Un-even lighting during map mission

[Forest Flyer]

I am new to drone mapping, having done two successful ones so far, using Maps Made Easy. What I am wondering is what happens when the light radically changes during a mission, as when the sun comes in and out of the clouds? I hear of people starting a map one day and completing the next. I would think the light conditions could be quite different. How does this work out?

 

[racin06]

You will end up with a map with varying exposures, which may or may not be acceptable to your needs. Of course, as you probably know, the best time to perform mapping is on an overcast day or on sunny days when the sun is near or at its zenith. I don't know much about Maps Made Easy...my company uses DroneDeploy for our mapping needs. Even on those days of varying light conditions, the DroneDeploy flight software does a good job of automatically controlling the camera exposure. Though with cases of varying exposure on aerial imagery that don't meet my standards, I process the images in Adobe Lightroom prior to uploading to DroneDeploy for map processing. Typically I just choose the underexposed images and then batch-process (increasing exposure) in Lightroom. Yes, this adds a step to your workflow, but it's worth the extra work, unless you don't mind an aerial map with varying exposures.

 

[Forest Flyer]

Thanks for the insights Racin06