Stills from the Cascades

[xjjon]

New flyer - here are some shots from my first outing. These were from Mt. Baker National Forest in Washington.

I primarily do landscape photography and wanted to try some aerial imaging (and get a new toy!).

Overall thoughts:

• Great image quality when light is good (after sunrise, day time, etc)
• RAW files are great when shooting ISO100
• Quality starts to degrade significantly past ISO400
• Lens doesn't have great flare/glare resistance
• 28mm is a pretty good choice of lens for aerial photography. I wouldn't mind a 24MM or 35MM either, but that means 28MM is likely the best fit since it's in between.

Any thoughts would be appreciated Hope to have more to share in the coming days.






Getting pretty dark for this shot - somewhat disappointed by the low light performance, but quality is still acceptable.


Disappointed in the flare resistance in the lens, but will work around it in the future (this is a test shot to try that).

 

[koopyetz]

Even with the flare resistance still a beautiful shot.
Thank you for your thoughts too. I’m trying to get better at taking photos and appreciate your tips.
Hope to see more from you in the future.

 

[xjjon]

Thanks, glad you liked them.

One thing I did notice from aerial images is that light is much more pronounced, especially 30-90 mins after sunrise. Having the height advantage allows us to see over the shadows which really adds great contrast to shots.

 

[IDigDrones]

All of them lovely shots!

 

[macfawlty]

They look really nice. Did you do any post-processing in Lightroom or are these straight off the card? Were you using polarizer or ND?

Perhaps the lens flare would be less with a PL filter. When filming it can be used to dramatic effect. The cloud/sunset shot is actually perfectly exposed as you have to expose for the sky and except that the landscape will be mostly in shadow. Just use the shadow and texture as best you can. You could saturate the sky a bit and lift the shadows in the trees and add a little saturation.

 

[xjjon]

They look really nice. Did you do any post-processing in Lightroom or are these straight off the card? Were you using polarizer or ND?

Perhaps the lens flare would be less with a PL filter. When filming it can be used to dramatic effect. The cloud/sunset shot is actually perfectly exposed as you have to expose for the sky and except that the landscape will be mostly in shadow. Just use the shadow and texture as best you can. You could saturate the sky a bit and lift the shadows in the trees and add a little saturation.

Lightroom, I usually will shoot -1 or -2 exposure. For the third shot, the original was pretty dark, shot at ISO 320 but when shadows and exposure were lifted you can really start to see the grain and loss of detail.

Filters haven't came in but I will try some shots with the PL after.

Here's a shot from my 70-200 as comparison, although without the sun in the shot so no glare to compare with. The shot from the DJI actually holds it's own pretty well (except loss of detail and some grain) but that's mostly due to a much larger sensor (sony a7r iii) and glass that costs more than the drone lol. Please excuse the watermark! auto exported from lightroom and it's the only copy I have on my phone right now.

 

[macfawlty]

Lightroom, I usually will shoot -1 or -2 exposure. For the third shot, the original was pretty dark, shot at ISO 320 but when shadows and exposure were lifted you can really start to see the grain and loss of detail.

Filters haven't came in but I will try some shots with the PL after.

Here's a shot from my 70-200 as comparison, although without the sun in the shot so no glare to compare with. The shot from the DJI actually holds it's own pretty well (except loss of detail and some grain) but that's mostly due to a much larger sensor (sony a7r iii) and glass that costs more than the drone lol. Please excuse the watermark! auto exported from lightroom and it's the only copy I have on my phone right now.

View attachment 80727

Have you done panos with the Mavic? Those mountain scenes are logically pano shots. Easy enough to crop the composition in post.

You probably know, but there’s a balance point between sharpness and noise reduction. Slide NR to 25 or so, then bring sharpness up to 30 or so, hold the option key and drag the masking slider to affect only the shadow areas.

In my experience, the RAW files from the Mavic cameras can’t take a lot of adjustment in either NR or sharpness compared to an A7rIII. Bring the black point down if it’s real noticeable. I avoid even 400 ISO until it’s nearly dark and I’ve got the clear filter on.

The shutter speed is also a factor. I record mostly video with my M2P at 1/50 and ND filters. If my purpose was taking stills, I’d leave off the NDs and shoot a faster shutter speed for a sharper image. Photos are good, but for me the magic is in the move.

The PL might reduce the lens flare or at least the glare. I often add a lens flare in post to dress up the organic one so it looks intentional.

I only have the NDs. I use the 32 and 64 more than the lesser ones for video, switching them out as the light changes. During the day, I’ll compose for 2/3 ground plane, 1/3 sky. As it gets close to sunset I like to use foreground elements as silhouette and expose for the sky, 2/3 sky, 1/3 ground.

 

[xjjon]

Have you done panos with the Mavic? Those mountain scenes are logically pano shots. Easy enough to crop the composition in post.

You probably know, but there’s a balance point between sharpness and noise reduction. Slide NR to 25 or so, then bring sharpness up to 30 or so, hold the option key and drag the masking slider to affect only the shadow areas.

In my experience, the RAW files from the Mavic cameras can’t take a lot of adjustment in either NR or sharpness compared to an A7rIII. Bring the black point down if it’s real noticeable. I avoid even 400 ISO until it’s nearly dark and I’ve got the clear filter on.

The shutter speed is also a factor. I record mostly video with my M2P at 1/50 and ND filters. If my purpose was taking stills, I’d leave off the NDs and shoot a faster shutter speed for a sharper image. Photos are good, but for me the magic is in the move.

The PL might reduce the lens flare or at least the glare. I often add a lens flare in post to dress up the organic one so it looks intentional.

I only have the NDs. I use the 32 and 64 more than the lesser ones for video, switching them out as the light changes. During the day, I’ll compose for 2/3 ground plane, 1/3 sky. As it gets close to sunset I like to use foreground elements as silhouette and expose for the sky, 2/3 sky, 1/3 ground.

I haven't tried the panos yet - although I will usually pan a few shots manually since I prefer to stitch them in post myself.

I found the images drop off after ISO100 pretty quickly, not a huge issue but good to know the limitations of the RAW files. Shooting -1/-2 does help a bit with keeping ISO under control though. The lighting from above is definitely different than on the ground though, had a few shots where it was pretty dark to shoot on the ground but above looking down was still getting good light.

Thanks for the tips, good to know. I haven't done much video but will start to try some more over time