Taking photos at night, what setting is best ?

[Snowwolf]

i have just been out taking some photos in the dark, they are quite blurred and basically crap, mostly taken with ISO 100 and 200 shutter speeds around 2 or 3 seconds, I set it on tripod mode hoping to add stability but still crap, there must be a rule of thumb regarding shutter speed at night, I know there are going to be variables with ISO, aperture but the main variable must be shutter speed regarding no blur at night for the p4p at night,

 

[Kirby Johnson]

i have just been out taking some photos in the dark, they are quite blurred and basically crap, mostly taken with ISO 100 and 200 shutter speeds around 2 or 3 seconds, I set it on tripod mode hoping to add stability but still crap, there must be a rule of thumb regarding shutter speed at night, I know there are going to be variables with ISO, aperture but the main variable must be shutter speed regarding no blur at night for the p4p at night,

You will have much better luck taking pictures of something with bright lights, like the lights of a city or Christmas lights. These little things just do not have enough glass to take normal pictures at night in the normal sense, AND, there is the motion introduced by a flying apparatus also. It will do pretty good on Christmas lights, I took a few last night and the LIGHTS themselves were OK. But it is not in the ballpark with a DSLR on a tripod at night. Good Luck See the one I posted earlier about Santa Eye View.

 

[Tomas Wangen]

i have just been out taking some photos in the dark, they are quite blurred and basically crap, mostly taken with ISO 100 and 200 shutter speeds around 2 or 3 seconds, I set it on tripod mode hoping to add stability but still crap, there must be a rule of thumb regarding shutter speed at night, I know there are going to be variables with ISO, aperture but the main variable must be shutter speed regarding no blur at night for the p4p at night,

Go for f2.8 and try iso 800 or even 1600. A shutter speed beyond a half second or slower will require a stationary tripod.

(Example a 2 second capture of ISO 100 will be 1/8 sec at ISO 1600, but higher ISO introduces much more noise)

 

[Kirby Johnson]

 

[Kirby Johnson]

All those were shot at Max aperture 2.8 in my case, iso 1600 and 1/4, 1/5 or 1/6 second. I try my night shots on wind less nights. On windy nights I have had ZERO luck. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Davidnclearlaketx]

I'm sure if you get the right settings this new P4P camera could take some great pics.
I know this is like apples to oranges to compare the two but just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in.
The camera on the P4P+ is way better than this little ball camera on my other quad.
This pic was taken with my other quad that starts with a Y.
Pic was taken on super moon night in Nov.11th. F-3.6, 1/2 second exposure time, ISO-400 all auto set by the camera.

 

[Snowwolf]

Out of about twenty shots this is my best, the rest were very blurry

 

[Meta4]

i have just been out taking some photos in the dark, they are quite blurred and basically crap, mostly taken with ISO 100 and 200 shutter speeds around 2 or 3 seconds, I set it on tripod mode hoping to add stability but still crap, there must be a rule of thumb regarding shutter speed at night, I know there are going to be variables with ISO, aperture but the main variable must be shutter speed regarding no blur at night for the p4p at night,

Tripod mode doesn't affect camera characteristics - it just slows down your joysticm controls for small precise movement.
The Phantom can give good results in low-light situations but it won't do much for you in no-light situations.
The key is to have a lot of light in your photo rather than a lot of black.
If the majority of the image is blackness, the camera isn't going to expose properly for the scattered pinpricks of light.
If you have enough lit area in the scene your Phantom can produce a pretty good image in auto like this:

 

[Davidnclearlaketx]

Tripod mode doesn't affect camera characteristics - it just slows down your joysticm controls for small precise movement.
The Phantom can give good results in low-light situations but it won't do much for you in no-light situations.
The key is to have a lot of light in your photo rather than a lot of black.
If the majority of the image is blackness, the camera isn't going to expose properly for the scattered pinpricks of light.
If you have enough lit area in the scene your Phantom can produce a pretty good image in auto like this:

Excellent pic! Very nice.

