Capture and Post Production Digital Editing:
Post Production
After you have flown a few spots and gathered some footage for both Stills and Video. It’s time to edit these and get some usable content for promo videos, social media marketing, or just plain sharing your skills for fun!
Each DJI Drone comes with a mini sd card. It’s a small version of the traditional size sd card used in most digital cameras.
SD Card on Left: Mini SD Card on right
Buy some extra cards! Shooting in RAW and 4K HD take up a lot of space!
The mini SD can be read by a few different versions of the usb integral card readers:
If you do not have a card reader available. The DJI Drone has built in usb reader functionality. It will need a Battery with some juice. and a usb micro b or c cable. Provided with the Drone.
After your USB device is connected with the PC or Mac they are ready to be removed to the computer. Use this “how to” to learn a few tips on speeding this up with copy/paste or drag and drop between windows. The end goal is to have any videos, or pictures moved from the card, to the PC that you will edit them on and of course make back ups.
Here is a quick tutorial if you struggle with moving files)
So, on the Desktop or the Document Folder (where ever your preference is to store your files) I usually create a folder called Drone Projects.
Then I’ll create a name/date folder Something like RIC_Pro_Arts-10-8-19, then open and Create Three folders: Raw/Jpeg/Vids .
I’ll usually name Export folders for photos after edit based on size. Or can name them now. Usually a simple Print/Web folder will suffice. Keep it in the root.
Then in Vids. two folders: Project / clips, I’ll usually drag files I plan to use into project for editing. saves the clips in original condition. can decide to delete on your own…
After you move your files from card to PC/Mac its always a good practice to back up on a external HD. The folder you created. For use off site, or for storing off site:
Then there is Cloud Storage. These are some of the common online/cloud storage options you may want to look into if you are dealing with a lot of digital storage and want insurance you will not loose anything in the event of a fire or hard drive crash etc…
A good rule to follow is the 3-2-1 Rule :
- Have at least three copies of your data.
- Store the copies on two different media.
- Keep one backup copy offsite.
No that you have managed all that File mess. Lets look at editing .
Drone Deploy: In the field we shot a series of shots using Drone Deploy (web site). Autonomous 3d UAV Mapping Software Platform.
Post Editing Pictures:
Phone Apps, IOS Android and DJI Go4
Now out of the box, DJI Go 4 App has some light, editing features that hobbyist and say social media content creators can use in the field right from their device they used with the Drone and Go4 app and a Data connection.
This will give you a good quick walk through the editor that is very easy to figure out. This makes your quick post available without using Desktop or a Laptop.
This is a full walk through with pictures of how to use DJI Go App: (Link Here )
Mostly just video editor below:
A lot of time using the ipad (ios) I just download image to device, and use IOA photo editor, or Adobe’s :
List of Adobe’s photo/vid editing Apps for your device.
For you Android / Google /Play Users: Link
Lets Find a Photo Editor to help prepare your Photos from your flight from last class:
If you do not have the luxury of having a copy or subscription for Adobe Photoshop, you will need another editor that can adjust your camera RAW images from your DJI Drone. The program will need to be able to read .dng files.
We will use a Lab License Version of Lightroom Classic 8.41. We have a subscription to Adobe CC the entire Suite.
Here are some older versions of Photoshop you can use for trial:
Here is the trial for Lightroom: This is for version 4.0-6.0
Here are some older versions from Light room: (even older)
Gimp is a open source free photo editor very close to photoshop in most all features . It lacks in most of the new HDR features that Pshop uses, but its free! Learn more here:
To download Gimp
This is the UFRAW Tool you’ll need to edit your raw files:
there’s a little learning curve to learn the raw editor. An easy youtube search will get you where you want to be:
Here are two more free RAW and jpeg Photo Editors that are pretty comparable to Adobe.
Photoscape X: http://sdp.io/px
Bets Alternatives, Free and Paid:
RawTherapee: http://sdp.io/rawtherapee
Using Adobe Lightroom:
Adobe lightroom is a powerful RAW photo processor and editor. Allowing the images to be edited in a non destructive way, thus saving the data that the processor captured when the shot was taken. It works with Photoshop making organizing, workflow easy to get your edited photo touched up and then into Photoshop for working with layers, output, and graphics.
An alternative to Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop is Apple’s Aperture:
You do not need to use lightroom if Photoshop is your other editor. But the two of them together are a very productive workflow.
File Format Options:
Shooting in Jpeg:
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality.
