the bag, then go back with a CPL as often as necessary for any money shots - again, hopefully before the moment passes.

Hi, Thanks for the input. However if one uses M mode and fixes the exposure can one not take a circular aerial video and the exposure will be fixed all around?
Thanks

 

[zocalo]

Hi, Thanks for the input. However if one uses M mode and fixes the exposure can one not take a circular aerial video and the exposure will be fixed all around?
Thanks

It's not the exposure that's the problem - a CP generally provides a fairly constant ND effect - it's the level of polarization. You can see this on a lot of landscape images taken with ultra-wide angle lenses where the sky will go from light blue to almost black across the frame.

With a 360 video, with the exposure being corrrectly set for a foreground object that you are circling throughout, this will manifest itself as having sky shift between light and dark blue twice. With the sun almost straight overhead and a subtle amount of polarization applied you probably won't notice, but in the extreme case of maxed out polarization and the sun near the horizon you'll go between blown out skies and near-black.

 

[DGNOO]

Thanks again. So best thing is to do aerials midday I suppose?

 

[zocalo]

Midday usually means minimal shadows and flat light, so images will not have a great deal of contrast and appear a bit washed out as-shot, and usually end up looking over-processed if you are not careful in post. Like most landscape photographers, I tend to concentrate on the time around sunrise and sunset for the softer light and longer shadows that most people find more appealing. I also really like the blue hour when the sun is just below the horizon, but that's a little more niche - can look wonderful for cityscapes with the lights on though!

Ultimately, it really depends on how the subject would best be lit, how much time you have to do it in, and what you are trying to achieve photographically. In an ideal world, you'd make multiple visits at different times of the day (and year!) and capture each angle in the best light. For real estate specifically, I'd guess it's all about first impressions; getting people interested enough for a viewing, so you might do that for a multi-million dollar property with photogenic surrounds, but probably not for a typical suburban house in the middle of a development. Either way though, you want a nice shot that makes people take a second look, so if it were me I'd probably try and avoid shooting around midday as much as possible.

 

[DGNOO]

Thanks again. I will certainly take this all into account. I am learning so all advice is welcome.
Would you have any advice on camera usage and settings or is this always related to the scenario?

 

[zocalo]

Thanks again. I will certainly take this all into account. I am learning so all advice is welcome.
Would you have any advice on camera usage and settings or is this always related to the scenario?

It's mostly down to the scenario, but all the general photography and videography guidelines still apply - a drone is basically a regular camera in the air after all. There are a few drone specific tips though:

This applies to regular cameras too, but I'd definitely recommend shooting raw; memory cards and hard disks are cheap so the extra space doesn't matter. It's much more forgiving of exposure errors, and gives you a lot more latitude for manipulating the contrast etc. in post. If you nail the shot, then sure, use the JPEG, but it's a useful safety net for bad exposures and means you have two images of each scene in case one gets corrupted.

The Mavic has a small sensor. That means depth of field is *huge* and you don't need to worry about where you put your focal points so much as you'll get front to back sharpness pretty much all the time unless you specifically work for it. The sweet spot for sharpness vs. DoF the M2 is about f/4, so that's a pretty good starting point; if you're at f/4 and not focussed on something on the horizon or right in front of the camera, everything should be sharp. After f/5.6 or so you'll start to find images start to get softer, so try and avoid stopping down that far.

Let the drone hover for a second or two before taking stills. If there's any breeze this seems to let it settle into a more stable position and gives you more sharp shots. If it is breezy, take a few shots of each scene, just in case the drone was buffetted during one exposure - again, storage is cheap, and you can delete the spares later.

 

[Deleted member 94047]

Excellent advice given by many in this thread. I will just share my own experience here. I did a lot of background reading before deciding what filters to buy. In the end I decided to avoid the combined ND/PL filters and went for standard ND filters (16 and 32 were all I needed - plus a ND1000 for long exposure which I haven't had occasion to use yet). But I also bought a separate CPL filter. If I am using the CPL filter, I am filming landscape and/or water. I am unlikely to need the motion blur effect of the ND filters in this scenario since there isn't that much movement anyway.

As has been pointed out by others, using CPL (and ND/PL) filters is very frustrating at times and I have had my share of that. But when you are filming vegetation, water, and sky/clouds, nothing comes close to the colours a CPL filter will bring out (when you get the polarization right of course). So my advice would be go for standard ND filters but have a separate CPL filter for when you need it.

 

[Kilrah]

Thanks again. So best thing is to do aerials midday I suppose?

No, it's not to use a CPL if you're shooting something it's not appropriate for...

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

No, it's not to use a CPL if you're shooting something it's not appropriate for...

Agreed.

A CPL is for managing reflections (which you sometimes want, other times don't). They also seem to saturate colors, but you don't need a CPL for that. However, some people here are fine with both, sticking the CPL on for deeper saturation and no reflections, and they don't even adjust the circular front-lens appropriately (some just stick it at 12 noon and leave it there, which means they haven't bothered to understand how a CPL works and probably don't want to, which is legit for them).

ND filters are for managing exposure (lowering it if you need to). On a drone, it's especially good for video, particularly if you want to control shutter speed (and there are reasons for that to get a certain cinematic look).

Some people here use ND filters for still photography as well, which is usually not what you want to do. All it does is lower the exposure, which can blur images due to slower shutter speeds.

Chris