 

[KevMo Photog]

Tripod mode doesn't affect camera characteristics - it just slows down your joysticm controls for small precise movement.
The Phantom can give good results in low-light situations but it won't do much for you in no-light situations.
The key is to have a lot of light in your photo rather than a lot of black.
If the majority of the image is blackness, the camera isn't going to expose properly for the scattered pinpricks of light.
If you have enough lit area in the scene your Phantom can produce a pretty good image in auto like this:

Nice shot Meta4! And what he said btw! If it's a really just dark overall shot it's gonna be an overall kinda dark shot. And I also was thinking what does Tripod Mode have to do with taking a still? Best to choose and aperture that is in the sweetspot of the lens. Which is F4- F5.6. This will slightly help keep flaring down off of bright lights as compared to wide open @ F2.8. Then choose an ISO that will keep exposure shutter speeds down to no more than a second maybe. Shorter if possible. ISO's will prob be in the 400-800 Range most likely. Depends on the scene. You see Meta4's shot here has a lot of city being lit so it's not a super long exposure or a super high ISO either. And this was in Auto. The other big deal is post processing though. You can seriously tweak these images in Camera Raw in PS or Lightroom.

 

[Kirby Johnson]

Very Nice MetaFour. And...

 

[Davidnclearlaketx]

Very Nice MetaFour. And...

Man that looks great!
Excellent pic!

 

[KevMo Photog]

This was shot last week with my P4P at F2.8 @ 400 ISO @ 1/8 sec. Could have closed aperture down a bit and shot at 1/4 or a half a second. But if it's a little windy its better to keep shutter speed as fast as possible. It's all give and take tbo!

 

[Meta4]

Excellent pic! Very nice.

If you want to see a better example:

Actual conditions were a lot darker than the photo suggests.
And shot in auto/jpg with a P3A.
The P4P should excel at stuff like this.

 

[KevMo Photog]

If you want to see a better example:

Actual conditions were a lot darker than the photo suggests.
And shot in auto/jpg with a P3A.
The P4P should excel at stuff like this.

Wow thats sharp especially for the P3A Meta4! What city is this? Hell of an angle and view man! Great shot!

 

[Davidnclearlaketx]

If you want to see a better example:

Actual conditions were a lot darker than the photo suggests.
And shot in auto/jpg with a P3A.
The P4P should excel at stuff like this.

You could easily sell that for a post card print to the city (?where?) it was taken!
Excellent is all I can say!

 

[Davidnclearlaketx]

This was shot last week with my P4P at F2.8 @ 400 ISO @ 1/8 sec. Could have closed aperture down a bit and shot at 1/4 or a half a second. But if it's a little windy its better to keep shutter speed as fast as possible. It's all give and take tbo!

Beautiful pic!

 

[Helihover]

Go for f2.8 and try iso 800 or even 1600. A shutter speed beyond a half second or slower will require a stationary tripod.

(Example a 2 second capture of ISO 100 will be 1/8 sec at ISO 1600, but higher ISO introduces much more noise)

You can actually get decent pics with several second exposures on these drones. Keep the ISO at 100 and make sure there's no wind... These are all shot at ISO 100 with an 8 second shutter speed on my P4.

 

[Kirby Johnson]

View attachment 71624 View attachment 71625 View attachment 71626

You can actually get decent pics with several second exposures on these drones. Keep the ISO at 100 and make sure there's no wind... These are all shot at ISO 100 with an 8 second shutter speed on my P4.

Wow, Nice HHover. The last time there was no wind here in Flor-I-Duh was 1978. :-(
Amazing what keeping the ISO down to something reasonable does. Your little bird must have been on Xanax that night! Those shots are way past good.

 

[Davidnclearlaketx]

Wow, Nice HHover. The last time there was no wind here in Flor-I-Duh was 1978. :-(
Amazing what keeping the ISO down to something reasonable does. Your little bird must have been on Xanax that night! Those shots are way past good.

Sounds like my issues with the winds. I'm about 8 miles from part of Galveston Bay and the winds are often higher than I'd like to by flying in but what can you do right? ! As you can see from my avatar pic I'm also right near the bayou so when I fly that direction I have to make sure I've got a good battery level to fly across and over the other side.
All the pics in this thread are great!
Looking forward to many new pics and adventures w/my P4P+.