Why Does My Footage Looks SO Bad?

[GavinW]

P4P+, filmed in dlog. Underexposed by two stops as I read in a tutorial.

Why does the footage just look so bleh? I've attempted to color correct and apply the polarpro LUTs in Premiere Pro and am just appalled with the way this footage looks. Obviously this isn't a final edit.

What do you guys think?

V2.mp4

 

[SeanMHenry.SMH]

P4P+, filmed in dlog. Underexposed by two stops as I read in a tutorial.

Why does the footage just look so bleh? I've attempted to color correct and apply the polarpro LUTs in Premiere Pro and am just appalled with the way this footage looks. Obviously this isn't a final edit.

What do you guys think?

V2.mp4

I'm no pro at this drone thing. I liked it. Did you use a filter on the camera?

 

[GavinW]

I'm no pro at this drone thing. I liked it. Did you use a filter on the camera?

I did have the PolarPro ND16 filter on

 

[Tomas Wangen]

P4P+, filmed in dlog. Underexposed by two stops as I read in a tutorial.

Why does the footage just look so bleh? I've attempted to color correct and apply the polarpro LUTs in Premiere Pro and am just appalled with the way this footage looks. Obviously this isn't a final edit.

What do you guys think?

V2.mp4

Do not use dlog. Use none or dCinelike.

Also do not underexpose but use 0 ev or expose to the right.

 

[Eagle54]

D-Log is the best color setting due to the highest dynamic range. I used to set Style Custom -2, -3, -2 and Polar Pro ND8-16 filters. That gives me the best start point for postprocess. I used to apply DJI Luts from Ground Control or make it manually in DaVinci Resolve.

 

[lickitysplit11111]

P4P+, filmed in dlog. Underexposed by two stops as I read in a tutorial.

Why does the footage just look so bleh? I've attempted to color correct and apply the polarpro LUTs in Premiere Pro and am just appalled with the way this footage looks. Obviously this isn't a final edit.

What do you guys think?

V2.mp4

I can’t even put together video yet but to me it looks blah because of the subject matter (trees and a road from a couple hundred ft up) it’s just boring to look at ,try coming down lower and insert some interesting

 

[JarrodF]

I would suggest that your time of day was not optimal. Early morning would have given you less contrast. This camera just can't handle mid-day bright sunlight and deep woods shadows in the same shot very well. It's latitude is not bad but it's not that great either. If I was forced to shoot at this time of day, I would have exposed more for the grass and tree tops and let the shadows go totally dark. At least that way the bright parts of the footage (grass, road, water, etc) would have looked better. I also never use D-Log but for me that's just because with an 8 bit camera you really can't pull the details back out like you can with 16 bit raw (i.e. my Sony F55). Anyway, of course the best way to get the setting that work best for you is to do camera tests and then take them all the way through your post process. That way you can judge what works best for you.

 

[FreddiesFlights]

I find D-Cinelike with Sharpness -2 gives the best results. D-Log just causes banding problems, but I'm also trying to find out if I have a problem with this camera, or I need a FW or App upgrade.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but anyone getting better results than this in 1080p? These examples are zoomed in to highlight the problem, but it's very visible at normal viewing size.

 

[KevMo Photog]

D-Log is pretty hard to get graded on our birds man. D-Cinelike is the **** imo! It looks much better straight out of camera. Then with slight grade your golden!

 

[Tomas Wangen]

D-Log is pretty hard to get graded on our birds man. D-Cinelike is the **** imo! It looks much better straight out of camera. Then with slight grade your golden!

Dlog will most likely be usable on p5 if it get’s the expected 10 bits. 8 bit is simply not enough for dlog unfortunately.

 

[African wildlife]

We also use dCinelike. Filming during the golden hours, we haven't even needed to do any colour correction and our standards are high.

 

[Perry Washington]

P4P+, filmed in dlog. Underexposed by two stops as I read in a tutorial.

Why does the footage just look so bleh? I've attempted to color correct and apply the polarpro LUTs in Premiere Pro and am just appalled with the way this footage looks. Obviously this isn't a final edit.

What do you guys think?

V2.mp4

Try resetting your camera, sounds simple but I sometimes get so deep into changing things it starts looking bad until I start over.

 

[Russ43Phantom]

There are several things to consider.

Time of Day:
You appear to be capturing video in extremely contrasty mid-day lighting. Harsh contrast from mid-day and direct sun is hard to deal with in post processing.

Contrast Setting:
I'm not too sure you want to set the exposure 2 stops underexposed. What you do want to do is set the contrast lower. This makes the histogram of the captured video narrower. You can easily widen the histogram in post processing by using the white or black slider (or other sliders such as contrast). When you don't adjust settings for a lower contrast during capture, you will blowout the blacks and the whites losing tonal information.

Color Saturation:
It appears you over saturated your post processing. Often, in bright, mid-day light, reflection from objects such as leaves, will reduce the saturation. You will be tempted to overcompensate in post production. Using polarized filters can help this. BUT ... polarizing filters only work when each SHORT clip you take is taken after the clip direction to the sun's path is determined and the polarizer is set for that specific direction. You can't just set the polarizer and fly in any of 360 directions.

Sharpening:
You should also set the sharpness setting to a lower setting. Some of your video seems to be over sharpened. You can, very carefully, sharpen the video in post processing ... but go very light with this adjustment.

Hopefully, these suggestions are taken as an attempt to be helpful. There are many good YouTube videos on these subjects and many more.

 

[FreddiesFlights]

I disagree that you can't use a polarizer and fly in any direction. I have no facts to back up my position.

