Help! Overexposed and bland photos - Phantom 4 Pro.

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I have taken quite a few photos with my P4P - some turn out great while others just look terrible. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. The two greener photos were taken today, but just look crappy. The other one looks fine. My white balance is on auto so I don't know what the problem is.
 

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I have taken quite a few photos with my P4P - some turn out great while others just look terrible. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. The two greener photos were taken today, but just look crappy. The other one looks fine. My white balance is on auto so I don't know what the problem is.
Frequently when someone asks a similar question about high or low exposure, turns out to be their EV is set too high or too low.
 
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I have taken quite a few photos with my P4P - some turn out great while others just look terrible. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. The two greener photos were taken today, but just look crappy. The other one looks fine. My white balance is on auto so I don't know what the problem is.
The most likely cause is that you have accidentally set your exposure compensation to overexpose.
Look at the line of camera data near the top of the screen and check the number that is under EV
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It looks like yours is about 1 stop over so the number might be something like EV +1.0
You need to dial it back close to EV 0.
 
Are you doing Auto exposure? If so, stop that.

Put it in manual. Auto exposure can be fooled easily. Especially large areas of green foliage. The meter wants everything to be exposed for 18% grey. Foliage is darker than that.

Bring up the histogram and use it to see if you are over exposed or under.
Use your eyes to judge the scene for a good exposure. Stop down or use faster shutter if it’s too bright.
You’ll have more consistent exposures this way on a given scene or Flight.
 
I agree with other comments that say most likely your Exposure Compensation (EC) is set to +1.0 or thereabouts. Press in on the recessed, ridged adjustment wheel on the right top corner of the remote control. Each press will toggle between adjusting the ISO and adjusting the EC. Which one is selected will show as that value being highlighted on the display. Get it on EC and adjust it down to 0 and maybe -1/3 stop depending on your subject matter.
 
I have taken quite a few photos with my P4P - some turn out great while others just look terrible. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. The two greener photos were taken today, but just look crappy. The other one looks fine. My white balance is on auto so I don't know what the problem is.
Here is with 5 quick tweaks in LR. Looks much better. Watch your histogram on the screen when shooting. if you are heavy to the right or left.... you get yuk (with out going into complete detail). Lightroom is your friend.
 

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Also set your white balance to 5600 instead of auto. Like was said lightroom is your friend. Great software. Also pick a photo profile that works for you. I use DCine RAW and adjust everything in post with lightroom.
 
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Also set your white balance to 5600 instead of auto. Like was said lightroom is your friend. Great software. Also pick a photo profile that works for you. I use DCine RAW and adjust everything in post with lightroom.

Yep. The “Sunny” WB on the Phantom is way warm...
 
My white balance is on auto so I don't know what the problem is.

Hi rjohnc3,

All of the tips here are fine, but when flying it's better to have the easiest and quick solution because you must have more focused on your bird. I am a seasoned photographer and my advice would be to only change the EV (Exposure Compensation) setting on the right dial as mentioned above. Leave everything in "Auto", don't mess around with WB because outdoors and in the air the quality of light is different from indoors and on the ground; it changes all the time whenever the drone moves and it'd be very difficult to figure out what's the best exposure.

So the catch is when you see the sky is very, very bright, decrease the EV value starting on -1, then take a picture, then go downward -2, -3 and so on. You'll see that the image gets darken as you lower this value. If you the other way around, your images are going to result brighter, overexposed or washed as it's called usually. I'd suggest you that you first learn the basics of photography before jumping on Manual mode when you can control everything, especially the Aperture, Shutter Speed, and the ISO.

In spite to what you mentioned, I see your pictures very well. Good luck!
 
So the catch is when you see the sky is very, very bright, decrease the EV value starting on -1, then take a picture, then go downward -2, -3 and so on. You'll see that the image gets darken as you lower this value.
At EV -1.0 the image will be noticeably dark, by EV-3.0 it will be closer to black.

The OP hasn't been back to see any comments after the first two.
 
The OP hasn't been back to see any comments after the first two.
As is so often the case, eh? So many people spend their time trying to help solve the problem, and the OP is gone for good.

I'll often use 3 shot burst, sometimes 5... AEB I think it's called
 
I just looked at the first jpg - overexposed and way too sharp. I watched as many youtube tutorials as I could when I started out and also went up and experimented with settings until I figured out what I was doing. Nothing beats learning, trial and error and practice.
 
If one shoots DNGs then
some under- or over-exposure don't matter.
Exposure can be corrected later via
Photoshop or similar program.
Same for JPGs, although chance of
creating image artifacts during correction...

As to why some images appear lighter:
(2) examples in OP dominated
by darker trees that caused
auto camera settings to "open up",
(not enough brighter road-sidewalks to prevent it)
whereas third image included enough brighter
sky-clouds to prevent opening up...
 
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If one shoots DNGs then
some under- or over-exposure don't matter.
Exposure can be corrected later via
Photoshop or similar program.
Same for JPGs, although chance of
creating image artifacts during correction...

As to why some images appear lighter:
(2) examples in OP dominated
by darker trees that caused
auto camera settings to "open up",
(not enough brighter road-sidewalks to prevent it)
whereas third image included enough brighter
sky-clouds to prevent opening up...

Which is why I recommend shooting in Manual mode. And leanring to read the Histogram.
 
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manual mode = whole new skill set to learn for some
reading histograms = whole new skill set to learn for some
adjusting exposure afterwards = whole new skill set to learn for some
all this can be undesirable to those wanting simpler quicker fixes...

I set f4.5 permanently since f4-4.5 is irrefutable highest image quality
as reported previously by many on this forum & verified by me,
& all else is automatic via "A" setting, no fiddling during flights.
Any minor exposure adjustments & other enhancements to my
DNGs are afterwards...
To each their own...
 
I like to have the the over exposure warning on (zebra stripes). I shoot DNG and use the dial, as others have mentioned, to bring the exposure just down enough to remove all (or mostly all) over exposure warnings. Then it is super easy, in Lightroom, to bring up the exposure a tiny bit to get perfect light.
 

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