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Photo bracketing (for HDR photos) - where is the setting in Pilot...
24878 17 2015-5-7
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FantomDK
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It is advertised that the DJI Pilot app can do "bracketing" - as in taking several shots as quickly as possible of the same thing (holding still in the air) but with varying levels of exposure. You can then combine those photos in for example Adobe Lightroom (HDR-photo) to make stunning HDR-photos with a high level of dynamic range (ie. lots of detail in both the bright and dark parts of the photo).

Thanks

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2015-5-7
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FantomDK
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FOUND IT

To do bracketing and HDR and other photo-settings like timer, you PRESS AND HOLD the shutter (the button to start video if in video-mode and take photos in photomode) in the Pilot app. The icon on the button changes according to what photo-setting you are in.

Awesome. Now I'm gonna check the photos I just captured with those settings from my flight
2015-5-7
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coreynach
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Flight distance : 208589 ft
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Pretty cool, eh!
2015-5-7
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FantomDK
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Supercool

Only problem is, that now I want to do all my photos in DNG and HDR/bracketing - which means I'm almost back to P2V+ regarding it taking quite some time to snap a photo   Luckily the videofeed keeps streaming - you just can't take a new photo or start video-recording for some seconds.

By the way - wonder if a faster microSD card will make taking those images faster? I will test with the SanDisk Extreme 32GB I used with my P2V+ - it has a good deal faster write-speeds than the P3-included Lexar microSD card.

BY THE WAY - what is the difference between HDR and bracketing? That the P3 does the HDR internally - rather than with bracketing where you have manually do the HDR-merge in for example Lightroom (which actually takes some time). Guess I have to test quality-difference and difference in the time it takes to take a bracketed vs HDR.
2015-5-7
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Tahoe_Ed
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Look at the size of the files.  The typical DNG file I see is 25mb.  It takes a while to get them from the sensor to the card.  My guess is that the card is not the problem if you are using the supplied 16gb card.  I use the SanDisk Extreme 32 and 64gb cards the write times do not improve in my opinion.
2015-5-7
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coreynach
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Your guesstimate of the difference between the actual HDR setting and the auto exposure bracketing is on par with mine. Who knows how the P3 auto HDR mode is creating the image? Obviously, they'd need to have their own merging algorithm. But you could technically get away with a somewhat "HDR" image with just two different exposures... but it wouldn't be good as one with more exposures. So one test would be to see how long it takes the P3 to complete an HDR shot, vs how long it takes to complete the 3 auto exposure  and the five auto exposure... That might start to give you clues to what the HDR setting is doing.  Also, if you want to know more specifics about what the exact exposures are for 5 auto exposure bracketing, I found this on an Inspire forum, and I'd assume it's the same or similar for the P3:

In Auto Mode the exposures from a 5 shot bracket

F .. . SH ... EV ... ISO
2.8 1/6 +0.31 737
2.8 1/5 +0.97 876
2.8 1/13 -0.34 935
2.8 1/13 -1.0 593
2.8 1/13 -1.66 376

In Manual Mode the exposures from a 5 shot bracket

F .. . SH ... EV ... ISO
2.8 1/20 0.00 1600
2.8 1/30 -0.7 1600
2.8 1/13 +0.7 1600
2.8 1/50 -1.3 1600
2.8 1/8 +1.3 1600

this test was inside, so thats why the iso is so high


In either case, I think 3rd party HDR tools offer all kinds of tweak-able settings, so my guess would be that you could probably even get better results doing it manual... but if the P3 HDR one looks nice enough for you, use it.

If you do comparison tests, I'd love to see them
2015-5-7
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FantomDK
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Tahoe_Ed Posted at 2015-5-8 05:14
Look at the size of the files.  The typical DNG file I see is 25mb.  It takes a while to get them fr ...

Yep, it is an awesome amount of data. Add the JPGs that I also currently choose to shoot (Raw+JPG).

