Arch Rock Revisit

[AlanLichty]

One of my goals on my most recent trip down the Oregon coastline was to revisit the area around Arch Rock to get a better view of the sea stack. The lighting wasn't perfect but I did manage to get a better viewing angle of the named feature here.

C&C always welcome.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Nice one Alan. It just occurred to me that optimal light for images looking down might be different than terrestrial based photos. You might ne able to shoot at different times of day than normal.

 

[AlanLichty]

Nice one Alan. It just occurred to me that optimal light for images looking down might be different than terrestrial based photos. You might ne able to shoot at different times of day than normal.

Thanks Ben - your observation on the different lighting from the air is correct and even more so for the Air 2 drone's camera. I need uniform lighting in order to get workable captures with this camera and the dramatic lighting I seek out with my DSLR is not my friend from the air. This does have the happy outcome that I can fly the drone and shoot during the times of the day when light is the least interesting for my DSLR.

 

[JimFox]

Thanks Ben - your observation on the different lighting from the air is correct and even more so for the Air 2 drone's camera. I need uniform lighting in order to get workable captures with this camera and the dramatic lighting I seek out with my DSLR is not my friend from the air. This does have the happy outcome that I can fly the drone and shoot during the times of the day when light is the least interesting for my DSLR.

Hey Alan, you should be able to bracket to capture more dramatic light. Though I did find with mine that shadows fall apart really fast.

This is a really cool angle, I like it a lot. I am not sure about your thinking the light wasn't perfect as I don't see anything wrong with the light in this and I would call this perfect light myself.

Have you noticed any choppiness in the air when flying out like this? I would think that the air would be pretty unsteady with some turbulence even if it's not too windy.

 

[Amy Earl]

I feel this is well-lit too. Interesting formations and it's cool to catch such rough water from this angle.

 

[AlanLichty]

Hey Alan, you should be able to bracket to capture more dramatic light. Though I did find with mine that shadows fall apart really fast.

This is a really cool angle, I like it a lot. I am not sure about your thinking the light wasn't perfect as I don't see anything wrong with the light in this and I would call this perfect light myself.

Have you noticed any choppiness in the air when flying out like this? I would think that the air would be pretty unsteady with some turbulence even if it's not too windy.

Thanks Jim - the shadows are where this camera does a major faceplant and I had to work carefully to recover the dark areas of the cliffs without making a mess out of the scene.

The second question you raise about air currents is a good one and there are conditions out over the water that impact still photography with the Air 2. I refuse to use the 12MP mode with the camera as the resolution is a joke compared to the 48MP mode. I had hopes that the 12MP mode would have less sensor noise than 48MP I have not seen any instance to date where I prefer the 12MP output. Therein lies the problem - in order to utilize AEB and Burst modes where I could grab a quick set of captures that would minimize movement of the drone in flight the Air 2 requires that I use 12MP mode only. My efforts to manually take multiple shots for bracketing have been hampered by the motion of the drone during the time it takes to empty the image buffer and setting up the exposure for the second image.

The Air 2S doesn't have the 12MP/48MP dichotomy and will allow for rapid AEB/Burst shots which would help with scenes like this one and quite a few others I have shot with the Air 2.

I feel this is well-lit too. Interesting formations and it's cool to catch such rough water from this angle.

Thanks Amy - I had some nice ocean conditions to work with on this trip. Lots of work with LR and TK8 in PS to make the lighting appear even.

 

[JimFox]

Thanks Jim - the shadows are where this camera does a major faceplant and I had to work carefully to recover the dark areas of the cliffs without making a mess out of the scene.

The second question you raise about air currents is a good one and there are conditions out over the water that impact still photography with the Air 2. I refuse to use the 12MP mode with the camera as the resolution is a joke compared to the 48MP mode. I had hopes that the 12MP mode would have less sensor noise than 48MP I have not seen any instance to date where I prefer the 12MP output. Therein lies the problem - in order to utilize AEB and Burst modes where I could grab a quick set of captures that would minimize movement of the drone in flight the Air 2 requires that I use 12MP mode only. My efforts to manually take multiple shots for bracketing have been hampered by the motion of the drone during the time it takes to empty the image buffer and setting up the exposure for the second image.

The Air 2S doesn't have the 12MP/48MP dichotomy and will allow for rapid AEB/Burst shots which would help with scenes like this one and quite a few others I have shot with the Air 2.



Thanks Amy - I had some nice ocean conditions to work with on this trip. Lots of work with LR and TK8 in PS to make the lighting appear even.

I just thought of a way to resolve the 12mb vs 48mb....

Just think back to our early 6mp digital cameras.... or even to the 1.2mp Sony Mavics.... I think that's what they were called. There might have also been 720kb Sony's.... it's all fading fast....

But if you think of those, your 12mp is really awesome....

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Nice view of this place from this angle.

Even if a burst is not possible in the 48MP mode and taking consecutive shots have motion issues, it should be possible to align them in PS. Have you tried that?

 

[AlanLichty]

Nice view of this place from this angle.

Even if a burst is not possible in the 48MP mode and taking consecutive shots have motion issues, it should be possible to align them in PS. Have you tried that?

Thanks Jameel - I have tried it in controlled settings above my neighborhood and had more artifacts than I cared for. I found I was better off spending more time in processing to get the most out of the captures. I am still lusting for a flying Hasselblad......