camera settings for

[pilot ss]

Great posts guys extremely helpful, I too am trying to learn the camera settings a bit more in depth on my P4P that arrived today..
Mostly using for stills, but also clips.
So basic settings for a nice sunny day, over water 1/60 at f ? @ ISO 100 ? Not too sure on what the aperture should be here if i have the ISO low, or should I have the ISO higher, and the aperture lower?

Cheers

 

[With The Birds]

Great posts guys extremely helpful, I too am trying to learn the camera settings a bit more in depth on my P4P that arrived today..
Mostly using for stills, but also clips.
So basic settings for a nice sunny day, over water 1/60 at f ? @ ISO 100 ? Not too sure on what the aperture should be here if i have the ISO low, or should I have the ISO higher, and the aperture lower?

Cheers

Nice sunny conditions at ISO 100 and 1/60s shutter your fstop would need to be somewhere around f22. Given, as I understand it, the smallest aperture available on the P4P is f11 the slowest shutter you could get away with to avoid overexposure would be around 1/200s. Lower apertures (f numbers) admit more light requiring ISO to be lowered or shutter speed increased.

 

[KevMo Photog]

Great posts guys extremely helpful, I too am trying to learn the camera settings a bit more in depth on my P4P that arrived today..
Mostly using for stills, but also clips.
So basic settings for a nice sunny day, over water 1/60 at f ? @ ISO 100 ? Not too sure on what the aperture should be here if i have the ISO low, or should I have the ISO higher, and the aperture lower?

Cheers

You can figure out your aperture by just looking at your histogram from there. Far left of Histogram is your blacks or darks. The far right of the scale is your highlights or brighter areas. Try to get these as centered as you can. No info way to the right and no info way to the left will help you keep detail in the whole shot. Also, it's better to move all of your exposure as far right on the Histogram without blowing it out or going to far. This will keep your darker areas a little less noisy for you. I usually look at my Histogram before each pass I take.

 

[h3nno]

So you guys are adjusting ISO and aperture together to get the perfect shot? Feels like that's quite tricky to do manually. Having just one variable to control yourself would be a little nicer.

 

[With The Birds]

So you guys are adjusting ISO and aperture together to get the perfect shot? Feels like that's quite tricky to do manually. Having just one variable to control yourself would be a little nicer.

As a general rule the ISO setting will be the lowest you can get away with to keep the shutter speed at or above twice the frame rate for video or higher than the design limit of the stabilisation of the gimble in a hover for stills (faster if shooting while in flight).

 

[h3nno]

As a general rule the ISO setting will be the lowest you can get away with to keep the shutter speed at or above twice the frame rate for video or higher than the design limit of the stabilisation of the gimble in a hover for stills (faster if shooting while in flight).

Ok.

So if my frame rate is at 60, my shutter at 120, then I put iso to 100. Then I try get the best possible shot possible by modifying the aperture, increasing f-stop if it's too bright. If that doesn't work, I start upping the ISO while leaving aperture at setting that seemed best? Would be cool to so a video of someones workflow.

 

[With The Birds]

Ok.

So if my frame rate is at 60, my shutter at 120, then I put iso to 100. Then I try get the best possible shot possible by modifying the aperture, increasing f-stop if it's too bright. If that doesn't work, I start upping the ISO while leaving aperture at setting that seemed best? Would be cool to so a video of someones workflow.

Yes, but for your example above in bright conditions even at iso100 f11 you would be at least a stop overexposed as your minimum aperture (I believe, I don't own a P4P is f11.

 

[KevMo Photog]

Ok.

So if my frame rate is at 60, my shutter at 120, then I put iso to 100. Then I try get the best possible shot possible by modifying the aperture, increasing f-stop if it's too bright. If that doesn't work, I start upping the ISO while leaving aperture at setting that seemed best? Would be cool to so a video of someones workflow.

Thats pretty much right man. But if in bright sun you'll be stopping your camera down which I means a bigger number like almost to F11 or so. The sweet spot for these lenses is more like F4.5- f5.6 or so. F11 can cause some weird flares and diffraction issues I have been told. So you will have to use ND Filters to cut down that extra light by opening up to F5.6. In bright daylight you should never be off of 100 ISO! So that's locked. Then next is your shutter to be set at double your frame rate. Get that close as you can. So that's locked down. Now all that's left is your aperture. Try to get it in the neighborhood of F4-F5.6 and your golden! It will take an ND 8 or maybe 16 to get you there. Remember stopping down means closing your aperture smaller allowing less light in. But It's a bigger number. So confusing at first.

 

[Meta4]

So you guys are adjusting ISO and aperture together to get the perfect shot? Feels like that's quite tricky to do manually. Having just one variable to control yourself would be a little nicer.

