AEB BRACKETING (Creating HDR shoot)

There is a pretty powerful feature in the DJI GO App for Inspire 1, Phantom 3 and OSMO, which called AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing)

So shooting the picture using this camera mode you getting 3 or 5 images shot with different exposure…

Why would we need few of the same pictures with different brightness, instead of just adjusting proper ISO and shutter speed?

Well, you can do that if all you need is a simple shot with the flat colors…

But if you really care how your picture looks, you will need to create a HDR image, and here is what you need to do:

Enter the menu> Photo> mode> AEB

Now you can choose between 3 and 5 steps exposure.

I will choose 5

Right in the same menu you also have to choose the image format, I recommend J+R, JPEG for more convenient preview and RAW for better quality color and lights adjustments

What you have to do next is to get your pictures to your computer and use Photomaticx Pro to put them together and create an HDR effect:

1.      Load bracketed images. (I used DNG files)

If you are flying in the windy weather I’d recommend you to use hand-held shot, if not, taken on tripod mode will work good. Same with removing the ghosts.

You have to tick reduce noise from all source images….

and again, since my aircraft was pretty stable I didn’t get any ghosts… Moving on..

Here is a default preset we getting here. Youalso can play around with the tones, saturation, contrast and other settings

Eventually “creative" preset attracted me. However you can choose the one you like

Save image and we almost done… But now there is a lot of noise on this image, let’s get rid of it in a Lightroom

Open Lightroom>Details panel> Noise reduction and increase the luminance (the values will depend on the exact image you working on) it can get a little bit blured, so you’ll have to increase the details value as well)

Now everything looks pretty great, but I missed something… {:3_60:}I believe that some of you already recognized that I got props on the top part of the image, because I tilted camera up more then 90︒ ,so the easiest way to solve this problem is corp the image

Done! My “End of the world” style photo is ready to be shared in social networks.

Before

Another example: Before

After
Hope it helps to improve your aerial photography skills!
Experienced users are welcomed to share their experience with HDR shots here{:3_59:}

Nice tutorial Tim!

That button selection is often missed.

Cheers.

Paniza Posted at 2015-12-2 20:38
Nice tutorial Tim!

That button selection is often missed.

thanks for your feedback

I have a question. If I set the shutter speed first in manual mode then go and shoot 5 bracketed frames, will the 5 frames bracket around my manual set shutter speed....or will it automatically measure base exposure shutter speed and bracket around it?

Cheers!

I find i can personally achieve a dramatic look in post with lightroom when working with raw - and still look natural - do not prefer this hyper exposed look to HDR

Nice tut!, Thanks, Tim

This has been a long running battle in photography forums, especially by wannabees who think over the top is what people like to see.  Yes, some do.  But most pros tend to go very mild with HDR, instead pulling out detail in darker areas than would normally be there, without blowing out other things in the image.  This is especially true where you are shooting real estate with inside shots.  You can light the inside of a house and still have perfectly normal exposures out the windows with full sunlight when there are many stops of actual light change.  HDR is great stuff.  Overdone HDR is very tiring.  Typically, you want it to be subtle.  To most, it might look like a normal great photo, but to people who know a bit more, they might start wondering just how you  got such a nice shot.

Good idea to post this, thanks Tim. Incidentally, for those not familiar with PHOTOMATIX PRO you can also do subtle HDR or fusion techniques with it (not all of us are “grunge HDR” fans). Last remark your work flow can include this via LIGHTROOM using the plugin included in the software.

Open the can of worms please.  Photography is art.  If you want to go over the top and emulate the early HDR work then use Photomatix.  Some love it, others hate it.   I used it but didn't like the inconsistent results. I went back to layering in Photoshop until Lightroom came out with their HDR.  I use it when needed and come up with great natural results, it works for me.  My client don't know what I'm giving them, only that it looks good.  Both are techniques/tools that we have to choose/work with.  I for one am pleased the AEB is part of our choices.  Even though I won't use it thanks for the tutorial @DJI Tim.  

thebiomed.yahoo Posted at 2015-12-2 10:24
I have a question. If I set the shutter speed first in manual mode then go and shoot 5 bracketed fra ...

Hi Biomed,

It will it will base the brackets on the current exposure when the shot started so, manual in your case.


Cheers.

Thank you guys for your opinions!  same as everyone, i do learn the things here on a forum as well.
However, as i recognized here in my local drone community there are a lot of pilots there never heard of AEB function on their drone, so that is what gave me an idea of writing this tutorial.
I agree that my particular shot is kind of overdone, but the idea of creating  HDR and way to do it is still there...
Also i'd appreciate  if some of you guys could share your HDR shot here as well{:3_52:}

Tim, thanks for putting Osmo's HDR on my radar. Can't wait to shoot some tomorrow.

FYI: For Adobe Lightroom CC users, here's a pretty great HRD tutorial with downloadable sample images to play around with.

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroo ... ontrast-scenes.html

For non Adobe people, you can download trial software if you want to give it a shot, too.

Paniza Posted at 2015-12-2 17:18
Hi Biomed,

It will it will base the brackets on the current exposure when the shot started so, ma ...

