The DJI Air 3, one in every of DJI’s newer drones, has typically been known as among the finest all-around drones launched in 2023 for newbies and lovers alike.
Let’s have a look at this drone’s images and videography finest settings to carry out the Air 3’s highest-quality imagery.
On this article, we will likely be going over picture and video-related definitions, ideas, and the very best settings for ISO, Body Charge, Shutter Velocity, White Steadiness, and Shade Profile settings for the DJI Air 3.
Finest Video Settings at a Look
In terms of “Finest” for any topic, it may well all be very subjective.
In gentle of this, our “Finest” video settings are merely settings that we suggest or recommend for getting essentially the most out of the Air 3 digital camera.
Be at liberty to check and mess around with varied video settings to get the very best setup on your type of video capturing.
- ISO 100
- 24/30 FPS
- 1/50 or 1/60 Shutter Velocity
- Guide White Steadiness
- D-Log M (10-bit colour), H.265
- MP4 video format
- 4k Decision
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Professional Mode (Pictures and Movies)
Similar to a DSLR or Mirrorless digital camera, the Air 3 has varied settings that may be manually modified to your liking to realize the very best and {most professional} photographs and cinematic video footage.
To realize the very best picture and video settings on the Air 3, will probably be important to get out of Auto/Computerized settings and into DJI’s Guide digital camera settings, known as Professional mode.
To get to Professional mode when capturing video:
Step 1: Whereas in video mode, faucet the digital camera icon on the underside proper of the DJI Fly app stay view display screen.
Step 2: If the video settings are at present set to Auto, tapping the digital camera icon will then change the mode to Professional.
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To get to Professional mode when taking photographs:
Step 1: Whereas in picture mode, faucet the digital camera icon on the underside proper of the DJI Fly app stay view display screen.
Step 2: If the picture settings are at present set to Auto, tapping the digital camera icon will then change the mode to Professional.
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Aperture
Right here’s a fast phrase concerning the aperture on the Air 3.
The Air 3’s twin digital camera system makes use of two separate apertures for the cameras. The 24mm wide-angle digital camera has a hard and fast aperture of f/1.7 whereas the 70mm tele digital camera has an aperture of f/2.8.
Can the aperture on the Air 3’s cameras be adjusted?
No. Not like the cameras on the professional-level Mavic 3 Sequence, the aperture on each of the Air 3 cameras is fastened, in order that they can’t be adjusted in any respect to help in correctly exposing pictures or altering the depth of area.
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ISO
ISO is the identify for the operate that measures a digital camera sensor’s sensitivity to gentle. This can be utilized and adjusted for each photographs and movies.
On the Air 3, ISO 100 is the bottom, or darkest worth, and when capturing video it may be as excessive as 12800 in evening mode (brightest).
Generally, whether or not capturing video with the Air 3, or any drone, the decrease the ISO the higher.
Low ISO values make sure that the video footage just isn’t noisy or grainy. It’s instructed that, each time the scenario permits, shoot with an ISO worth of 100.
In fact, like with something in images and videography, you may must make exceptions to this rule.
There could also be instances when the “keep at ISO 100 rule” will have to be damaged, to realize higher scene publicity.
With the Air 3’s most important 24mm extensive digital camera having such an open and quick aperture of f/1.7, capturing at ISO 100 is good.
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To alter the ISO when capturing video:
Faucet ISO on the Professional Settings. As soon as within the ISO choices, use the slider to decide on ISO.
To alter the ISO when taking photographs:
Faucet ISO on the Professional Settings. As soon as within the ISO choices, use the slider to decide on ISO.
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Frames per Second (Video Solely)
The body charge of a video or its FPS means what number of frames are shot throughout a given second. The upper the worth, the extra frames are in that given second.
When it comes to drone footage, frames per second aren’t as crucial as it’s for floor digital camera footage the place one may be filming live-action sequences that have to be slowed down or precisely rendering dialogue between characters.
That isn’t to say FPS just isn’t necessary in any respect with regards to drone video. Typically, drones are filming scenes from a good distance, showcasing complete areas, so oftentimes a low frame-per-second charge of 24 or 30 is ideal.
We’ll have a look at a number of capturing eventualities and the right frames per second to seize the footage.
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Sweeping Scenic Views
When capturing areas with broad and exquisite vistas, mountains, and lazy water views, 24 or 30 frames per second works nice.