It's pretty simple to set the camera to Aperture priority, select your aperture and ISO and let the camera choose an appropriate shutter speed.

 

[KevMo Photog]

It's pretty simple to set the camera to Aperture priority, select your aperture and ISO and let the camera choose an appropriate shutter speed.

But you still want that shutter speed thats chosen to be double frame rate for less jitter as I'm sure you know Meta4.

 

[Meta4]

But you still want that shutter speed thats chosen to be double frame rate for less jitter as I'm sure you know Meta4.

That's only a consideration for video.

 

[KevMo Photog]

That's only a consideration for video.

Absolutely! Guess I should have ask if he was worried about both or not. LOL

 

[With The Birds]

Absolutely! Guess I should have ask if he was worried about both or not. LOL

The OP asked abouti

Thats pretty much right man. But if in bright sun you'll be stopping your camera down which I means a bigger number like almost to F11 or so. The sweet spot for these lenses is more like F4.5- f5.6 or so. F11 can cause some weird flares and diffraction issues I have been told. So you will have to use ND Filters to cut down that extra light by opening up to F5.6. In bright daylight you should never be off of 100 ISO! So that's locked. Then next is your shutter to be set at double your frame rate. Get that close as you can. So that's locked down. Now all that's left is your aperture. Try to get it in the neighborhood of F4-F5.6 and your golden! It will take an ND 8 or maybe 16 to get you there. Remember stopping down means closing your aperture smaller allowing less light in. But It's a bigger number. So confusing at first.

He will need ND 16 or ND 32 to get f4 or 5.6 at 1/60 TV.

 

[KevMo Photog]

The OP asked abouti

He will need ND 16 or ND 32 to get f4 or 5.6 at 1/60 TV.

I think he could get by with an 8 or a 16 With The Birds. I have been using 8 and 16 mostly on a P4 and it was always fixed at F 2.8. Of course most ND sets have all 3 anyway.

 

[With The Birds]

I think he could get by with an 8 or a 16 With The Birds. I have been using 8 and 16 mostly on a P4 and it was always fixed at F 2.8. Of course most ND sets have all 3 anyway.

I'm going by the described expected shooting conditions, ie bright sunny, and the desired frame rate of 1/60s (prescribed shutter speed of 1/125). If you remember the sunny 16 rule for correct exposure at ISO 100 shutter speed = 1/ISO @ f16. We are faced with a simple calculation, if we want 1/120 as our shutter speed we would probably use f22 (to avoid blown highlights given he is flying over water) so do get to f4 or f5.6 aperture we need 4 or 5 stops of ND filter meaning a 16 or 32 in needed. As you probably know, once we loose the highlight detail no amount of work in post can recover what's not recorded.

 

[KevMo Photog]

I'm going by the described expected shooting conditions, ie bright sunny, and the desired frame rate of 1/60s (prescribed shutter speed of 1/125). If you remember the sunny 16 rule for correct exposure at ISO 100 shutter speed = 1/ISO @ f16. We are faced with a simple calculation, if we want 1/120 as our shutter speed we would probably use f22 (to avoid blown highlights given he is flying over water) so do get to f4 or f5.6 aperture we need 4 or 5 stops of ND filter meaning a 16 or 32 in needed. As you probably know, once we loose the highlight detail no amount of work in post can recover what's not recorded.

You are spot on man. I guess I live where it's never quite that bright. LOL. As I have rarely had to use a 32 for my stuff. But yes, I've been living by the sunny 16 rule for many many years.

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

Great advice guys....

 

[pilot ss]

Any tips for not letting waves and sand be overexposed? Think I have been having the histogram too one sided (to the right,) so I can't do a lot about the details in the whites that I have lost in post. Also find it very hard to actually fly when the image is so flat, very hard to see on the screen where I am flying..?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[KevMo Photog]

Any tips for not letting waves and sand be overexposed? Think I have been having the histogram too one sided (to the right,) so I can't do a lot about the details in the whites that I have lost in post. Also find it very hard to actually fly when the image is so flat, very hard to see on the screen where I am flying..?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

First, why is your screen so flat? When you first get ready to make your pass or shot you need to get your Histogram right. And if your not doing much post as far as contrast and color grading. I would set your camera on Color Mode NONE. That way it looks prettier on screen while flying for you to see better. It's possible you were in Auto Exposure Mode too. Which could be slighltly overexposing your sand and waves. You can change the EV at the bottom of camera settings menu to a negative EV and that would fix your sand. But a little research on camera settings on Youtube will really help too.

 

[MikeA57]

White Balance.

Good thread.