Camera / Video ISO and settings advice

Questions & Answers
1

Morning all - I am just after some advice as I don’t know what happened but my camera settings appear to have changed without my knowledge and I want to understand what they should be for dark and light. I changed them as flew last night and could barely see a thing - then today in the sunlight the screen was white!

For the camera / video can someone please give me a standard ISO number and whatever the other figure is (forgotten the term now). I have adjusted so that all appears normal but I am conscious I may be a fair way from what it should be.

2

Easiest way to fix this, is to set ISO to auto and then turn it off again. Then do the same with white balance too.

Then adjust as you need them, each time before you shoot the photo or video.

Google is your friend, to learn the exposure triangle (ISO, Shutter Speed & Aperture) and white balance settings.

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3

Which make and model drone?

That sounds right :slight_smile:

No, not really :person_shrugging:t2:

We have no idea what your weather is like today, or tomorrow, or what time of day you’re flying, how high the sun is in the sky, what the daylight brightness level is, which direction your camera is facing compared to the direction of the sun, etc, etc, the list goes on.

You can expect to change these settings multiple times per flight in order to capture the best photo.

Or just put everything on “auto”, hope for the best, and spend some time working on the raw in post when you get home :blush:

4

Its a Mini 3 - ah maybe it is not in auto - I don’t know what has happened there as this is a new characteristic. I will try and change back to auto.

So far I have learnt that ISO has a huge affect on light - so - that makes sense. Shutter speed right? The other metric that you can adjust (1/1600 1/800) what is that and what affect does that have?

5

Right seems like it was on pro and not auto - so now I know how to access the settings I saw in pro.

Another question, out of interest how often do you clean your camera lens? It must get exposed to a fair few things so do you give it a wipe with a glass cloth and fluid every so often?

6

The way ISO works, is often explained like the volume control on audio equipment. The more you turn it, the greater the chance of the audio distorting. Hence the term “Noise” in a photo.

Best practice is to leave ISO at its native setting, usually 100.

However you need balance that with the shutter speed and lens aperture otherwise the image will be too bright or too dark / out of focus / blurred.

The aperture is the size of the opening of the lens, similar to the iris within the human eye. The wider it’s open, more light gets in (amount & speed).

Most drones don’t give you any control of the aperture, so you need to counteract that, by reducing or increasing the shutter speed, to reduce or increase the light hitting the sensor.

Further details in the below link.

That’s why most people leave their camera on auto and let the cameras computer make the decision. However regular photographers like to take full control of the image exposure by using manual made (set their own ISO, Aperture & Shutter Speed)

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7

ISO is a measure of the sensitivity of the camera light sensor. The higher the number the more light the sensor absorbs during the exposure, with the trade-off that at high ISO the image becomes ‘noisy’, with purple speckling.

Apeture is the size of the hole behind the lens that light enters the sensor chamber through. Higher numbers mean a smaller hole, so less light, but the smaller the hole the greater the depth of field (DOF) in which the image is in sharp focus.

Shutter speed is the length of time each frame is exposed to light for, expressed in fractions of a second; obviously, the slower the speed the more light gets into the sensor chamber. A high shutter speed reduces speed blur on objects that are moving, and in the frame if the camera itself is moving, which it will be if the drone is moving and which it will be quite rapidly if the drone is being turned.

These settings can be ignored/left on ‘auto’, or used to achieve creative effects and manipulate the image to give the ‘feel’ that you want. In addition, white balance will compensate for the effects of different types of ambient lighting to make an image look more natural. All of these are tools at your disposal. Filming in low light, for example after sunset or at night, may benefit from a slower shutter speed, wider apeture, or higher ISO or a combinaition so as to avoid the negative effects of those settings as far as possible. Or, in very bright sunlight, a faster shutter, smaller apeture, and low ISO can prevent glare and overexposure ‘burnout’ in an image.

