Photo settings

Hughyg · Jun 3, 2016

Any tips for taking good photos guys? I'm really struggling to get anything sharp

I'm flying with a graduated filter from srp

Cheers in advance

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

DroneDestination · Jun 3, 2016

Are these pictures saved on a mobile device, or downloaded directly from SD card?

Hughyg · Jun 3, 2016

DroneDestination said:
Are these pictures saved on a mobile device, or downloaded directly from SD card?

Direct from sd card. Is it that I'm comparing to the DJI Pro 3? They aways look super sharp

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

NotARubicon · Jun 3, 2016

Doesn't using a graduated filter make it even more difficult? Unless it's on right and you have the horizon lined up perfectly it's going to be over/under exposed somewhere?

KennyJr · Jun 4, 2016

I found this link to a YouTube video that sounds like it might be what you're looking for if you don't mind a little post processing.

KennyJr · Jun 4, 2016

Just for the fun of it I took your photo and did a little post processing in Photo Director and was able to make some improvements.

mdowney58 · Jun 4, 2016

The OP was asking about sharpness, and based on his pic, I believe he's referring to it not looking very focused, since it does look a little out of focus to me.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

KennyJr · Jun 4, 2016

mdowney58 said:
The OP was asking about sharpness, and based on his pic, I believe he's referring to it not looking very focused, since it does look a little out of focus to me.

While there is a sharpness setting in the camera setting menu I would recommend against it. You can adjust sharpness in post and if you over sharpen you can hit undo.

The lens in the Phantom is fixed focus and as far as I know you can't change it. The best you can do is make sure the lens is clean to prevent something like a finger print or other smudge causing problems.

Faster shutter speeds can also be used to prevent motion blur. Higher ISO speeds will also allow for faster shutter speeds, but if raised to high could add noise to the image. The Op could try the shot without the ND filter which will allow for a faster shutter or a lighter ND filter.

As for the differences between highlights and shadows, try reducing the contrast a bit and/or use d-log and adjust the image in post. Some photo editing software allow you to adjust highlights, mid tones, and shadows or you can use the curves function.

The advantages of adjusting the image in post is you have the ability to undo your changes as well as saving your edits to a different filename so you don't mess up the original.

mdowney58 · Jun 5, 2016

That's a lot of good info, but I still believe that the OP's complaint was lack of crispness. The cameras on the Phantoms seem to be somewhat inconsistent from drone to drone.
I have seen P3S pics that look crisp and clear, with auto settings, and with zero post, and seen others that looked like there was Vaseline on the lens.
To me, his pic looked not so crisp. Lines were not defined.
Kind of looked like a painting.
Maybe it was the filter he used...

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk