Hello I'm a Newbie here to the Drone world. I'm Pioloting a P4P and I'm triyng to get night time images but I'm having grain and blur issues.


Should I do 7 to 10 exposures at once and hope for the best or put my ISO to 100 and hope for the best?

Frankly, I would just put it all in auto and let the camera do the work. Also you might use Tripod mode, as it takes quite long exposures. Oh, and don't try to do it on windy days.

Geebax Posted at 2017-8-10 15:14
Frankly, I would just put it all in auto and let the camera do the work. Also you might use Tripod mode, as it takes quite long exposures. Oh, and don't try to do it on windy days.

Oh OK!
Just looked up Tripod mode. Will try it out once this flight restriction(Due to Donald Trump) is over with.

HG1 Posted at 2017-8-10 21:33
Oh OK!
Just looked up Tripod mode. Will try it out once this flight restriction(Due to Donald Trump) is over with.

Tripod mode probably won't help much.  
It's more about flying slowly rather than locking down the camera like it's on a tripod.

On my phantom 3 at I set camera to manual.200 asa 2 to 2.5 second exposure
Use automatic too and see what works. Light or no wind is important.

Labroides Posted at 2017-8-10 21:55
Tripod mode probably won't help much.  
It's more about flying slowly rather than locking down the camera like it's on a tripod.

For stills?

Geebax Posted at 2017-8-10 22:55
For stills?

Yes ... it's confusingly named
Tripod mode slows down the max speed to a crawl and turns on the side sensors which is good for getting in close to obstacles.

Labroides Posted at 2017-8-10 23:06
Yes ... it's confusingly named
Tripod mode slows down the max speed to a crawl and turns on the side sensors which is good for getting in close to obstacles.

Ah, OK. I did not know that.

You could always take a number of images while stationary, and stack them to help reduce noise and enhance signal.

Labroides Posted at 2017-8-10 21:55
Tripod mode probably won't help much.  
It's more about flying slowly rather than locking down the camera like it's on a tripod.

I take my stills while the drone is still.

Try choose a calm day. Also shooting just before dark while there is a bit of light in the sky is good. I have used long exposures over 1 second successfully on calm days.
Set your ISO to 400-800, much over that and things start to get grainy. Try different exposures and take plenty of shots.

Grain and blur issues occur when you select "Auto" because the system bumps up the ISO setting in order to achieve a reasonable ratio f-stop/shutter speed.
Manual settings are a MUST. Select RAW as output and you can easily underexpose by 2-3 stops.
Once you have reached your photo position give the drone at least 10 seconds to settle.
And switch off VPS because it won't work in the dark anyway but it'll still try.
Tripod mode is for videos when you need to have very slow movements.
It won't help you because you don't want to move - you want to be stationery.

The above discussion make sense, please check and have a try. Don't forget to share the pictures with us.

DJI Susan Posted at 2017-8-12 19:23
The above discussion make sense, please check and have a try. Don't forget to share the pictures with us.

Will do after this flight restriction ends up!!!