The automatic features of the drone’s camera will do this for you to some extent, but manually overrriding them can often achieve better results. I’m happy to leave my settings on auto for most filming, but will happily use the settings to manipulate an image when I want to, and have the time. If you can, try them out on practice flights, play with them in different light conditions to see what they can do until you get used to them.

The camera, it is said, cannot lie, but a digital camera cannot tell the truth…

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8

Forget drones for a second, maybe the best approach is to understand what ISO/Aperture and Shutter speed actually mean as it relates to photography or taking video. Here’s a very simple starting point. Aperture is the hole in the lense eg f/1 = big hole through lense which means almost all light gets through and eg f/11 is much smaller hole. Fast shutter speed captures fast moving things, but less light hits the sensor. Thus, small Aperture and fast shutter speed = very dark/black/no image or big aperture with slow shutter speed = way too bright an image. You have to get the balance between aperture and shutter correct…and pleasantly, the relationship to get correct exposure produces some nice effects like background blur and depth of field to name two. The general relationship between setting an Aperture and Shutter speed is to render whatever you’re photographing to ‘18% grey’ using an ISO of 100 so your main subject or scene is correctly exposed (ie looks good!). As ISO value is increased, noise in the image increases…but increasing ISO means you can use shorter shutter speeds to capture moving subjects in low light. There is much more to the above and we’re all
learning but this might get you started somewhere.

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9

Thanks, that assists a lot.

10

Back to the Exposure Triangle, as per my earlier post.

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11

And if you’re finding all of that a little too much?
Leave iso at 100. Turn over exposure warning on in the app settings. Play with shutter speeds until you have no warnings on screen. As far as digital is concerned you never want over exposure. Blown out detail in the highlights can not be recovered. Underexposure usually can, so it’s better to underexpose. Also switch on bracketing. This will take 3 or 5 photos depending on settings and all at different exposures. One will be pretty good. You can then stack them together for a well exposed single image.
Go find Cambridge in Colour and spend a little time on it, your photos will thank you.

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12

Which leads me onto my next question then, this 4K camera, how does it take “4K” photos? I don’t find the photos are particularly good, in fact some I have taken of sunsets produce very grey, blurry and blocky foregrounds. I don’t have this with any other camera, and the others are off a lower quality.

13

Of which devices are you speaking?

14

What format are your photos in? I’m wondering if you are viewing the RAW thumbnail instead of the actual image.

Post one up for us to check.

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15

With my dslr camera, I usually expose for the brightest part of the frame no matter how dark that makes the monitor screen image look, because the detail and light can be recovered in post-editing. Exposing for the frame as a whole will mesn that the bulk of the image is correctly exposed but parts of the sky will be irrecoverably burned out. Sky, white clouds, reflected sunlight on shiny objects like cars, surf, yacht sails, white water are all the sort of thing to look out for.

16

You also have the option of EV compensation on DJI drones, when using manual setting.

I usually leave mine set to -1, so that it’s slightly under exposed.

17

They don’t, usually it will be 12 megapixel image, unless you changed the option to 48 megapixel. Then the drone will take 4 images in fast succession and combine them.

That’s if your model of drone, gives you that option.

After checking the user manual for the mini 3, it only has the option for 12 megapixel photos.

IMG_1196
IMG_11961124×1336 179 KB

18

It definitely has the option for 48MP. Source: I have one.

19

I think they rolled it out in a firmware update

Not really 48mp though :wink:

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20

The term 4K is exclusively video related, not photographs. The quad sensor on the mini4 pro can be toggled between 12 and 48 mp. Maybe experiment with these at different times of the day as there is a trade off between the two depending on scene and available light - some folks perceive 48mp is sharper…I don’t though.

Night mode is excellent too (at night!!). And don’t forget when looking at a photo on a 32” monitor, checking for anomalies is kinda fruitless, unless you’re intending to print road sign sized posters as opposed to more usually 8x10”