I did a quick speed-test:
Included LEXAR 16GB (rated at 95MB/sec read, 25MB/sec write)
DiskSpeedTest Lexar16GB.jpg

Sandisk Extreme 32GB (rated at 45MB/sec both read and write)
DiskSpeedTest SandiskExtreme.jpg


So if the camera on the P3 can feed the microSD to use its full speed, it seems likely that the Sandisk Extreme 32GB will indeed be almost twice as fast. That is - of cause - if the bottleneck is the speed of the microSD and not some processing in the camera. I will certainly do some unscientific tests tomorrow and see if it "feels" faster.

Interestingly enough the included LEXAR card is almost twice as fast as the Sandisk Extreme for READING! Thats nice when emptying the card. But hardly a huge factor if the faster WRITE-speed of the Sandisk makes taking bracketed/HDR DNGs faster.

I am stoked with the abilities of the new Phantom 3 Pro.


PS: Speed-test not run thru, speeds vary depending on filesize etc. Tests conducted on latest model high-end Macbook Pro Retina 15".

2015-5-7
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FantomDK
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coreynach@gmail Posted at 2015-5-8 07:45
Your guesstimate of the difference between the actual HDR setting and the auto exposure bracketing i ...

I've only tried bracketing with 3 exposures so far. Wonder how large the benefit of 5 exposures would be? Will certainly give it a try. It does slow down things (also post-processing) - but for some situations it might be worth it.

Comparing HDR with bracketed, merged in Lightroom, is certainly something I need to check out. Wonder if anyone has any opinions on that?

Is what we should take from that quote from the Inspire-forum, that we should use Manual mode when shooting bracketing-mode? It makes sense I suppose? Curious to see if there is a big difference - of letting the ISO stay the same - but letting it only change the other factors.


PS: Probably unrelated; but what are those .SRT files I have found in some of my folders? They are connected to the videos, so I assume those are the "Video Caption" setting? I actually found out - from Inspire forum
http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=9248 and
http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=9193

It confused me that I know SRT files as subtitle-files. And that is in fact what they are Opening in VLC and you can get subtitles with some camera-data.  Wonder if it can be used for more than that?
2015-5-7
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Ton.veenhof
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I tried HDR on the P3 this weekend. Should this yield more than one picture on the SD card? I only get one.

Ton
2015-6-1
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FantomDK
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Ton.veenhof@gma Posted at 2015-6-1 18:02
I tried HDR on the P3 this weekend. Should this yield more than one picture on the SD card? I only g ...

TIPS FOR HDR / BRACKETS-PHOTOGRAPHY

Yes, when selecting the HDR-mode (hold down the shutter button in the Pilot App in order to open the circular menu where you can select various shooting-modes including HDR, brackets (3 or 5), Timer) the Phantom will create the HDR-image itself resulting in just one HDR-photo.

I have not experimented much with the "built-in" HDR (that people might also know from iPhones and other smartphones which can shoot HDRs as well and it is quite seamless). What I do is, I shoot brackets (if light difference is hefty (like shooting towards the sun at sunset) I will go for 5-brackets where it shoots 5 pictures with varying exposure. I then manually combine those into one HDR-photo. I do this in Adobe Lightroom (only newest can do it).

This leaves me maximum flexibility with regards to exposing shadows and highlights etc and adds extra detail. You need to shoot static objects though as there is a little time between each shoot. Also, it takes maybe 10 seconds for it to capture a 5-bracket photo in DNG (raw) so it takes a little effort and patience. But it is well worth it. Both for creating more naturally looking images or fairly extreme HDR-photos where the effect is very pronounced (which is a matter of taste and preference).

I end up shooting all my photos in mostly 5-brackets - because it gives me that extra flexibility and maximum quality in the photos I take. The drawback can be that you don't get to shoot a ton of photos (because it takes a while every time).


TIPS FOR GRABBING STILL PHOTOS FROM 4K VIDEO

But what I've found out is that if I need some extra photos from a flight, and I've shoot most of the the flight where I am not shooting photos in 4K video, I can do pretty nice screengrabs from the 4K video in the full 3840x2160 resolution (about 8-megapixel photos) . These are fairly compressed and don't handle zooming in a lot too well, but they work well for some uses.