I wear polarising sunglasses and they work wherever I look. I don't have to turn my head to get them to work well.

Granted, if I do: I will let light from different angles into my eyes, but that's seldom an improvement. By the same token: I added a Polarizing filter set to the same directional bias as my sunglasses (i.e. lines running left to right. Think: window blind) and it works just fine.

I may well be completely wrong about whether this is the "best" option, but it beats having none fitted at all.

Good tip to reduce the contrast in bright sunlight conditions. I use -2,-1,0 but might adjust that in low-angled, bright light to -2,-2 (or -3),0 and see if it improves things.

Sharpening is fubar'd at 1080p. Doesn't matter what you set it to. See the video proof in my post 6 above this one.

 

[AndrewCCM]

Polarizers work differently at different angles to the source of light. As you rotate/change angles the effect will change. Not saying it won’t work to some degree at certain angles, just saying the effect will change (reflections, etc) and when using throughout a flight that changes directions, it can be a bit like “auto” functions where you will not have a consistent look/exposure/color/etc.

 

[FreddiesFlights]

Yes, I know, but the light is generally above me shining down, so I'll take my chances that even if the sun is to one side and it's only 25%-50% effective: it's still better than nothing and I can deal with that in post better than no filter at all. Can't exactly do anything about it unless someone invents an auto-sun-tracking and self-adjusting filter, or a motorised one you can adjust from the ground.

So when someone says "Hey do you know polarising filters aren't perfect all the time" I ask: "And what have you got that's better? Nothing? OK, I'll just carry on with this then. Cheers!"

 

[Russ43Phantom]

I disagree that you can't use a polarizer and fly in any direction. I have no facts to back up my position.

I wear polarising sunglasses and they work wherever I look. I don't have to turn my head to get them to work well.

Granted, if I do: I will let light from different angles into my eyes, but that's seldom an improvement. By the same token: I added a Polarizing filter set to the same directional bias as my sunglasses (i.e. lines running left to right. Think: window blind) and it works just fine.

I may well be completely wrong about whether this is the "best" option, but it beats having none fitted at all.

Good tip to reduce the contrast in bright sunlight conditions. I use -2,-1,0 but might adjust that in low-angled, bright light to -2,-2 (or -3),0 and see if it improves things.

Sharpening is fubar'd at 1080p. Doesn't matter what you set it to. See the video proof in my post 6 above this one.

I am guessing you are not a photographer. Sometimes that makes for bliss.

 

[FreddiesFlights]

I am guessing you are not a photographer. Sometimes that makes for bliss.

Aha, I see you're trying to say that I'm an idiot. "Ignorance is Bliss". Very droll.

OK, so you're an expert, right? What other polarising filter options are available?

I'll say one thing: the camera's not a patch on the QX100 I've been flying on an F550 for the last 3 years. I really miss that 3x Optical zoom and real 20Mp 1" sensor, but the 1080p video was a bit limiting and I can now do AEB *5 HDR photos with the Obsidian that look great, so...swings and roundabouts.

On the subject of HDR, I can highly recommend EasyHDR. The chromatic aberration removal even on single images is amazing, and with AEB shots: the results are IMO better than PhotoMatix Pro produces and on a par with Aurora HDR at a much lower cost.

I tested them (and others) with dozens of shots and...EasyHDR gets my vote. BTW if you download the V3 demo (there is also a free V2 Basic version, but...spend some cash, the results are worth it) it doesn't automatically recognise the DJI 6310 (P4P) camera for chromatic aberration removal, but you can set the focal length to 9mm (slightly off, but close) to test with. In the paid-for version it uses the correct data from the LensFun database automatically. Neither Photomatix Pro or Aurora HDR recognise the camera at all, so...pass?

Oh yes, it also works perfectly with RAW photos and applies the correct Lens Correction to them (not in the demo version though)

Anyway, you being an expert: how is your camera working in video mode? Specifically 1080p video?

Does changing sharpness have an effect, or is it broken, like mine? So far I haven't found a single person who is able to show their 1080p video isn't oversharp; but they must be out there somewhere, or people would have been screaming about this since launch, and I only got my Obsidian a few months ago.

Did you look at the video a few posts further up? Have a look if you can spare a few minutes. Speed it up to x2 and you won't miss anything, as I made it a bit slow. Sorry about that, but I wanted to give people time to see the (lack of) sharpness change in 1080p. At least 2.7k and 4k are usable. Here it is again, so you don't have to scroll back up:

 

[KevMo Photog]

Polarizers work differently at different angles to the source of light. As you rotate/change angles the effect will change. Not saying it won’t work to some degree at certain angles, just saying the effect will change (reflections, etc) and when using throughout a flight that changes directions, it can be a bit like “auto” functions where you will not have a consistent look/exposure/color/etc.

Exactly Andrew! Well said! It's gonna change as your flying off of certain objects at certain angles! Simple! And that is usually a negative or a bother in those clips.

 

[ussvertigo]

P4P+, filmed in dlog. Underexposed by two stops as I read in a tutorial.

Why does the footage just look so bleh? I've attempted to color correct and apply the polarpro LUTs in Premiere Pro and am just appalled with the way this footage looks. Obviously this isn't a final edit.

What do you guys think?

V2.mp4

I use dlog and dcine, if just starting out I think you did a great job of editing, agree with some earlier comments on sat and contrast. But I run into this same problem on bright sunny days on certain scenes where the contrast between the brite and shadows are hard to work in. When possible I prefer bright overcast days, colors are softer and contrast far better