What's going on with these photos?

So I got a Mavic 2 Zoom for Christmas and I love it!

However, I don’t understand why sometimes peoples faces are overexposed (by the way shooting in auto)

Overexposed:

Okay photo:

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Wasn’t 100%, but I’ve had a google and it looks like the M2 does centre-weighted metering by default, so is trying to set the exposure as best it can for whatever is in the middle of your picture.

In the first one, that’s a dark jacket so your lights are blown (but your jacket looks pretty good). In the second picture it’s the patch of light grass, which is much lighter than the jackets, and your faces are better exposed.

Haven’t tried it, but there’s a post here on MavicPilots talking about how to adjust the metering for your picture if you’re framing off centre.

Set white balance to cloudy and leave it there unless its a Med sun type of day.

Shoot in raw, makes its easier to compensate in post too.

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I do shoot RAW already

Do you have the histogram on? This helps immensely with putting you in the ball park for correct exposure and also to do post production on the image.

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No, I don’t

The first photo especially there is very little contrast for camera to work with, there is no proper dark or light tones it’s all ‘very grey’.

As @timmyp said if you use the histogram it will give you a clue.

Why would I leave the white balance on cloudy I’ve always changed it according to the weather when I was flying with my Phantom 4

I think the main question is ‘why leave it in auto?’
You can use the manual focus to set the exposure for a point in the framed picture, use the histogram to get the right balance of light and adjust accordingly. Then maybe shoot in AEB too.

With auto settings you can get the correct settings but if anything changes like a cloud passing over, something else coming into frame and the auto focus adjusting etc. then it shows up in the picture.

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Well I haven’t yet learnt manual photography properly

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I’m still brushing up on it too!! There are some great YouTube videos that I have found helpful if you would like some more info.

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Do you think @milkmanchris idea of leaving WB in cloudy a good idea?

I do think with this one you’re problem is that your exposure defaults to the centre in auto (in both of the photos you’ve posted the centre is pretty well exposed). If you’re sticking with auto then it’s just a matter of understanding what you’re exposing against and how to tweak it (using the method in the link I posted earlier). For particularly tricky exposures you could consider switching to HDR mode.

Would it be better to constantly stay in HDR?

I can’t see why not, unless like he says it’s a really bright day. But you can bet he’s in manual and will adjust to give himself the best exposure and the ability to adjust in post.

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This is a good vid for exposing exposure and how to use the histogram Alex.
In fact the guy who does this video ‘Drone Film Guide’ has many good videos of different aspects of cinematography and photography from drones.

What about if I leave the WB on auto and adjust my EV values, would that work as well? Happy New Year :champagne: by the way

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Alex have a read of the following on colour temperature to see if it explains it any easier than I can.

I was taught, many moons ago with both manual and hand held meters, shooting film that I was developing and printing myself.

You learn the limitations quite quickly and what will fix in post. Underexposed is ‘usually’ easier to fix, so I mainly go that way if I cannot get it right using camera settings.

When you’re out shooting switch white balance between the presets and see what difference it makes.

The biggest beauty of digital is you take thousands of shots at no cost. Try bracketing see if that helps.

Apparently changing the EV will help

It wouldn’t with the example you gave here.

As simple as it is, EV+ makes shit brighter and - darker (whole image).

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