Sharpness Settings

[Nigel]

Hi All,

firstly thanks for everyone's contribution, this is an excellent resource and I have learnt a lot from the site. I would like to get peoples thoughts on the camera settings they are using for video. In this article the author recommends shooting footage in "soft' mode and then sharpening. I shot some comparison footage in the following video

[youtube]BoVDj8Roia0[/youtube]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoVDj8Roia0

sharpening the soft video lead to a little loss of detail but the video was smoother than that shot in standard. Interested in what others do

Cheers

Nigel

 

[TheloniousMac]

I think I read the same article and switched to soft as well... until I saw the smooth dreamlike footage it took.
It's easier to see the differences with more light and larger / closer objects but huge difference to me.
Now I always shoot in standard, I post process anyway and it's easy to get the effect you want for each flight.

 

[darkoth23]

Why not the other way around... record in std or hard and then apply a unsharpening filter. More adjustability this way .

 

[RedRyderMedia]

I shoot in std and I'm happy with the results.

 

[SpikeFinch]

Why not the other way around... record in std or hard and then apply a unsharpening filter. More adjustability this way .

Agree 100% you have more control that way

 

[4wd]

The problem with sharpening - however it is done - is it's a destructive process which introduces irreversible artefacts to the image, so reducing sharpness afterwards because it looks scratchy isn't the best way.
However I've tried the soft setting too and found it too soft; making it sharp enough afterwards was difficult and did not look much better than the standard setting anyway.

IMO best results are from the narrow setting unless you really need the wide - and standard sharpening either in 1080p/30fps or
720p/60fps for faster action.
It's also often better with exposure on -0.3 or -0.6.
It's preferable to slightly brighten it up later if required, rather than try to recover an overexposed scene.

Set the white balance manually on what seems best on the day, it tends to change during the flight which can be annoying and is hard to do any sort of corrections if it's flipping between them as you go from say green areas to buildings.

Also look at the (exposure) metering setting.
In some situations it's better on the second option of averaging the frame.
I find in practice this sometimes results in more sudden dark/light changes and it's usually best to stay on the first center spot setting

 

[ircphoenix]

I'm doing a lot of flying over the ocean lately and the waves turning the ocean from green to white really does a number on the metering. Sigh.

 

[ircphoenix]

Also, what are you guys using for post?

For my images I stick to Picasa since it is really the lazy man's easy button to photo editing. But I don't know the first thing about video editing.

 

[RedRyderMedia]

I'm doing a lot of flying over the ocean lately and the waves turning the ocean from green to white really does a number on the metering. Sigh.

My suggestion would be to try a neutral density filter. I've had problems with exposure "jumping" from one setting to another and making the screen flash. I haven't tried it, but a ND filter would reduce the amount of light hitting the sensor. Since the camera controls exposure by reducing exposure time rather than with an iris, when the scene is very bright, the shutter time is VERY SHORT and the difference in exposure from one exposure time to the next shorter or longer may be like 50% difference which is more noticeable on screen! As you reduce the amount of light, the exposure times get longer, and the difference between one exposure and the next shorter or longer exposure may only be 5% which would be less noticeable. Also be sure to use the slowest sensor gain,,which I think is 100. Just something to try.

Another approach would be a polarizing filter because it would take out some of the highlights and also reduce to total amount of light. You should get better saturation and less exposure variation too.

 

[Mako79]

I'm doing a lot of flying over the ocean lately and the waves turning the ocean from green to white really does a number on the metering. Sigh.

I get yellow and purple tinges when night flying.
lock the white balance to cloudy or sunny. Do not leave in auto.

 

[SpikeFinch]

I'm doing a lot of flying over the ocean lately and the waves turning the ocean from green to white really does a number on the metering. Sigh.

I get yellow and purple tinges when night flying.
lock the white balance to cloudy or sunny. Do not leave in auto.

Agree! Auto mode can never be as smart as you can be., or should be.
It's ok when your learning how to fly, but once your ready to do some work, set things to manual as much as you can so you have control.

 

[ircphoenix]

Excellent advice guys. Thanks very much. Gonna try that out tomorrow!

 

[mr_quatson]

I have manually set white balance to sunny (and also tested it with cloudy) but I'm still getting color shifts midway through recordings. It seems the video is always recorded in auto white balance.

Does anyone have a fix for this? Or can at least confirm it?

 

[4wd]

I have manually set white balance to sunny (and also tested it with cloudy) but I'm still getting color shifts midway through recordings. It seems the video is always recorded in auto white balance.

Does anyone have a fix for this? Or can at least confirm it?

I have noticed the same, I suspect the white balance adjustments only apply to JPG photos.
It's not clear if the same is the case with other settings.
Exposure seems to affect video and sharpness - but what about the focus related options - hard to be sure what it is doing since the manual doesn't mention this.

 

[mr_quatson]

That doesn't sound too good. I had another look in the manual and one could interpret it this way or the other...
I also sent an email to DJI support asking for clarification.

But it seems we will have to find a work-around for this one.

 

[mr_quatson]

So I have been emailing with DJI Europe support. I specifically asked for confirmation that the video recording is supposed to respect the white balance setting. They did confirm this, so now I'll try to swap my unit and see if that changes anything.

 

[FalconPix]

Anyone ever shoot fire at night?

What's the best settings?

 

[AsiaFlyer]

My 1st vision+ recorded video really well, I have just received a replacement and using the same settings, 1080p/30fps, ISO 100, Sunny I am getting flickering as seen in this clip, my dealer has agreed to replace it, if I hadn't previously owned a V+ I would have just thought it was normal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YSFdCrD ... load_owner

 

[Mako79]

My 1st vision+ recorded video really well, I have just received a replacement and using the same settings, 1080p/30fps, ISO 100, Sunny I am getting flickering as seen in this clip, my dealer has agreed to replace it, if I hadn't previously owned a V+ I would have just thought it was normal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YSFdCrD ... load_owner

I cant watch youtube vids at work.
I can only presume you are getting the notorious prop shadows. This happens when the sun is inline with the prop and lens.
Using a camera hood will minimise it. Quick fix is some black tape.

 

[4wd]

I can only presume you are getting the notorious prop shadows. This happens when the sun is inline with the prop and lens.
Using a camera hood will minimise it. Quick fix is some black tape.

No it's jumping between two exposure settings.
That's a difficult scene to get right though, flying towards the light over water.
If it doesn't do it in a more regular scene it's not a fault, and won't help changing it.