Camera, ISO, Noise....Confusion

[ChadDa3mon]

Greetings,

I'm a decent amateur photographer. I shoot with a Nikon, and generally thought I have a pretty solid understanding of how exposures work (ISO vs Shutter speed vs Aperature). I would always shoot with ISO at 100 for sunrise and sunset. With my Nikon, I've never had any issues .

Shooting on the phantom drone, however, has been quite difficult. Many of my photos, while shot at ISO 100, have insane amounts of what I assume is noise in the shadows. I've uploaded a sample JPG here. I under exposed the photo slightly when I took it, because previous experience with my DSLR has shown I can easily increase it in LR, without risk of blowing out any color.

Here, slightly increasing the exposure just destroys the blacks with noise, and I don't see why. I don't know if there is an issue with my camera, or I'm just missing out on something else.

 

[Meta4]

1. Your Phantom has a tiny sensor and is not in the same league as your SLR particularly with dealing with low light
2. That sample has a big range from very bright to near black - it's asking a lot to deal with that dynamic range - more so if you were at ISO 100.
3. To handle a light/dark subject like that, it's probably better to shoot a bracket of 5 and combine them in HDR software to get detail in the shadows and highlights

 

[ChadDa3mon]

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

For what it's worth, I don't want a well exposed foreground, I just wanted enough detail to make out the tree silhouettes. I guess I was mainly worried there may be something wrong with my camera, but it sounds like I just need to toss out my old rulebook and write a new one.

 

[Meta4]

Thank you for taking the time to respond.
For what it's worth, I don't want a well exposed foreground, I just wanted enough detail to make out the tree silhouettes. I guess I was mainly worried there may be something wrong with my camera, but it sounds like I just need to toss out my old rulebook and write a new one.

And something else I forgot ....
You can choose to meter for a particular area rather than an average of the whole scene by touching on the screen.

 

[gegetrane]

Did you try noise correction in software ? Many good products out there, though usually used to deal with high ISO noise. Your case is different, using ISO 100. The other advices make lots of sense. You would have a similar problem with other small sensor cameras.

 

[John Decker]

Did you try noise correction in software ? Many good products out there, though usually used to deal with high ISO noise. Your case is different, using ISO 100. The other advices make lots of sense. You would have a similar problem with other small sensor cameras.

DJI's dng file fixer is well worth looking at. Someone will post a link if you can't find it on the DJI website. It takes an enormous amount of noise and clears it all.

Ah, here ya go. It's way down the bottom.
Inspire 1 - Specs, FAQ, manual, video tutorials and DJI GO | DJI

 

[jabjab]

This is something I noticed yesterday (my first dawn to night flight). After returning home, I downloaded the pictures, and was pertified.
Here are the pictures:
18:25 : it shows some high amount of noise in the lower left corner (darker part of the pic) (ISO500)
18:29 : quite evenly lit picture, some noise (ISO1600)
18:41 : ****, what IS IT? (ISO1600)

 

[ChadDa3mon]

So I have a theory that these are related to shooting in HDR. Do you know if you were shooting in HDR mode when you took these?

 

[jabjab]

Yes, I chose HDR mode. How is it connected? Will you share the theory?


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[ChadDa3mon]

I just noticed the times I had that issue were connected to the times I tried to use the built in HDR. I've stopped using it, and have had much better luck.

My 'theory' is that as someone above said, the sensor on this thing is just too tiny. So when we tell it to do HDR with actual blacks (like night time) it either cranks up the ISO to take the shot, or tries too hard to take pictures of something it just can't.

So, if I need to do HDR now, I just take multiple shots manually and change the exposure time, always making sure the ISO is 200 or less. I also make sure the zebra stripes are turned on.

 

[jabjab]

Could you please elaborate on the zebra stripes thing? It is new to me.

 

[ChadDa3mon]

Overexposure warning, somewhere in the app settings. It alerts you to areas of your photo that are overexposed.

 

[Air Ontario]

Consider using histogram, OE warning, and bracket 5-7 shots from under to over exposed and blend in LR.

I find it difficult to take a really perfect dark, no noise photo, without some post.

 

[Lefty63]

I just noticed the times I had that issue were connected to the times I tried to use the built in HDR. I've stopped using it, and have had much better luck.

My 'theory' is that as someone above said, the sensor on this thing is just too tiny. So when we tell it to do HDR with actual blacks (like night time) it either cranks up the ISO to take the shot, or tries too hard to take pictures of something it just can't.

So, if I need to do HDR now, I just take multiple shots manually and change the exposure time, always making sure the ISO is 200 or less. I also make sure the zebra stripes are turned on.

That's a sweet shot from such a tiny sensor. I was planning on bracketing my photos as well, understanding the limits of these cameras.

 

[Imabiggles]

Greetings,

I'm a decent amateur photographer. I shoot with a Nikon, and generally thought I have a pretty solid understanding of how exposures work (ISO vs Shutter speed vs Aperature). I would always shoot with ISO at 100 for sunrise and sunset. With my Nikon, I've never had any issues .

Shooting on the phantom drone, however, has been quite difficult. Many of my photos, while shot at ISO 100, have insane amounts of what I assume is noise in the shadows. I've uploaded a sample JPG here. I under exposed the photo slightly when I took it, because previous experience with my DSLR has shown I can easily increase it in LR, without risk of blowing out any color.

Here, slightly increasing the exposure just destroys the blacks with noise, and I don't see why. I don't know if there is an issue with my camera, or I'm just missing out on something else.

do you see that in RAW as well?

 

[grottoli]

I just noticed the times I had that issue were connected to the times I tried to use the built in HDR. I've stopped using it, and have had much better luck.

My 'theory' is that as someone above said, the sensor on this thing is just too tiny. So when we tell it to do HDR with actual blacks (like night time) it either cranks up the ISO to take the shot, or tries too hard to take pictures of something it just can't.

So, if I need to do HDR now, I just take multiple shots manually and change the exposure time, always making sure the ISO is 200 or less. I also make sure the zebra stripes are turned on.

Similar to bracketing on a dslr. Good idea




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[Mike-m1911a1]

Chad, I noticed this on my P3P after the second flight. Also noticed it in video. I had been flying a P3A for several months and not noticed this. I contacted DJI and showed them the pics. They had me do a reset settings in the camera and it seems to have helped. I don't get nearly the amount of noise I had before. Haven't flown enough to tell if it's completely gone or not.


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