Grainy Video

jeffro21 · Aug 3, 2016

Hello,

This is my first post. I am shooting video on my P3A with some custom exposure settings. I am using Frederick Hagan's settings,

.
Sharpness -2
Contrast -3
Saturation -2

The iso and shutter speed are on auto, maybe part of my problem...

Here is a video that was shot at dusk after color grading:

Before:

Here is another video that was shot during the daytime.

Things just don't look that sharp and are blurry, I really don't know what I am doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

shockwave199 · Aug 3, 2016

You can bump the sharpness back up a tick or two in post. Certain shots I set the camera to 0 sharpness but generally for daytime filming with an ND filter I bring it down to -2 and bump it back up in post a wee bit to regain some crispness if it looks a little too soft. Dusk is not a good time of day for these cameras. Better to chose daylight or nightime, but the in-between lighting of dusk will show the limitations of the camera most of all. I really respect the guy who does those videos. Watch the ones he did about ND filters. They are needed and as a general rule, you should keep the camera on manual exposure and set the iso and shutter speed according - shutter speed typically double the frame rate you have set. At the very least if you're in auto, use the AE lock to keep the image consistent throughout your film. Set it when you get a good balance between sky and ground. You should also use the histogram too. Relying on just what it looks like on your tablet screen isn't accurate.

Like I said, I think the guy who does that series of videos is great, but pick and choose what fits your style. If tweaking your video back to looking great in post isn't your thing, consider setting the camera with just a notch or two drop in sharpness, color profile none, auto exposure but adjust the AE to taste and then lock it, and then just film. I actually got really nice film doing just that in the beginning, before getting geeky with camera settings. Not that it hasn't helped a lot, but there's no denying that when I knew nothing and just did that little bit the film looked great too.

jeffro21 · Aug 3, 2016

shockwave199 said:
You can bump the sharpness back up a tick or two in post. Certain shots I set the camera to 0 sharpness but generally for daytime filming with an ND filter I bring it down to -2 and bump it back up in post a wee bit to regain some crispness if it looks a little too soft. Dusk is not a good time of day for these cameras. Better to chose daylight or nightime, but the in-between lighting of dusk will show the limitations of the camera most of all. I really respect the guy who does those videos. Watch the ones he did about ND filters. They are needed and as a general rule, you should keep the camera on manual exposure and set the iso and shutter speed according - shutter speed typically double the frame rate you have set. At the very least if you're in auto, use the AE lock to keep the image consistent throughout your film. Set it when you get a good balance between sky and ground. You should also use the histogram too. Relying on just what it looks like on your tablet screen isn't accurate.

Like I said, I think the guy who does that series of videos is great, but pick and choose what fits your style. If tweaking your video back to looking great in post isn't your thing, consider setting the camera with just a notch or two drop in sharpness, color profile none, auto exposure but adjust the AE to taste and then lock it, and then just film. I actually got really nice film doing just that in the beginning, before getting geeky with camera settings. Not that it hasn't helped a lot, but there's no denying that when I knew nothing and just did that little bit the film looked great too.

Thanks so much for the advice. I was reading about the Snake River Prototyping graduated filter. I really like that one and others seem to as well, I think the only thing that worries me is the weight of it... From what I have read people seem to say its ok. I did see some mention of taking care when turning the drone and off and make sure to have the camera pointed down when you turn it off. Thoughts?

shockwave199 · Aug 3, 2016

jeffro21 said:
Thanks so much for the advice. I was reading about the Snake River Prototyping graduated filter. I really like that one and others seem to as well, I think the only thing that worries me is the weight of it... From what I have read people seem to say its ok. I did see some mention of taking care when turning the drone and off and make sure to have the camera pointed down when you turn it off. Thoughts?

I have one of those but haven't used it yet. I have the polar pro kit and usually use ND 8 for afternoon flying but I can see where a 16 on really bright sunny days would help. You use them as like a pair of sunglasses for the camera but more than that, you use manual mode and set shutter speed correctly and iso. I think I've heard that the weight doesn't cause issues with the snake river ones. The polar pro, no problem.

jeffro21 · Aug 3, 2016

shockwave199 said:
I have one of those but haven't used it yet. I have the polar pro kit and usually use ND 8 for afternoon flying but I can see where a 16 on really bright sunny days would help. You use them as like a pair of sunglasses for the camera but more than that, you use manual mode and set shutter speed correctly and iso. I think I've heard that the weight doesn't cause issues with the snake river ones. The polar pro, no problem.