The way I create screengrabs from 4K video is I import the video in Lightroom, view the video and pause where I want a screengrab/still photo. I click the little gear-button and select Screen Capture. Then it saves a full 4K resolution still to disk. I can then open edit that further afterwards. If you don't have Lightroom, the free videoplayer VLC ( http://www.Videolan.org ) will also do screengrabs. It is important not just to do screenshots of your monitor (unless you have a 4K screen I guess) to get the full resolution of the 4K video source.


Yet again I managed to write a small book - but I hope you can grab (pun intended) some useful information from it
2015-6-2
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PaulSimisterPho
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When you set the bracketing to 3 or 5  frames how many stops difference is there in each frame? If I shoot HDR with my DSLR then I have 2 stops difference and use 3 frames. Is there a way to set the difference between the frames?
2015-6-18
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FantomDK
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PaulSimisterPho Posted at 2015-6-18 17:51
When you set the bracketing to 3 or 5  frames how many stops difference is there in each frame? If I ...

I can't recall exactly... Someone posted the figures.

I think 3-brackets will mean 1EV (one stop) (two stop difference?) on each side of the middel/normally exposed image. Doing 5-brackets adds two more images that I think are +/-2EV giving the option for a 'stronger' HDR.

I do not believe there is a way to set the difference between the frames. However, you can make sure you do 5-brackets if you want the option for more extreme HDR. thats virtually always what I do. It takes a little longer to take 5-brackets. But I think it is worth it - I'd rather have a few shots with a lot of editing flexibility and a bunch of mediocre shots.
2015-6-18
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shango
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PaulSimisterPho Posted at 2015-6-18 17:51
When you set the bracketing to 3 or 5  frames how many stops difference is there in each frame? If I ...

Can't find a setting to adjust, doing some 3 shot EB's the other day it looks as if it uses a combination of EV and shutter speed to achieve the exposures.

Couple examples

-0.63   -  0.00  -  +0.64
1/530 - 1/340 - 1/220

and

-0.59  -  0.00  - + 0.73
1/800 - 1/530 - 1/320

All images i shot have a varying EV and shutter speed

Didn't find much of a difference in the over and under exposed shots but was fairly happy with the results from Photomatix, does a much better job with them than PS.

Will give 5 shots a try next time
2015-6-20
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PaulSimisterPho
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After more research it seems to be a pretty constant +/- .7 EV difference. I moved over to shooting 5 frames. Just have to remember that it takes a while to compute and save all 5 of the shots.
2015-7-1
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Mcoda92
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Ton.veenhof@gma Posted at 2015-6-1 18:02
I tried HDR on the P3 this weekend. Should this yield more than one picture on the SD card? I only g ...

In my experience you have to actually press the photo capture button on the app screen.  Using the photo button on the controller hasn't been working for me.
2015-7-5
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lowallin
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Mcoda92 Posted at 2015-7-6 03:15
In my experience you have to actually press the photo capture button on the app screen.  Using the ...

I'm on 1.3.20 for drone, RC and camera. After I've set 5 exposure AEB in the DJI Go app, pressning the photo capture button on the RC results in 5 photos taken spaced at EV 0,7. I haven't tried on earlier versions of the SW.
2015-8-24
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juanferreira
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FantomDK Posted at 2015-5-8 05:06
Supercool

Only problem is, that now I want to do all my photos in DNG and HDR/bracketing - whi ...

when you shoot ....lets say 5 shots  starting --2-1 0 +1 +2 that is bracketing with five diferent ev you combine in photoshop file automate merge hdr ...it will promt you to pick the files to combine , pick those five and ok you wil end up wit an hdr image where you can control the croma and the compresion of the image
the other way ...is a pseudo hdr that is done recreating the dinamic resolution
personally y like the first method bracketing
2015-8-25
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hamilton.a
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Can anyone confirm that the Mavic will have bracket photography capability? The P4 does and I use it all the time for real estate.
2016-9-30
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