I’m assuming DD sets the camera to auto, I may be wrong. I set my camera to auto in the DJI Go 4 App, closed that and opened DD. Shocked by the blown highlights?!
Hi Steve,
Thanks for reaching out to us - sorry to hear you’re experiencing image quality issues. You might want to try adjusting the camera manually in the DJI Go app. To do so, please go to the Advanced Settings tab within your flight plan in the DroneDeploy app. Here, you’ll see “Automatic Camera settings.” Turning this off means your flight will use the current camera settings in the DJI Go app and you will be able to adjust the exposure and white balance. Once you’ve exited DroneDeploy, please enter the DJI Go app and enter the desired settings for your flight. Your drone will capture photos according to those manual settings, and you can upload the images normally to our Map Engine. Hope this helps improve your images moving forward!
Cheers,
Stephanie
If I adjust the camera manually in DJI Go, will those settings hold over to DD? Or does DD control camera settings on it own; switching to auto.
You answer seems to suggest I shoot stilsl in DJI Go and upload / add those to the project.
"Once you’ve exited DroneDeploy, please enter the DJI Go app and enter the desired settings for your flight. Your drone will capture photos according to those manual settings, and you can upload the images normally to our Map Engine. "
Look at this map, what do you think? http://drdp.ly/E6PGkF
Hi Flash
Sorry, that doesn’t look good. We have been actively working on improved exposure for a while, with continued improvements in the next release (before the end of the month)
DroneDeploy will not change your camera settings if you uncheck the box “Automatic camera settings” in the Advanced Planning menu. You don’t need to shoot the photos with DJI go - just change the settings there to your pleasing, and then launch the flight with DD later.
That’s often not ideal, so we’re working on just helping the camera get exposure right all the time.
OK! Good to know I can set my camera via the DJI Go app, turn off the “Automatic Camera Settings” under a mission’s Advanced Settings:
I’ll head back out to re-capture that project, this time on Manual instead of Auto and see how it goes. I’ll try flying at 246’ instead of 135’ may also throw in “Orbit at End of Mission” and grab some 45 degree obliques from a lower altitude and see how that integrates.
Thanks!
Old thread, but still a relevant conversation I’ve found. Winter in the PNW comes with challenging lighting. Especially in steep and forested terrain. I flew a few missions yesterday and while it was sunny, there were lots of deep shadow areas in some cases.
Exposure was not what I expected. DD did not use the widest aperture possible in cases where it dropped the shutter speed unacceptably low. Even in sunny areas, the shutter speed was lower than I like (less than 1/250th).
Can we get a flow chart or outline on how DD decides on the exposure settings please? And an explanation of why DD would let the shutter speed drop so low while there is still more aperture to use?
Thank you.
P4P on ios using DD 2.7.1.0
Bump.
@Jamespipe, when DD controls the exposure, how can we get DD to use a faster shutter speed?
Thanks,
Dave
I gave up on this a long time ago. The P4P does its best and I post-process. If your conditions are that harsh you need to let DJI control the camera and create some profiles. Try to run a mission twice back-to-back. Once with DD control and the other with DJI on Auto and you will not see much difference if any at all. That’s what they’re doing.
Or start post-processing. I wouldn’t rely on a drone software company to define good image parameters.
Typically, with non-mapping missions, I always control the exposure manually. For a 20 min, autonomous flight with clouds drifting between the sun and out again, manually setting a single exposure for the whole mission won’t work.
There needs to be a way to have auto exposure based upon a hierarchy of factors. For example.
#1 priority: Shutter speed of at least 1/250
#2 iso - 100
#3 aperture @ 4
So, in ideal conditions, the ISO will be 100, the aperture will be 4, and the shutter will be some # equal to or above 1/250.
It the shutter speed is going to fall below 1/250, the aperture is opened until the minimum shutter speed is achieved. If the aperture is wide open, and the shutter speed has not reached the minimum, then the iso is set to 200, and the process repeats until a minimum shutter speed of 1/250 is achieved.
This is how I believe it should work. i would like to hear how it currently works.
A manual setting will work fine if you do it with the intent to post-process. As for auto, no drone camera I have used is capable of auto-correcting for these types of conditions when flying 15-20mph. I routinely fly over trees and then concrete paving and it’s not going to happen. Your best bet is to underexpose and correct. Some are ok with dark shadows and a little blowout. I’m not.
I’m glad that strategy works for you. But here, at this time of year, the sun is only at 22* relative to the horizon at noon. Then throw in some 200’ pit walls creating very deep shadows in some parts of the mission, and no shade in others and 1 single exposure will not work, no matter how much post you are willing to do. And image blur, or loss of detail in shadows or highlights cannot be corrected.
As far as camera auto settings not being able to keep up, I’m not sure what you base that on? Auto exposure takes milliseconds to set and we are talking 2 seconds between photos at the fastest. Auto will have no issues applying settings.
When I get a chance, I will do some testing with auto in GO to compare with what DD is doing. I don’t have any idea what GO does in auto because I never use it. Maybe DD is just using GO’s auto, but that is not what they represent. They have a switch to let the user decide if they want to set the exposure in GO or let DD handle it.
The only condition that I have a hard time with is harsh partly cloudy. Those photos would be easy to correct. You can gain a ton of info from shadows. I am really surprised though that it’s that bad with an oblique.
Feel free to message me a link to download and I will fix them.
Thanks for the offer, but I’m done with that project. The oblique I posted was a screengrab from a short video clip I shot on that site, not a photo, just to show the contrast. Some of the shots were in the bright sun and others were completely in the shade. One exposure setting for both is not ideal.
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