Underwater Photography - Phantom 3 Pro Settings

Uh, if you don't think this is real, try this simple test. Get a polarizing lens, walk over to the nearest body of water that can support a reflection.

Rotate the polarizer though 180 degrees or so. Amazing things, the polarizers. And even if the polarizer isn't helping clarity (they work some of the time but they are not magic) thew WILL change your exposure value. So if you are exposing manually, you will constantly have to change the EV. If you are on auto exposure, note that the camera has a delay of 1 - 2 seconds before exposure 'settles' If you are flying at any speed, you won't have enough time to get a frame by frame accurate exposure.

Oh, and I forgot you were taking stills - same principles except that if you go slow enough the auto exposure should hold pretty well. But stills have even a bigger problem - if the EV (exposure value) differs dramatically from shot to shot, the combined scene will look weird. You can fix this in Photoshop but it's a pain. In your particular case, I presume you are going to just look at hundreds of stills? Sounds exciting. So the combination problem might not apply. Video might be better - you will lose some resolution, not all that much as P3 stills tend to fall apart at pixel levels (as opposed to a modern 24+ megapixel DSLR that weighs more than the entire phantom). Easier enough to try.

From my experience with whales, I think the best sun angle is around 45 - 60 degrees. Straight up gives you more penetrance but way more specular reflection. Shallow doesn't penetrate and gives you reflections. (I don't use polarizers on whales because they have this annoying tendency to move).

If you are really **** compulsive and have some access to the lake, you could time lapse some static pictures to get an idea of the visual characteristics.

Do you know anybody with a magnetometer? Our local Civil Air Patrol has an old military one. In shallow water it would probably find something like that if the brass alloy had enough steel.
 
Uh, if you don't think this is real, try this simple test. Get a polarizing lens, walk over to the nearest body of water that can support a reflection.

Rotate the polarizer though 180 degrees or so. Amazing things, the polarizers. And even if the polarizer isn't helping clarity (they work some of the time but they are not magic) thew WILL change your exposure value. So if you are exposing manually, you will constantly have to change the EV. If you are on auto exposure, note that the camera has a delay of 1 - 2 seconds before exposure 'settles' If you are flying at any speed, you won't have enough time to get a frame by frame accurate exposure.

Oh, and I forgot you were taking stills - same principles except that if you go slow enough the auto exposure should hold pretty well. But stills have even a bigger problem - if the EV (exposure value) differs dramatically from shot to shot, the combined scene will look weird. You can fix this in Photoshop but it's a pain. In your particular case, I presume you are going to just look at hundreds of stills? Sounds exciting. So the combination problem might not apply. Video might be better - you will lose some resolution, not all that much as P3 stills tend to fall apart at pixel levels (as opposed to a modern 24+ megapixel DSLR that weighs more than the entire phantom). Easier enough to try.

From my experience with whales, I think the best sun angle is around 45 - 60 degrees. Straight up gives you more penetrance but way more specular reflection. Shallow doesn't penetrate and gives you reflections. (I don't use polarizers on whales because they have this annoying tendency to move).

If you are really **** compulsive and have some access to the lake, you could time lapse some static pictures to get an idea of the visual characteristics.

Do you know anybody with a magnetometer? Our local Civil Air Patrol has an old military one. In shallow water it would probably find something like that if the brass alloy had enough steel.

Thanks for your reply. I do believe you of course - I was just trying to convey how new and unusual that concept and information was to me. Thank you for the education.

I'm not worried about stitching together the images afterwards, nor am I looking for a shot that will look nice and clear when printed on stretched canvas... :)
All I need is enough visibility to differentiate between clumps of seaweed, rocks, sand and fish!

Back to the polarizer - the filter I have (Neewer) screws on to a circular frame that then just slips over the existing Phantom camera. As fas as I know, there is no marker on it for "Up" but from your description - the orientation can make a big difference. No?

Also - a problem I may have with stills or video might be the focus. The area I'm concerned with is 5-20 feet below the surface - but the autofocus may try to focus on a leaf or bug floating on the surface. Do you think it would be useful to manually find an area in which i can see the bottom and then click the focus lock button (which also locks the exposure I believe) or will the exposure lock kind of defeat the purpose?

Yes - sifting through a couple hundred photos is not my first choice of ways to spend a Saturday night - but I can probably write my own ticket between $1k and $5k if I'm able to find it.
 
Focus isn't really a problem on such a wide angle lens.
Yes a lot depends on the way a polariser is turned. On every polarising filter I have ever used you have been able to rotate it.
Then again my sunglasses don't lol.
 
Just a couple of things. I'm not a videographer- but have been a still shooter for Almost 40 years.
-1- The Phantom camera is fixed. There's no auto focus. The focus is from (correct me if I'm wrong someone) approx 10m to infinity. All the time.
-2- ,polarizer are MOST effective at approx a 90° angle to what you are shooting Doesn't mean you can't use it when sun is at any other angle, but it's best when light is at an 90° from camera to subject.
When Sun is at its highest (mid day in summer) it will be the least effective when you are pointing down as the light source is above and directly behind the camera.
Less of an issue in fall or winter when sun is at a lower angle all day.

-3- rotating to get best angle for shooting in the direction you are flying can make a huge difference. On normal camera on the ground the way you use a polarizer is to put it on the lens, then rotate it until the reflections disappear or minimize.

So since you are doing a grid, use the Course Lock to lock in the line of flight, point camera down and rotate the Phantom until you get the most polarization, then just fly on the locked Course line.

Using course lock forward on the right stick is still forward on the line you choose no matter what way the bird is turned.

Just a couple thoughts.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
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