Help on setting camera to shoot boat parade at night.

[Phil H]

We have our annual boat parade coming up this Saturday night and I thought I might take the drone up and get some shots either video or stills. I would appreciate any input on camera settings to do this event.
Phil H.

 

[iflyhelis]

We have our annual boat parade coming up this Saturday night and I thought I might take the drone up and get some shots either video or stills. I would appreciate any input on camera settings to do this event.
Phil H.

Of course you are not allowed to fly at night? But if I were do it in a non-legal form, I would say, you better have someone that is lighting up the area, because your Drone isn't a good film maker at night.

Kurt

 

[SoCalDude]

Of course you are not allowed to fly at night?

If he is flying recreationally, then flying at night is allowed, provided he has anti-collision lighting and follows other guidelines (such as not flying over unprotected people, etc).

 

[Phil H]

If he is flying recreationally, then flying at night is allowed, provided he has anti-collision lighting and follows other guidelines (such as not flying over unprotected people, etc).

Thanks, guys. I am a licensed Commercially rated pilot. Basically going to hover the craft about 30 feet above me to capture the boat parade.

 

[SoCalDude]

Thanks, guys. I am a licensed Commercially rated pilot. Basically going to hover the craft about 30 feet above me to capture the boat parade.

Are you sUAS rated? If not, then your flights are all recreational and you should go out and enjoy your night flying. Even if you have an sUAS rating, you can still fly as a hobbyist (just don't monetize your video!) Have fun!

So, to answer your original question, for stills, I would bracket your exposures (using the AEB-5 setting). This will increase your chances of a properly exposed night shot. For both video and stills, display the histogram and ensure that you don't have any blown-out hightlights (make sure nothing touches the right side of the histogram).

 

[Phil H]

Are you sUAS rated? If not, then your flights are all recreational and you should go out and enjoy your night flying. Even if you have an sUAS rating, you can still fly as a hobbyist (just don't monetize your video!) Have fun!

So, to answer your original question, for stills, I would bracket your exposures (using the AEB-5 setting). This will increase your chances of a properly exposed night shot. For both video and stills, display the histogram and ensure that you don't have any blown-out hightlights (make sure nothing touches the right side of the histogram).

Great thanks for the info. No money on this one, just for fun.
Phil

 

[SoCalDude]

Great thanks for the info. No money on this one, just for fun.
Phil

You're welcome.

Once you take a few AEB sequences, you can review the resulting pics and maybe zero-in on what setting works best (shutter speed, ISO, EV+/-) and then switch to regular photo mode and use those settings.

 

[Mako79]

Manual Video settings is a must.
White balance = Cloud. Auto will mess up the colour and create purplish hazes
ISO no less than 200. Anything higher will create heavy artefacts.
Metering = average
And most critical is lowest FPS. Change to PAL and nominate 24fps. Lower FPS = shutter open longer = more light can enter the lens.
Another thing you can try is to shoot at 4K and downscale to 1080p. This helps remove artefacts. Think of this, have you ever watched youtube in window mode? Noticed how clear it is? And then expand to full screen and noticed how pixelated it is?? This is downscaling.

 

[NoBiffBetter]

So are you saying you typically would want to lower your fps if shooting in a darker situation? Like if it was dusk but not dark yet.. Would shooting at 24fps be better than shooting at 30? This is makes sense and I'll have to try it.. If that's the case then whenever I'm in darker area with out much light, even if it's somewhere with a ton of shade, I will lower fps to allow more light to get to the lens between shutters . Do I have this right?


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[NoBiffBetter]

Also what the purpose of clicking the screen and locking AE? Like I get that it locks in your shutter speed so that it can't autofocus.. But is that how I should be shooting video all the time? Click around on the screen till I have the best looking video display on my tablet, then click the AE lock button? This way I would avoid having major dark spots and light spots during my video shoots correct? Sorry didn't mean to take this thread over. Just figured I'd ask cuz these guys seem to know this stuff well


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