Standard photos always look so dull

PhantomDanStandard · Jan 2, 2017

Hello everyone I've had my standard for around 3 months now and I just can't seem to get anything but dull picture quality. Is this just the quality of the camera or me doing something wrong?

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PhantomDanStandard · Jan 2, 2017

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PhantomDanStandard · Jan 2, 2017

This is the best I can get with a lot of editing

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PhantomDanStandard · Jan 2, 2017

This is straight from the drone no editing

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Andy_R · Jan 2, 2017

Are you shooting RAW or JPG?

Nickster · Jan 2, 2017

Dan,

You can do a lot with the camera on it. It is a great camera. Play with the settings, shutter speed, ISO, colors like d-log, none, vivid, etc. Also, HDR or AEB shots combined to a HDR will give you more color range. DGN files from it give more to work with than the JPGs, but you need editing software like Photoshop or Lightroom to work with those.

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Nickster · Jan 2, 2017

Dan, this was on I took at Christmas with mine. 5 shot AEB combined to HDR with little editing. It was RAW.

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ChiefStealth · Jan 2, 2017

So far, the only complaint I have with the camera, in the P3S, is how wide angle everything is. I crop down a lot of the pics I take. I have to crop down and blow up so much that the pics start losing definition.

PhantomDanStandard · Jan 2, 2017

Andy_R said:
Are you shooting RAW or JPG?

I had messed around with RAW & JPG

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Mike Hobbs · Jan 2, 2017

Just needs a bit of 'post'.
Here's a couple of quick examples using your images....

Check out the blog posts here to help with settings etc....

Blog - Man and Drone | The Epic Drone Adventure Channel

PhantomDanStandard · Jan 2, 2017

Nickster said:
View attachment 72252

Dan, this was on I took at Christmas with mine. 5 shot AEB combined to HDR with little editing. It was RAW.

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See that's got more colour to it. I might have to give those setting a try I've never used the 5 shot.

Thanks for the quick response

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Jshank · Jan 2, 2017

I've noticed the same thing with mine. I get the best pictures by taking screen shots of my videos.

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Kirby Johnson · Jan 2, 2017

Is there a substantial difference in the camera on the S and the A? I shot something justinadvertly the other day by hitting the button by mistaks, it is not something I would have shot, but here is what mine look like straight from the drone.

PhantomDanStandard · Jan 2, 2017

Kirby Johnson said:
Is there a substantial difference in the camera on the S and the A? I shot something justinadvertly the other day by hitting the button by mistaks, it is not something I would have shot, but here is what mine look like straight from the drone.

Was that an advanced?? I can't get anywhere near those sorts of colours

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PhantomDanStandard · Jan 2, 2017

Jshank said:
I've noticed the same thing with mine. I get the best pictures by taking screen shots of my videos.

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Mine look just like that. Always blows out the sky but I guess I am comparing to the HDR setting on my iPhone that is VERY good and so easy to use

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Kirby Johnson · Jan 2, 2017

PhantomDanStandard said:
Was that an advanced?? I can't get anywhere near those sorts of colours

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Yeah it's an advanced, but I was thinking there was little if any difference in the A and the Standard except for more pixels, you know 3000x2000 or whatever vs 4000x3000 or whatever they are.
OK, I just went and did some research..... Yeah I just looked at the one I posted, it came out of the camera 4K by 3K. The literature calls the Standard camera a "12 megapixel" camera, so it is the same or close, by the numbers. I am not an expert, but I was thinking the difference between the two was more in the video area, but I don't know off the top of my head. To get that "Postcard" look I always go into every camera and juice up the Saturation and Contrast, whether it is a Kodak Easyshare, My Canon EOS, or a BumbleBee with a Instamatic on steroids.

Andy_R · Jan 2, 2017

You're always going to burn out the sky when photographing landscapes, unless you bracket the shot and merge in post. The reason is the dynamic range of the camera - if you think about it when you look at the ground which is dark, to expose for that, the light sky is going to burn out every time, and if you expose for the sky the ground is going to be under exposed. So the answer is to properly expose for both in 3-5 different exposures then merge them, which is what your camera does when you take an HDR photo.

PhantomDanStandard · Jan 2, 2017

Andy_R said:
You're always going to burn out the sky when photographing landscapes, unless you bracket the shot and merge in post. The reason is the dynamic range of the camera - if you think about it when you look at the ground which is dark, to expose for that, the light sky is going to burn out every time, and if you expose for the sky the ground is going to be under exposed. So the answer is to properly expose for both in 3-5 different exposures then merge them, which is what your camera does when you take an HDR photo.

How does the 3-5 actually work? I've never used it

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Andy_R · Jan 2, 2017

It takes the same photo 3 or 5 times in succession (depending on what you've set it to), aka "Bracketing". Each time the photo is taken at different exposure levels. A simple breakdown of the exposures goes: Darkest (under exposed -0.6), Dark (underexposed -0.3), Normal (exposed 0), Light (overexposed +0.3), Lightest (overexposed +0.6). When you merge the photos in something like Photoshop, the underexposed elements bring out contrast and colour in the sky, and the overexposed do the same for the landscape.

Goldenzrule · Jan 2, 2017

I haven't used bracketed mode on the drone, but from working with HDR in the past, I might suggest just shooting in raw, then in post creating 3 or more different pictures with different exposures.

For those that are not familiar with HDR photography, the basic explanation is that you take multiple shots with different exposure levels (ie. -3,-1, +1, +3) and then combine them in software. This gives you much greater color and contrast separation.

Now the reason for shooting 1 RAW picture (DNG is the file format with the drone camera) is that you are working off of one picture. The problem with multiple shots is that when you combine these pictures if there is motion, you will get blurring in your picture. Even sitting a camera on a tripod can have this blurring issue as trees move in the breeze, or people walking. The single shot that you create multiple exposures with will eliminate this.

A program that I have used that is super easy to use to combine the pictures is Photomatix. I attached a picture I took (with nikon camera) in a park as a single RAW image and combined in Photomatix. I went heavy on the HDR here to create an artistic look. In the software, you can adjust to create a natural look or go crazy. If you want to further enhance colors, I think Lightroom is one of the best and easiest programs to use.