capturing pictures after dark
475 5 2020-11-7
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trooper1
lvl.3
Flight distance : 26611 ft
United States
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Night photography   I have a phantom pro equipped with Rugo lights, pointing straight down. I’ve flown several grid patterns at 30’ altitude, after dark, and I can see the ground illuminated with the arc of the lights. Can anyone suggest some specific camera & pix4D settings that would allow the pix4D software to process the series of pics into an ortho mosaic?

2020-11-7
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MtnDroneAction
New
United States
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Hmm not sure.
2020-11-7
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trooper1
lvl.3
Flight distance : 26611 ft
United States
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I've tried flying 4mph, 30' alt, the lowest altitude that drone deploy allows, flying pics with a grid, and adjusting the pics w/ ground control points.
I need to know the phantom camera shutter speed and ISO for pics shooting into a illuminated circle.
I can see the ground and features in the dji live video feed
2020-11-7
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Labroides
Core User of DJI
Flight distance : 9991457 ft
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Australia
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You are wasting your time.
You need considerably more height for shooting orthomosaics and the inverse-square law is against you with strapping flashlights to your drone.

Try doing it in daylight and if you don't want pesky shadows, do it on a cloudy day.
2020-11-7
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trooper1
lvl.3
Flight distance : 26611 ft
United States
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I'm not a hard headed person; I just needed for the DJI Forum community to confirm that I'm wasting my effort. The reason for night photography is that after driving many hours to get to an area, in remote Nevada, to map, we need a contingency plan to prevent high winds or other weather from stopping us from getting a mosaic during the day's effort. The forecast can be for light wind, but in wind is common in Nevada.  Wasting 8 hours travel time, with no results is what we're trying to avoid.  If we can wait until twilight or just after dark, on that same day, the winds usually die down enough to fly. We've proven that we can mosaic successfully during the twilight period, so, at least, we gained that time. We're just trying to push the window.  We tried flying higher. The rugo lights are quite bright at 30' & 4mph is slow enough for the camera.
2020-11-7
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DJI Stephen
DJI team
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Hello there trooper1. Thank you for reaching out and for these information you have give us. I hope that you will get the best information you need from our fellow DJI co pilots with regards to this matter. In addition I will post a DJI Forum link on Night Photography - Best settings & Useful Tips ( https://forum.dji.com/thread-144591-1-1.html ). Thank you.
2020-11-8
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