JPEG compression is used in a number of image file formats. JPEG is the most common image format used by digital cameras and other photographic image capture devices; along with JPEG/JFIF, it is the most common format for storing and transmitting photographic images on the World Wide Web. These format variations are often not distinguished, and are simply called JPEG.
Shooting in Camera Raw:
A camera raw image file contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, image scanner, or motion picture film scanner. Raw files are named so because they are not yet processed and therefore are not ready to be printed or edited without a bitmap graphics editor. Normally, the image is processed by a raw converter in a wide-gamut internal color space where precise adjustments can be made before conversion to a “positive” file format such as TIFF or JPEG for storage, printing, or further manipulation. This often encodes the image in a device-dependent color space. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of raw formats in use by different models of digital equipment (like cameras or film scanners).
DNG is the format DJI cameras use :
Northrup:
Ideally it’s best to shoot in both. JPEG can get the job done with quick results, sometimes straight from camera to source of sharing/posting . RAW photos can be stored for a later time in the event a picture turns out so spectacular and needs that extra defining touch to make it pop. Maybe you just don’t have the time or the skill set to edit in RAW currently. You can save the photo for when you do, this will always be the better option. You may take the best photo of your life, by accident, will pay to have the most control over the finished product now that storage is easier to manage then ever.
Lets open Lightroom and Explain the difference between CC and Classic
These are the essential editing features that you will manipulate when developing your image with Lightroom.
Faster Workflow? Here are some shortcut Tools
Follow this tutorial to learn more about editing with the slider featured in Adobe Lightroom and Camera Raw in Photoshop:
Partying with the “Histogram”!
Before:
After:
White Balance: More here link
Do you find that the color in your pictures is always flat? This is often to do with the white balance setting of your camera. This is a function that reduces color casts produced by different color temperatures.
Every light source has a different amount of red, green and blue light within it. The amount of these colors present is what gives it a particular color cast. We measure this temperature in degrees Kelvin (K), with a low value attributing to a red color cast (under 3000 K) and a high value attributing to a blue colour cast (over 5000 K).
Exposure: Link)
Contrast: (simple)
Highlights:
Shadows:
Whites:
Blacks:
Saturation:
Vibrance:
Clarity:
Tone Curves:
This link will explain more about Tone Curves:
Texture
- It works best when applied locally with an adjustment brush in LR or a layer mask in Photoshop. If noise is a concern, check the details when using around smooth subjects like flat water or blue sky.
- Try using 20 luminance noise reduction if you need to offset any unwanted noise created by the texture slider.
- It also adds a bit of saturation, so you may wish to use -5 to -10 saturation or use it on a separate layer set to luminosity blend mode if you prefer more neutral color treatment in the image.
- Just like deconvolution sharpening, it is best applied on the original file before enlarging or shrinking it to avoid unwanted artifacts. There are some minor differences in the results when texture is applied at the RAW stage vs later, so you may wish to do this on the RAW file (though the differences are pretty small and I wouldn’t worry about this much).
- If you are using negative texture for skin smoothing, be sure to zoom in and check the details. It does a pretty good job of not softening hair, eye lashes and eyes – but it does have some softening effect that you need to avoid through local use of the tool.
Clarity (Source with vid)
Clarity is one of the most used (and over-used) tools in Lightroom, yet also one of the least understood. It has the effect of increasing larger details than those affected by texture, which means that it is still very complimentary to the new texture slider. One does not replace the other. It helps to understand the tool a bit to know how they interact.
You may have heard that it works by “increasing midtone contrast”. While that is true, there is much more to it. It has a large effect on edge sharpness, which often causes unwanted halos such as when darker foreground elements like trees and buildings touch a bright sky. It tends to wash out bright colors quite a bit in the small details. It can push the shadows strongly towards black. And it can increase noise in smooth areas under many conditions.
With all those potential issues, you ask why not just use the texture slider instead. They work on different sized details in the image, so clarity can enhance many details that texture may leave alone. And because clarity is different, sometimes it works better on the same areas that can be targeted with the texture slider. I recommend using both, and playing a bit to find the best combination of the two.
- Like texture, it works best when applied locally with an adjustment brush in LR or a layer mask in Photoshop. It is best to avoid using it on smooth subjects like flat water or blue sky, where the result is mostly the addition of noise. And be very careful around high contrast edges, where halos may occur.
- Try using 20 luminance noise reduction if you need to offset any unwanted noise created by the clarity slider.
- Try adding +20 to +50 shadows to offset dark shadows created by clarity.
