My First Flight with the Phantom 4!! Nightime River Cruise & Long Exposure Photography!

BengalBoy · May 7, 2016

First Image:

"Tuss'Ca'Vegas" Phantom 4's new redundant GPS and IMU system coupled with GPS & GlonAss positioning lock provides an Amazing exposure at 5 second shutter, 100 ISO, F2.8, and normal color enhancement. Edited in Adobe RAW Editor and Adobe Photoshop Elements 14.

Second Image:

"Phantom 4" First flight of Bengal Bird and first photo taken with the Phantom 4 camera. A new 12 Megapixel Sony sensor introduced on the Phantom 3 Pro captures the image. A long exposure of 2 seconds at 100 ISO, F2.8 and captured in new D-Log color enhancement. Very impressive sharpness for a camera mounted 200 feet in the sky. Rock Solid stability!!

Sinisalo · May 7, 2016

BengalBoy said:
First Image:

"Tuss'Ca'Vegas" Phantom 4's new redundant GPS and IMU system coupled with GPS & GlonAss positioning lock provides an Amazing exposure at 5 second shutter, 100 ISO, F2.8, and normal color enhancement. Edited in Adobe RAW Editor and Adobe Photoshop Elements 14.

Second Image:

"Phantom 4" First flight of Bengal Bird and first photo taken with the Phantom 4 camera. A new 12 Megapixel Sony sensor introduced on the Phantom 3 Pro captures the image. A long exposure of 2 seconds at 100 ISO, F2.8 and captured in new D-Log color enhancement. Very impressive sharpness for a camera mounted 200 feet in the sky. Rock Solid stability!!

very nice photos, you may have a horizon tilt issue. Have you calibrated the compass, and imu yet? If so and you still have a tilted horizon you should do a gimbal auto calibration.

BengalBoy · May 7, 2016

Yes, you are correct. It was my first flight since receiving my Phantom 4. I had read about the gimbal tilt issues before buying. For the last 3 days I've been reading up on the controls and calibrating the IMUs, GPS, controller and gimbal. Still got the tilt. I flew 3 batteries and every photograph is slightly tilted to the left. When landing her, (I always hand catch) the gimbal is noticeably off center. Although, before flying it always looks perfectly level on my table. I can fix in editing, but, just excited at the performance of my new camera. So much better than my old Vision+ and the stability in the air on long exposures is truly Amazing. Another image I took tonight...
"2 Seconds in Ttown" A 2 second exposure at 100 ISO, F2.8, shot in D-Log color enhancement and edited in Adobe RAW Editor. No further editing in Adobe Photoshop Elements 14. The Phantom 4's new lens optics are certainly very sharp and its in-air stability simply Amazing!! Remember, the slightest movement during the exposure would cause a slightly out of focus image. I think its Amazingly Sharp!!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10209679665571799&l=bbc9f8f99c

Sinisalo · May 7, 2016

You can try to do a gimbal calibration while you are hovering 8-10 feet off the ground with no wind. It will say it failed but this trick has worked for some.

Denver_Flight · May 7, 2016

Those look great! I would have darkened them just a bit, but still very nice!

BengalBoy · May 7, 2016

Thank you for the suggestions on the gimbal tilt calibration! I will try tonight. Also, I think I'll try using my ND8 filter tonight as well to step down the aperture on the long exposure and hope I get the light trails without overexposed image.. haha, still, I like blowing out the color from the D-log file!

Vasekp · May 7, 2016

I got my P4 yesterday this is a night shot of my hometown ISO 800 3sec exp no edit or enhance at all

thunderbird · May 7, 2016

How do you adjust the exposure

CafeRacer · May 7, 2016

BengalBoy said:
First Image:

"Tuss'Ca'Vegas" Phantom 4's new redundant GPS and IMU system coupled with GPS & GlonAss positioning lock provides an Amazing exposure at 5 second shutter, 100 ISO, F2.8, and normal color enhancement. Edited in Adobe RAW Editor and Adobe Photoshop Elements 14.

Second Image:

"Phantom 4" First flight of Bengal Bird and first photo taken with the Phantom 4 camera. A new 12 Megapixel Sony sensor introduced on the Phantom 3 Pro captures the image. A long exposure of 2 seconds at 100 ISO, F2.8 and captured in new D-Log color enhancement. Very impressive sharpness for a camera mounted 200 feet in the sky. Rock Solid stability!!

How, or should I say what settings are you using to get those pictures. Which are stunning by the way.

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

Leenanj · May 7, 2016

Very nice nighttime shots from both of you.
Who would have thought a drone could hold that still for a time lapse picture.
I am assuming the wind was very calm in those shots.

Vasekp · May 8, 2016

thunderbird said:
How do you adjust the exposure

Leave the bird on the ground, and set manual exp the way i can see at least stg. Mostly max iso and time about 2 sec then go up and reduce iso and set the time according wind in calm night you can afford more. No exact value i can provide it depends much on the light of the city whether taking picture of Las Vegas or some Sleepy Hollow

BengalBoy · May 10, 2016

Actually, the night was windy,, a slight breeze on the ground. Not gusty or strong mind you, but, I would say 5mph and who knows how much at altitude. I was stunned by the solid & steady positioning of the Phantom 4. Its truly Amazing to produce an 8 second exposure like that. I experimented with 2 second, 5 second and 8 second exposures. My ISO was always 100 to avoid noise. I also experimented in "D-Log", "None", and "Vivid" color enhancement settings. I found the "D-Log" worked extremely well as a setting allowing for great detail and then recapture of color in Adobe RAW Editor. All images were shot in RAW and then edited in Adobe RAW Editor. So,, I have the following settings. Shutter speed varied from 2 seconds to 8 seconds. If you want a long taillight trail you have to shoot longer exposures. 5 seconds was pretty good, but, since the focus & sharpness was just as good at 8 seconds,, I enjoyed the longer and less broken up light trails taken at 8 seconds. ISO is set at 100 to avoid noise. No need to raise it I discovered with the city light available. The aperture is f2.8. There is no way to adjust aperture on the P4 without adding a ND Filter. Not sure you would want to shooting night photography, but, if you want to experiment I would recommend a ND4 filter which would be 2 stops down. A ND8 filter would be 3 stops down... The color enhancement settings were interesting as well. Although it looks like **** coming off the card,, the "D-Log" color setting really wowed me after being processed in Adobe RAW Editor. I'm really pleased with the results of fine detail and color. The "None" and "Vivid" color settings look more of what you get on the screen and post processing improves the color somewhat, but, they are pretty cool images coming off the card. Here is a 8 second exposure shot at 100 ISO, f2.8 and in "D-Log" color profile with post processing in Adobe RAW Editor. The second image is the untouched original JPEG shot in "D-Log" off the card. The first image is the final cut from the RAW file after editing in Adobe RAW Editor. The tilted horizon is cropped to be level and I added a bit of a vignette to it. Otherwise, I just blew the color out from the "D-Log" enhancement.