Any tips for taking stills

[boxer82003]

I enjoy taking a lot of still pics, unfortunately I find the quality of the still photos to be lesser than the video.

Any advice for getting better quality pictures?

 

[FotoGeek]

Shoot in RAW and take multiple images of the same subject and hope one comes out sharp.

 

[WetDog]

Use RAW, use manual control. Unlike video where you can expect widely varying exposure conditions in a still photo you have plenty of time to figure an exposure. Using the histogram, push the exposure until you are just under the maximum. Look up 'expose to the right' on photography sites for more info. This prevents you from having to push up exposure with concomitant increase in noise.

Try to get as fast a shutter speed as is possible while keeping to reasonable ISO numbers. The Phantom camera is NOT a high ISO queen unlike modern DSLRS. Of course,,the entire rig cost less the a lot of my lenses. Part of this might be moderating your expectations. It's an 'OK' still camera, not a great one. Don't plan on heavy cropping. If you are using Photoshop, take advantage of the supplied lens corrections.

Careful post processing is a must. You cannot do heavy handed adjustments with a Phantom RAW file. It will fall apart into a noisy mess. Subtle sharpening. Subtle noise reduction. The HDR functionality works well.

I find it takes more work to pull out o good image from the drone as compared to my D800. But you can't get that perspective on the ground.

 

[Meta4]

My tip would be to concentrate on your lighting.
Try to shoot with the sun behind the drone rather than shooting into the sun.

 

[jimerb]

A program like Lightroom can make a world of difference. Using a polarizer filter in daylight can reduce glare and make the photos more vibrant.

 

[boxer82003]

One of my biggest issues is the' re a bit blurry out of focus. Not so much lighting.

 

[WetDog]

One of my biggest issues is the' re a bit blurry out of focus. Not so much lighting.

1. Watch your shutter speed - faster is better
2. Balance your props if need be. You can generally mitigate unbalanced props by taking multiple images. Film is cheap.
3. You WILL get blurred images compared to a high end ground based camera. The P3 camera is pretty good, not great. You've got this weeney little sensor and a fixed element lens. There is only so much they can do for $400 (the price of a camera).
4. You might have a bad or unfocused sensor. A while back there were some threads on sensors that were not sharp throughout the entire field - the left side was sharper than the right or vice versa. Again, I wonder if people are expecting too much out of these cameras with serious pixel peeping, but they did demonstrate that something wasn't correctly aligned.

 

[ashtonhess]

post a few of your pictures it will probably help everyone answer.

 

[tcope]

Don't take just one photo... take several one right after the other. You will usually find one of those photos is better than the rest. Taking multiple photos from the exact same location does not cost any more money.