Looking for high end landscape photographers using the P4P.

[JeffreyS]

As you push the right thumbwheel (click, click) you'll see the exposure parameters changing to blue.
When the field you want to change is highlighted in blue, turning the thumbwheel will adjust that setting.
Here the aperture is highlighted and you can change it with the dial.
There is no need to do it through the screen as mentioned in post #13.

Thanks so much Meta4. That was useful info. I enjoyed your photos, too.

I have an approach that is not that common with photographers these days especially drone photographers. I am a fine art landscape (among other subjects) photographer, and my goal is large hi-rez gallery quality prints. I shoot with a 50 mpxl Canon 5Dsr on a tripod and print on large format printers. My prints are stunning, sharp, and very detailed. I don't expect to get similar results from a drone camera, but I hope to get close. I have no doubt that I will get excellent results for posting on the internet. There you can't tell if a good looking photo was made with a $5K camera, a drone, a cheap point and shoot or an iPhone. I'm sure I'll figure all this out. My photo website is back on line, www.jeffreysipress.com.[/QUOTE]

 

[Meta4]

I shoot with a 50 mpxl Canon 5Dsr on a tripod and print on large format printers. My prints are stunning, sharp, and very detailed. I don't expect to get similar results from a drone camera, but I hope to get close.

I was in a client's office recently and was very impressed with some 36" prints on the wall and then realised that they were my photos from the P4 pro.
You can get quite good single images from the Phantom's camera and I would expect some of my panoramas could still look good at 8 feet.

 

[JeffreyS]

Good to know. At some point I imagine the Zenmuse system outdoes the phantom quality. Maybe someday I’ll have an aircraft that I can hang my Fuji Xpro2 from. That’s s fabulous mirrorless system and I can finally use longer focal length lenses. I’d love a 100mm or longer lens on a drone.

 

[budwiser27]

Here are a couple of examples to give you an idea what can be achieved with your Phantom
I love my Nikon equipment but it won't go to the places to get images like these.

Are any of these 180 panos or just regular shots?

 

[CFI-I]

A search of this forum did not reveal that high quality landscape photography was a big interest here. I am a professional photographer and produce dramatic hi res images and prints using top o the line digital camera equipment. I want to get as close to that as I can with my Phantom 4 Pro plus v2.0. It's my entry to drones so I didn't start with the much more expensive models. I've already learned that video and photographic approaches and equipment settings are quite different. I'd like to chat with like minded users. Or, do I have to figure it all out on my own? Thanks! You can see my work at www.jeffreysipress.com.

Hi Jeffrey...
As you have seen from other posts there are tremendous possibilities w/ you P4P. You might also consider using an airplane (not as expensive as a helicopter) and going up your self at least a few times. I shot w/ a Pentax 6x7 and Pentax 645 most of the time. Now I shoot w/ a Nikon D300. The range of lenses is a terrific advantage but the cost of operating the P4P is an advantage too. You might enjoy my website TerryKetron.com. It isn't tweaked for mobile devices yet so a desktop or laptop will give you a better viewing experience. If you decide to try going up yourself send me an email on my contact page and I'll be glad to offer you a few tips for "in airplane" shooting.
Terry / aerial photos since 1968

 

[uke]

I have gotten some great pictures with the P4P. I'm a Fine Art Landscape Guy Wannabe. Normally shoot with a GFX 50S. The P4P is excellent for those unique or otherwise impossible shots. Just pay attention to your settings.

 

[furthertofly]

Digital photography is a 90% software-driven activity and the way to become good at it is to focus on the software. Never stop learning and practicing your editing workflow. Photo hobbyists who obsess about hardware, as this thread seems to do, face limited growth and success.

I have flown the P4P+, experimenting with it, for about two years. I have been making serious money from art photography for about 10 years, but I'm not yet fully professional. When I wanted to try drone photography I shopped for the camera first, the drone second, within my budget constraints, which led me to the P4P+. My assessment of the hardware is this: The drone is a very stable, reliable and easy-to-learn platform for a camera. The camera/sensor itself is a generation or two behind today's technology, but produces a good enough image that solid editing skills can succeed with. The DJI Go software -- camera controls, processor and communications, is really, really good at getting the most out of this camera hardware.

Here's what I recommend to become a good drone photographer: Before you even try the drone, become a good photo editor of all kinds of photography. Take thousands of photos with whatever camera is handy and edit incessantly with Photoshop or some equivalent suite like On1 or even the dumbed-down Luminar. Follow some great photographers and try to imitate their looks (but not their photos). Try different genres like portraits, sports, street, just to learn new stuff. As you move these skills to drone photography, explore, master and commit to memory the DJI camera and software controls. You don't have time to fumble around when you're flying. Imagine and stalk your photo ideas, plan carefully, fly lots and you'll get lucky now and then.
https://furthertofly.com

 

[Camera King]

Thanks for this thread. Really enjoying the information and posts of images to show the full potential of my newly acquired P4A+. Also good to read the sweet spot for aperture. This will save me a little time in figuring out where to start to achieve best sharpness. The rest will be following best practices and lowest ISO settings for optimal results.