Hey Paniza,

That's what I was really hoping to hear. Thanks so much!

Sweet... I will be composing a sunset photo tonight!!

Awesome, thanks for sharing this tutorial and for the information about the tool. I'm really looking forward to play with AEB bracketing option... that I didn't even know it was existing on my drone ;-)

Great stuff Tim! HDR is the greatest Photography ever! So closee to 3D and never a bad exposure!

shawnide Posted at 2015-12-4 01:05
Sweet... I will be composing a sunset photo tonight!!

You can share your work here when you done

I have posted a tutorial on the HDR workflow focused on aerial photography and realistic looking photos in Lightroom here: http://droneownersnetwork.com/hd ... aerial-photography/

DJI-Tim Posted at 2015-12-2 18:36
Thank you guys for your opinions!  same as everyone, i do learn the things here on a forum as well.
...

Thanks for the share Tim!! nicely done and I am always interested in expanding my knowledge and tricks to get the best photo. I also, want to play around with the timed exposure between the Inspire 1 and the OSMO... do you have any tips for this feature?

Rich

Trans Timore,

RichJ53 Posted at 2015-12-5 01:40
Thanks for the share Tim!! nicely done and I am always interested in expanding my knowledge and tr ...

Hey Rich
that's a great idea, let me prepare something about that

DJI-Tim Posted at 2015-12-4 23:19
Hey Rich
that's a great idea, let me prepare something about that

Hey Tim,

Great, So... I would like to see if I could put the OSMO and the Inspire 1 shots together using the timed exposure ...

Thank you in advance
Rich

Here is my AEB (5) sunset pic as promised.  Some of the ghosting on the cars is weird.  I may try taking 1 DNG and export it at different  exposure levels and make a HDR that way to test.  



So my next plan is to take a photo in AEB (5), 1 DNG and HDR mode and compare the 3.

Great job Tim! Very helpful.

I'm confused by the presence of the HDR button. Does that do an in-camera HDR? I selected it, then I checked the AEB tab and selected 3, so I might have just gotten that instead of the HDR mode. I've made plenty of HDRs before, but I'm new to this drone and camera.

Also, for those who want to experiment with HDR and don't have LR or Photomatix, there is a free program called EnfuseGUI that works very well.

jpaulimages@gma Posted at 2015-12-6 04:14
I'm confused by the presence of the HDR button. Does that do an in-camera HDR? I selected it, then I ...

Tim presented here off-camera HDR using AEB exposure bracketing (usually set to 5 steps of 0.7 EV to cover the most dynamic range). This allows you to adjust the result as you want ("art") using the series of RAW images. The on-camera HDR button provides you with only a single image output with no on-camera adjustment (DJI guys should say something about how that was done). There is another "HDR-like" method which uses a single RAW image from which you make copies with different EV shifts to process in your chosen HDR routine. This lattter approach gets around the problem of merging a blurred image in your series (camera movement). Hope this helps.

Thanks Tim, Verrrry Interesting.

Almost all photos I take with my inspire (X3 / X5) are taken in bracket. I then Post-process in lightroom.
Some examples: http://www.andrepensophoto.com/new-gallery/

http://www.andrepensophoto.com/

gybo102 Posted at 2015-12-7 10:36
Almost all photos I take with my inspire (X3 / X5) are taken in bracket. I then Post-process in ligh ...

Nice shots... I "inspire" to use your process on my next outing.  Your Sunrise is impressive.
Here is my first attempt.  Instagram added some noise.  I went with a sureal colorgrade.

Im soooo gonna try this

Here is one from Montreal with some smog on December 6.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/30 ... /dateposted-public/

<a data-flickr-embed="true"  href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/30943004@N00/23597209645/in/dateposted-public/" title="103(15)_(16)_(17)_(18)_easyHDR"><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/592/23597209645_868142cd53_b.jpg" width="1024" height="778" alt="103(15)_(16)_(17)_(18)_easyHDR"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

rivest266 Posted at 2015-12-8 09:16
Here is one from Montreal with some smog on December 6.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/30943004@N00/ ...

nice, but if you working with DNG files, you can adjust Clarity in Photoshop so some part of that smog will be gone

shawnide Posted at 2015-12-8 01:16
Nice shots... I "inspire" to use your process on my next outing.  Your Sunrise is impressive.
Here  ...

nice colors, but why are your photo is that much deformed

How do you convert JPEG and Raw files to DNG and what is the benefit also do have colour set to log?

OMG. That's where all the unrealistic pictures come from
There's no good reason to use HDR in your example. All you need is just some tweaking the RAW images!

dmtarry@me.com Posted at 2015-12-8 13:48
How do you convert JPEG and Raw files to DNG and what is the benefit also do have colour set to log?

You don't. dng=raw file.

dng is the file extension. The benefits come in post-production.

My firsts HDR

Juliano Cruz Posted at 2015-12-13 14:26
My firsts HDR

looks nice!  very juicy!

Juliano Cruz Posted at 2015-12-13 14:26
My firsts HDR

I love these shots ! great job

Juliano Cruz Posted at 2015-12-12 22:26
My firsts HDR

I hope mine turn out like these!