- If you see bright colors getting washed out, luminosity blend mode and saturation adjustments won’t help. Instead, try applying clarity on the RAW data rather than via the Camera RAW Filter, as this is less of an issue when working on the RAW data. Check out my tutorial on common misconceptions about RAW Smart Objects if you have any questions about the difference between working on RAW data and working with the RAW filter.
- Check the details thoroughly around hard edges like trees and buildings to look for bright white halos. Because the appearance of this artifact can vary quite a bit, you should check the entire high contrast edge. You may find one set of buildings is fine, and then the next show halos.
Dehaze More info all three: texture, clarity, dehaze
Dehaze is far more specialized. Not accidentally, it is listed under Effects, while Clarity can be found on the Basic tab. Dehaze is supposed to increase contrast, darkness and saturation in “hazy” image areas. In my own experience, it’s hit-and-miss: often does what it should do, sometimes not. Don’t try it on a non-hazy image, that’s likely to give more damage than benefit.
Dehaze is even more magic than Clarity, although there seems to be a solid mathematical background for it. The main difficulty is to distinguish hazy areas from other areas that are just lacking contrast. It has a tendency to severely darken blue skies for example.
See figure 3 for an example of what Dehaze can do.
Vibrance}
Vibrance is a smart-tool which cleverly increases the intensity of the more muted colors and leaves the already well-saturated colors alone. It’s sort of like fill light, but for colors. Vibrance also prevents skin tones from becoming overly saturated and unnatural.
Saturation}
Saturation is a uniform bumping up the intensity of all colors in your shot, regardless of the starting point of the colors. This can result in clipping (over saturation of certain colors which results in loss of detail in those areas) and over saturation of skin tones leaving them looking too orange and unnatural.
Lightroom Colour Correction: Hue, Saturation, and Luminance
Hue
The hue slider adjusts the tonal range of a colour. It let’s you replace a colour with a different hue (tone) that is its neighbour on the colour wheel. Take a look at this wheel:
If you adjust the hue of the green colour in your image, you’ll be able to introduce yellow tones by sliding to the left (towards -100 value), or a teal tones by sliding to the right (towards +100 value). Here’s an example:
Saturation
This refers to the ‘strength’ of a colour. Using the general saturation slider, available in Lightroom’s basic adjustment window, will often have too big an effect on your image. It’s quite a sensitive slider and going just a little too far can make your photo seem over-processed. A positive value on the saturation slider increases the strength, and a negative value decreases it.
You might find that a particular colour is too overwhelming, or underwhelming, in your photo and you want to rectify it. Selecting the colour in question and adjusting for it allows you to do just that, without the blanket saturation adjustments that you would’ve made in the ‘basic’ panel.
Luminance
The luminance of a colour describes its brightness. It’s a nice way to selectively brighten an image in only certain parts, when done properly.
Sharpening Image Link. more info
1) Problems with Sharpening Images
Sharp images look aesthetically more pleasing than soft or blurry images. Because of this, most photographers try to sharpen their images in post-processing applications, which can result in all kinds of problems such as:
- Over-sharpening – when too much sharpening is used, it results in harsh, visible lines on edges and around objects. Over-sharpened images often look too “textured”.
- Too much noise – using excessive amounts of sharpening can add a lot more noise to an image. The worst result is when an image is already shot at high ISO levels and sharpening is applied on top of the digital grain, resulting in even more noise.
- Zigzag lines – straight thin lines can get converted over to zigzags and circular shapes can get cubic transitions when excessive sharpening with a large radius is applied.
Using Noise reduction:
Link to new tab:
Identifying noise
Noise in photos comes in two types; color noise and luminance noise. Color noise is evidenced by multicolored pixels in an area of the photo that should show as a flat color. In the image below you can see that there are multicolor pixels in an area which should be solid blue.
Using a combination of Camera RAW and PShop using Layer adjustments, can also bring out dynamic results.
Editing Raw in Photoshop:
After using the RAW editor , the file will open in Photoshop.
Adjust light black/white using nondestructive adjustment layers: He will explain the benefits of using a non destructive layer to add adjustments to your photos.
Using Shadow / Highlight as an adjustment:
These are two quick lighting features available in Photoshop and Gimp that can greatly effect the amount of lighting, contrast, exposure, and shadowing in your Photos. We can go on in great lengths, and fill a whole class with features available. But your learning quickly that as you shoot with your drone, post production is the next part of the job, and using some tutorials will eventually get you where you want to be.
YouTube is great: But a good resource for your training is Lynda .com requires a membership, it is a must for many of the advanced techniques to help make you a professional Photographer. Use it for 2 months, then cancel your subscription.
COA Drone Flight School 