Only a few days in with my P3P and now that I'm beginning to feel more comfortable with controlling the bird, I'm wanting to get in-depth with the camera.  I've little in the way of photography experience and am a "complete newb" with this stuff.  Are there any nice guides out there for optimal settings given different lighting levels?  Or even just some general advice from the experts here.  It would be great if anyone had some pointers on what settings will produce the best images (subjective, I guess, but whatever) without post-processing and what settings work best for images that WILL be post-processed.

Thanks!

Do you have Word - part of the Microsoft Office suite of programs?

I've been collecting "advice" and recommendations that show up here from professional and other experienced photographers. I'll be glad to share with you what I've collected so far.

Contact me, please, offline at

aburkefl at gmail dot com

and I'll send you my Word file.

Here is a video that I made to show how to use ND (Neutral Density) filters to lower the shutter speed for better video. You might find it useful.

Even if you don't use ND filters, the video does show some detail about manual settings on the camera and app and how to adjust settings and what the app shows you.



cheers
-david

Hi Aviin,
I'm no expert but I hope the following will help you:

The camera aperture cannot be changed, it is fixed at f2,8.  This lets a lot of light in.
The camera cannot be focussed, but because it is a wide angle lens, 92 degrees, and has a fairly small sensor, everything from about 6 feet to infinity will be in focus.
Exposure is controlled by the combination of shutter speed, from 8 seconds to 1/8000 seconds, and ISO which effectively changes the sensitivity of the sensor.

If you select automatic, the camera will select a suitable ISO and shutter speed for you.  In most cases this will be perfect.  
In some cases the sky or clouds may be over exposed and come out as totally white in your picture, this is called "blowing out".  If this happens you can use the right wheel to adjust the exposure either up or down to lighten the picture or in this case darken the picture.  Then take the picture again, or adjust before you take it.
To aid with correct exposure you can display a Histogram on the Pad or phone which graphically displays the distribution of light in the image.  If the clouds or sky are burnt out there will be a peak in the histogram graph at the right hand end.  If the opposite is true, say a forest of trees are showing very dark, then there will be a peak in the histogram at the LH end.  Ideal is to have an equal spread of information right across the histogram, with no peaks at either the LH dark end or the RH light end.  Use the Right Hand wheel to adjust the exposure so that there are no peaks at either end of the histogram.  You can try this indoors, you don't have to be flying.

Another tool you can use is Zebras.  This will show a striped black and white area in you picture where it will be over exposed or blown out.  Again use the RH wheel to adjust the exposure until the zebras disappear.

There is a manual mode where you can select the shutter speed and the ISO, but in most cases this is not needed unless you have some specific requirements.  For most people a correctly exposed shot is the only requirement.

White balance affects how the camera renders colours under different light, there are settings for daylight, sunlight, cloud, fluorescent etc which if selected will change how colours are displayed.  Try taking a picture outside with fluorescent selected and it will have a green tinge to it for example.  Again try this when on the ground, you don't need to be flying.  Best for general picture taking is Auto White balance.  This allows the camera to select the colour temperature that it thinks is best, and it generally is.

Next is the choice between .jpeg and RAW.
A .jpeg picture will have been adjusted by the camera software to produce a colourful, sharp, and what the software engineer thinks you will find pleasing, and generally this is true.  You can use this picture straight away on the WWW or anywhere you want to show it.  However it is highly compressed and every time you change it and save it, it will lose information.  Also if you change it and file it, you cannot go back to how it was unless you have made a copy before editing.  If you want to change anything about the picture such as colour or exposure, the changed picture will be of less quality than the original .jpeg and the change will be permanent

RAW does not change anything about the picture.  The information captured by each pixel on the camera is unchanged, and it is left up to you, to adjust the image in any way you want.  Usually the software program you use to edit the RAW image will not change the original RAW but store all the adjustments that you have made to the image in a file which is stored with the RAW so that you always have the unchanged original to go back to if you want to change something else about the image.  

Best illustration is to think of an image which you change to Black and White.  If is then saved as a .jpeg you cannot bring back the colour.  If you have a RAW then you can bring back the colour.

Hope this helps you get started, if you select auto, then learn to adjust exposure using the RH wheel you will be most of the way to getting great shots.  Practice on the ground till you get the feeling for what the adjustments do, then apply them in the air.

aburkefl - I have Word.  Sending you an email shortly.  Thanks!

ditzlerphoto - Your video was to the point and informative.  Very nice and appreciated!  I will be looking into getting some filters soon.  Having their use explained like that was fantastic!

liningiv - Tons of stuff you posted there!  That post is pure gold.  Awesome and thank you!

I appreciate all the stuff so far!  I can't wait to get out this weekend and experiment with the camera in a more structured and meaningful way than I've been doing previously, armed with this information!

You are welcome.

Just another little tip.
I take all my pictures in both .jpeg and RAW, this is an option in the camera menu.
Normally for me a .jpeg is fine, but if you do catch THE BEST PHOTO EVER and you only have the .jpeg you may regret not having the better RAW file with more information and potential better colour depth.  
Future editions of Photoshop or Lightroom may improve the handling of these RAW files and may give you even better results than now, so you are future proofing all of the shots you are taking today.  Of course this all takes up more HDD space but storage is cheap and if your shot is no good delete both .jpeg and RAW..

http://www.phantomfilters.bigcar ... ntom-3-professional

aburkefl@gmail. Posted at 2015-8-6 20:45
Do you have Word - part of the Microsoft Office suite of programs?

I've been collecting "advice" an ...

Hi there aburkefl
Is it possible to send me the advice and recommendations you have collected so far to my email?
Sotirisphoka@gmail.com

Thank you very much in advance.

Have a look here:

THE Help Guide for the Phantom 3