 

[mbb3sfnm]

A search of this forum did not reveal that high quality landscape photography was a big interest here. I am a professional photographer and produce dramatic hi res images and prints using top o the line digital camera equipment. I want to get as close to that as I can with my Phantom 4 Pro plus v2.0. It's my entry to drones so I didn't start with the much more expensive models. I've already learned that video and photographic approaches and equipment settings are quite different. I'd like to chat with like minded users. Or, do I have to figure it all out on my own? Thanks! You can see my work at www.jeffreysipress.com.

If you plan to make any money from your Phantom images, you will need the FAA Part 107 license.

 

[Mr.Gale]

I'm also a landscape photographer and I've been selling my images for over 30 years. I bought a P4P+ a little over a year ago but unfortunately haven't flown it as much as I would like because of the many restrictions as to where you can fly. I was in the Utah/Arizona desert a month ago and flew quite a bit, took several photos and some videos. The quality I'm seeing is acceptable for print up to ~11x14 but much more. I've printed a 22x30 once and it looked good from a distance but for some reason, my customers always want to put there nose on the prints.
Here is an example of photo from my last trip and here is a link to a video I made (I'm very much a beginner at video).

 

[JeffreyS]

Furtherto fly said. "Digital photography is a 90% software-driven activity and the way to become good at it is to focus on the software.".

Wow, that is so wrong. Yes, post processing is very important and takes a long learning curve, but learning and knowing how to use a camera (of any kind) is the first and most crucial step. Yeah, I've been using Photoshop for 25 years, and am quite good at it now, but I've been a serious photographer for way longer than that. I studied photography for over 15 years, and learned on 35mm and 4x5 film. Of course, now everyone is a 'photographer' and can make any poorly made capture look dynamite by playing around with the sliders in Lightroom enough. Sorry to tell you this, but your images are visibly over processed and over sharpened. The comps are nice and can be made to look better and more real.

 

[Meta4]

Are any of these 180 panos or just regular shots?

The first 4 were big panoramas, the ship is a single shot.

 

[Fat Albert]

I believe the camera on this drone is a fixed f2.8. Normally not my best landscape aperture, but seeing that there will rarely be a close foreground to maintain a focus for and a long camera to subject distance, I think it may work fine.

Sorry for the bad link. Something's going on with the server. I need to fix that this afternoon.

Nope , it’s not fixed at 2.8

 

[bsartist]

I will second the comment regarding print size. Probably shouldn't expect super large fine art prints. You can get somewhat larger stitching a few together as a pano. But if you want to keep the print DPI at a decent level, you can only go so big. I just sold* a stitched pano and 28x12 was the most I could get. And that was at 240 DPI. The lowest I could go.

Having said that, there are probably scenarios/subjects that would lend themselves to more rows and columns and therefore more data to play with. I suggest you read up on auto pano function in go4 app or litchi app. I personally use litchi for panos if I'm doing an automated one.

If you are doing a manual pano, be sure to give the aircraft a few seconds to stabilize after a pan and before squeezing the shutter. I use 5 shot AEB since this camera won't let you change the increments to 1 stop. They are hard coded to 1/3 or 2/3.

Bill

*yes. I have my part 107

 

[bsartist]

If you plan to make any money from your Phantom images, you will need the FAA Part 107 license.

Are we sure he's in the U.S.?

 

[Sojourner60]

I too have enjoyed many years of photography. 35 mm, then a Bronica 645, now a Sony A350 and this year a P4. One question I have is when it's sunny, it takes beautiful photos, when it's cloudy they turn blue and grainy. I've a lot to learn about setting changes in my P4, but any suggestions on how to get better quality photos on cloudy days would be appreciated. Thanks! Great thread.

 

[bsartist]

I too have enjoyed many years of photography. 35 mm, then a Bronica 645, now a Sony A350 and this year a P4. One question I have is when it's sunny, it takes beautiful photos, when it's cloudy they turn blue and grainy. I've a lot to learn about setting changes in my P4, but any suggestions on how to get better quality photos on cloudy days would be appreciated. Thanks! Great thread.

What is your white balance set at?

 

[embayweather]

For cloudy days, wet days, sunny days, I always shoot RAW. And nowadays I always shoot AEB. after processing can take many routes as you have the information available to do what you wish. Straight forward HDR, for example or a really great B&W image. Some of my best images have come from cloudy days. We get a lot of that here as we are not many miles away from the wettest place in the country.

 

[Meta4]

One question I have is when it's sunny, it takes beautiful photos, when it's cloudy they turn blue and grainy. I've a lot to learn about setting changes in my P4, but any suggestions on how to get better quality photos on cloudy days would be appreciated. Thanks! Great thread.

If you find your photos looking too blue or too yellow, that's a sign of a bad setting with your white balance.
If you are using Auto WB and getting things too blue or yellow, the auto isn't working properly.
Try manually selecting Cloudy or Sunny as appropriate.