24 frames per second is the common cinematic video customary and one thing that we’re accustomed to seeing in motion pictures.
When capturing at 24 FPS, it’s good to remember that there’s little or no room for slowing the footage down, as that’ll end in uneven and jittery video footage.
When capturing in 24 frames per second, you will have to be very clean on the management sticks to keep away from jerky flight motion displaying up within the footage.
30 frames per second can be utilized while you’d wish to barely decelerate the footage in video modifying software program, to present it a smoother total look. Movies shot in 30 FPS could be slowed down by 80% in submit.
The advantage of capturing in 30 frames per second and barely slowing the footage down is that the footage is then smoothed out some.
That is particularly helpful if the drone operator is a bit jerky on the flight sticks.
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Gradual Movement Footage
The Air 3 has upped the ante by having full 4k 100 fps video, as a typical. The precise slow-motion footage is 2.7k 200 fps.
If planning to shoot slower-motion footage, and utilizing it in a 24 fps timeline, this may be achieved by capturing at both 60 or 100 fps.
You may wish to shoot at these body charges to seize close-up views of operating water, fast-moving boats which are kicking up massive wakes and spray, and even faster-moving individuals and animals.
If you’re searching for much more drastic slow-motion pictures, the Air 3, as talked about, is able to capturing video at 200 fps.
If seeking to decelerate 60 fps footage on a 24 fps timeline in your video editor, you are able to do so at 40%, whereas the 100 fps footage could be slowed right down to 24%.
Word: To get the very best video high quality, you’ll wish to set your Air 3 to report in 4k decision in case you are planning on capturing footage between the 24 fps and 100 fps vary. If capturing at 200 fps, the Air 3 will drop right down to 2.7k decision.
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To alter the FPS (Frames per Second) when capturing video:
Step 1: Faucet the video decision and fps on the Professional Settings. On this instance, mine is 4k 30.
Step 2: Within the RES&FPS part, use the slider to decide on FPS.
Shutter Velocity
Shutter velocity serves two very distinct functions with regards to photographs and movies: publicity and movement blur.
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Publicity
In case your photographs or video must be brightened or darkened, exterior of the ISO values, you may up the shutter velocity, which is able to darken the footage, or gradual the shutter velocity, which is able to brighten the footage.
The Air 3 will robotically alter the shutter velocity when in Auto Mode, to brighten or darken the scene.
Movement Blur (For Pictures)
For drone photographs, you may wish to seize one thing in movement as a blur.
You’ll notably see this in panorama images the place there’s operating water within the type of waves or waterfalls, and the water has a dreamlike comfortable impact.
This comes from utilizing a excessive shutter velocity.
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Correct Movement Blur (For Video)
Movement blur is a vital side of capturing movie. If the shutter velocity is simply too low, then video footage will look extraordinarily blurred, whereas too excessive a shutter velocity will end result within the footage being uneven.
In terms of capturing video, the shutter velocity shouldn’t be used to correctly expose the video, however as a substitute, it ought to be used to obtain correct movement blur.
To do that, the 180-degree rule comes into play.
The 180-degree Rule
In terms of shutter velocity and reaching the right movement blur for the FPS you might be capturing in you’ll must have your shutter set to double (180 levels) your body charge.
This implies in case you are capturing at 24 frames per second, you’d need your shutter velocity to be double that, on this case, 1/50 of a second, because the Air 3 doesn’t have a 1/48 possibility.
For 30fps, 1/60, and for 120fps, 1/240.
With the 180-degree rule utilized, all your footage can have the right movement blur the attention is accustomed to seeing in video footage.
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To alter the Shutter Velocity when capturing video:
Step 1: Faucet the shutter velocity. In my instance, it’s 1/30.
Step 2: Beneath the Shutter part, change the slider to the worth you’d like to make use of.
To alter the Shutter Velocity when taking photographs:
Step 1: Faucet the shutter velocity. In my instance, it’s 1/4000.
Step 2: Beneath the Shutter part, change the slider to the worth you’d like to make use of.
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White Steadiness
The white stability possibility within the Air 3, as with each digital camera, evens out the colour temperature in a picture or video to make the picture look extra pure (eradicating extreme yellow or blue casts).
That is executed by bringing in reverse colour temperatures that assist carry the whites again to impartial, which impacts the complete colour of the footage.
The Air 3 permits the white stability to be set to Auto, even when capturing in Professional mode, so that you’ll need to concentrate on this.
