Using a Mavic Pro photo as a centerfold

[Former Member]

A friend of mine was asked by his employer to take some pictures of the college to put in the centerfold of the college magazine. He took some pictures, but when he showed them on his laptop at the school, they said they werent clear enough. Im also worried that if they blow them up to use as a centerfold, the clarity will suffer further.

Does anyone have some tips as to what he can do to sharpen some of his photos post production, and also enhance them? He isnt familiar with any post software.

He didnt get paid for the work, and is doing it as a volunteer, as am I.

 

[Mike_Flys]

Tap to focus.
Shoot pano with save shots RAW
Pull the photos from the SD card onto a computer not through the app. Stitch them with good software ICE, Affinity Photo, ....
Don't enhance them much if you can help it. Save them with no compression.

 

[Meta4]

Does anyone have some tips as to what he can do to sharpen some of his photos post production, and also enhance them? He isnt familiar with any post software.

There's a limit to what you can do in software and you have to have something with the basics already there to start with.
Photoshop is for making good images better.
But if the images aren't properly focused or have motion blur, they aren't recoverable.

 

[Kilrah]

You can do a lot with an MP photo, but you need to shoot RAW and process it correctly.

 

[sixtin]

You have to use PS light
And u can make the pictures so much better
It’s easy and very useful

 

[Mr. Salty]

You have to use PS light
And u can make the pictures so much better
It’s easy and very useful

Not if the photos are out of focus to begin with.

If this guy doesn't know the first thing about digital photo editing this might not be the project for him to start with.

The college is getting what they paid for.

 

[Garritynet]

The only fx for soft photos is to shrink them down. That really only works if they're just slightly off focus and won't help here where you need them big. He's just going to have to retake them and try to stay at f4.

It would help to see his settings for the photo and maybe a crop of some part of the photo.

 

[Mike_Flys]

Start here:
https://store.dji.com/guides/mavic-pro-outdoor-shooting-tips/

 

[charliesRig]

Personaly I would shoot in Tripod mode In 4K and grab a shot out of the Video
and do it with sun High or if sun is not out Bright Cloudy day then try to Clean in Post edit...cR

 

[Meta4]

Personaly I would shoot in Tripod mode In 4K and grab a shot out of the Video
and do it with sun High or if sun is not out Bright Cloudy day then try to Clean in Post edit...cR

Tripod mode sounds like it would keep your camera still .... but it doesn't.
Tripod Mode simply slows the drone's speed and response to joystick input for flying in close quarters.
It does nothing for the camera stability.

Taking a frame from video is not the answer if someone wants high quality and bigger resolution.
Shooting stills, you can get 5472×3648 = 20MP
A 4K video frame from the Mavic 2 pro = 3840×2160 = 8.3 MP
And video is likely to be shot at a slow shutter speed as well so you end up with a smaller image that's less sharp.
Quite the opposite of what's required here.
You will always get much better stills by shooting stills than by taking a frame from video.

 

[AMann]

Shoot it in RAW mode and only with the MP2 parked in sky, be sure to use the lowest ISO possible but keep the shutter speed over 1/250, and give the school the original unedited RAW file- the JPG file is just to look at on a computer screen and should not be used by the printer.

EDIT: Try to use one of the middle aperture settings (the sweet spot), not the largest or smallest as the lens is not as sharp there, and learn to use the histogram to help adjust exposure too!

 

[TheFarmer]

If the magazine is a typical size, a centerfold would be 17 inches wide, plus about a half inch for bleed/trim. So at a standard magazine's 300 pixels per inch, you would need a file that is at least 5250 pixels wide. The quality and focus would have to be adequate because the picture could not be reduced to cover up any problems. Usually the graphic department at the magazine will do a much better job in fine-turning a photo than someone without printing experience, so it is best to give them the raw file. If you have done a lot of color grading, you can also supply a lower res file as "guidance" for them to follow.