Manually Choose White Steadiness
When selecting the very best settings for video, you’ll wish to take the white stability out of auto mode and set it manually.
This may increasingly appear troublesome at first because the Air 3 doesn’t have a specific set of white stability profiles like Sunny and Cloudy, which was within the DJI Go 4 app many may keep in mind.
Why ought to the white stability be set manually, as a substitute of letting the Air 3 select it?
It is because because the lighting situations change periodically the Air 3 will attempt to change the white stability of the footage whereas flying via a scene.
This may generally be jarring if too drastic or seem unprofessional for these delivering paid content material to purchasers.
As a substitute, it’s higher to set the white stability, shoot the scene, and if the sky will get cloudy or sunnier, cease capturing, alter the white stability, after which proceed capturing.
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To set the white stability manually when capturing video:
Step 1: Faucet WB.
Step 2: Use the slider to manually alter the white stability.
When taking photos, you might both select to set the white stability manually or let the Air 3 select the white stability robotically.
To both set the white stability manually or to auto when taking photographs:
Step 1: Faucet WB.
Step 2: To manually alter the white stability, use the slider. To set the white stability robotically, faucet Auto.
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Shade Profiles (Video Solely)
The Air 3 at present has three colour profiles: Regular, HLG, and D-Log M. The Regular colour profile is 8-bit, whereas HLG and D-Log M are each 10-bit.
In terms of colour depth (8-bit or 10-bit), we’re referring to the quantity of colour and the number of shades a digital camera can report in.
The upper the bit depth, the extra colours can be utilized to boost a video’s element and visible high quality. With this comes higher, extra life like, or much more creatively color-graded footage.
Movies recorded in 8-bit make the most of RGB utilizing 256 colours per channel, which means 8-bit can show somewhat over 16 Million colours (16.7 Million to be precise).
Compared, movies recorded in 10-bit use 1024 colour ranges per channel, displaying over 1 billion colours (1.07 Billion). With all of this entry to paint and shades, footage could be extra true to life.
Word: Since we’re speaking about the very best video settings for the Air 3, we encourage you to shoot within the 10-bit colour profiles, which might be HLG and D-Log M.
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D-Log M
D-Log M is a toned-down variant of D-Log and a reasonably flat video colour profile used particularly in DJI drones.
The D-Log M 10-bit colour profile accommodates extra info and dynamic vary than the traditional colour profile.
Due to this, it may be modified and adjusted and is good for making use of Cinematic LUTs (lookup tables) for a extra movie-like look.
When D-Log M is chosen, the footage will likely be recorded in 10-bit. Moreover, when recording in D-Log M, the h265 codec (high-efficiency video coding) is robotically utilized. You can not change it to h264.
Word: Though the h265 codec is of upper high quality, it does take up extra SD card house than the h264 codec. This may trigger the machine you might be utilizing for modifying to work more durable and probably slower.
Taking pictures in a 10-bit colour profile lets you extensively color-grade your footage in a video editor with out the concern of destroying the footage, as a result of colour artifacts associated to pushing the colour too far.
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HLG (Hyper Log Gamma)
HLG is even simpler to work with in video editors if you wish to color-grade. Like D-Log M, HLG can be a 10-bit, h265 colour profile, with a better dynamic vary than the traditional colour profile.
HLG additionally has a punchier, much less flat picture than D-Log M, making colour manipulation simpler. For HLG, including slight distinction and saturation improves the general footage in comparison with that of the traditional colour profile.
Like with D-Log M, you may select from a wide range of LUTs to get the cinematic look you are attempting to realize.
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To decide on colour profiles on the fly without having to enter the primary DJI Fly settings:
Step 1: Faucet on the present colour profile. Mine is ready to HLG right here.
Step 2: Beneath Shade, select the profile you wish to use. Keep in mind, HLG and D-Log M use the h265 codec.
A Tip for Taking pictures Higher Video
ND Filters
ND filters are a type of merchandise that in case you by no means have to make use of one, you may not even know they exist. ND filters act as sun shades for cameras.
If you’re utilizing the settings instructed on this article, exterior of ISO, there aren’t many issues one can do to alter the publicity of the video footage being shot.
The apertures on the Air 3 cameras are fastened at both f/1.7 (24 mm) or f/2.8 (70 mm). They will’t be used to darken the footage by selecting a extra clamped-down f-stop like you may on the Mavic 3 collection.
Additionally, to take care of correct movement blur, the shutter velocity must be double the body charge, so the shutter velocity can’t be used to darken the footage both.
Within the case of the Air 3, when correctly capturing video, the one accessible possibility for footage that’s too vivid is to make use of an ND filter. The filter will average the quantity of sunshine coming into the digital camera.
There are fairly a number of producers that make ND filters for the Air 3.
We advise the next:
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Picture Associated Settings
For many of this text, we talked concerning the settings that have an effect on each photographs and movies. We’ll now contact on the very best settings for taking photographs.
For the picture taken beneath, I used all the settings talked about on this part.
Image Format (RAW)
Like with all DJI superior and prosumer drones, the Air 3 has the choice to shoot photographs in JPG or RAW codecs.
For the very best photographs on the Air 3, it’s instructed the RAW format be used.
RAW information are uncompressed, unprocessed information that include all the knowledge the Air 3s twin digital camera system collects.
This info would come with picture colours, dynamic vary (highlights & shadows), white stability, and so forth., all of which it is possible for you to to regulate inside picture modifying software program.
RAW information additionally take up extra space than the less complicated JPG format, by greater than 20 instances as a lot in some situations.
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Facet Ratio (4:3)
For images (and cinematography), the side ratio of a picture is the proportional relationship between a picture’s width and peak.
The Air 3’s picture side ratios are both 4:3 or 16:9.
The 16:9 side ratio is mostly acknowledged as a large panorama ratio and solely makes use of a selected portion of the digital camera sensor to crop the picture to suit the extensive ratio.
We advise utilizing the 4:3 ratio.
Whereas the 4:3 ratio produces a extra square-looking picture, the complete picture sensor is getting used. If you happen to’d wish to crop the picture to the ratio you’d wish to submit in picture modifying software program, this will simply be achieved.
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Decision (48 MP)
Though the Air 3s cameras are technically 12 MP, DJI has employed the utilization of Quad Bayer expertise.
Quad Bayer expertise makes use of the small pixel aperture of the Air 3’s twin cameras and will increase decision by breaking every pixel into 4s, which then will increase sharpness.
As a substitute of only a 12 MP sensor, the digital camera can act as a 48 MP sensor.
The one subject I’ve observed with utilizing the 48 MP picture possibility is that, in some situations, randomly, the image may undergo from chromatic aberration.
Chromatic aberration is the place there’s noticeable purple or inexperienced fringing. This may simply be lowered in picture modifying software program.
To set or change the picture settings from throughout the stay view display screen:
Step 1: Faucet anyplace on the left aspect of the Professional mode part.
Step 2: Select the Format, Facet Ratio, and Decision choices you want to modified.
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Composition Associated (Pictures and Video)
The DJI Fly app has fairly a number of instruments to help within the composition of picture and video footage. Turning these on can assist in framing your pictures and conserving topics center-frame if that’s what you’re going for.
Grid Traces
Gridlines are damaged into 2 varieties, with the addition of a middle goal.
These being:
Rule of Thirds
The Rule of Thirds overlay has 9 equal blocks that divide every body.
There are 4 intersecting factors on these traces and putting your topic on a number of of those intersecting factors creates extra compelling compositions than simply having the topic in the midst of the display screen
Diagonal and/with Heart Goal
These traces assist in framing up your shot. This may appear to be a double-edged sword.
For some, the diagonal traces could also be an added distraction, whereas, for others, they’re helpful while you’d like a specific topic (boat, jet skier, or one thing else) to be entrance and middle within the image.
To entry the gridlines and middle goal choices:
STEP 1: Open the choices menu within the higher right-hand aspect of the DJI Fly app stay view display screen.
STEP 2: Go to the Digicam Tab.
STEP 3: Scroll right down to Gridlines and select both Diagonal, Rule of Thirds, Heart Goal, or all three.
Use the Tele Digicam
One of many most important attracts of the Air 3, other than its cost-to-feature ratio, is the addition of a second digital camera.
This second, 70 mm equal tele digital camera is nice for including one other artistic dimension to each pictures and movies.
The 70 mm lens, with the usage of parallax strikes, provides a much-needed perspective and cinematic worth to video footage, in addition to giving nonetheless photographs the benefit of capturing any topic from additional away.
When capturing any content material on the Air 3, it typically pays to take action in each 24 mm and 70 mm when doable.