Grey images

[Henry Tambour]

Any good threads or courses on drone photography, winter here and trying to get some decent footage and it keeps coming out very grey and dull. Don’t get many warm days and the days that I’ve been able to fly are heavy overcast.

 

[Fred Garvin]

Well, in the winter when everything is defoliated, bare trees, dead grass, maybe some snow.....overcast....what do you expect? If you want bright, colorful images, you have to have great light and colorful subjects.

Or, you can mess with Photoshop (or whatever) and create some false color images....

Or, you can work with what light you have and create stunning B&W images.....get creative!

The drone is just a platform.....it’s still Photography.....so learn the basics of how to create great images. Be a Photographer first, then use the drone to create the images you want. I highly recommend this book:

Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson

You will hardly ever use any auto modes again......

 

[clolsonus]

I agree, sunshine cures a lot of things (and not just with aerial photography)

I've managed to get good data (from a scientific perspective) on very dreary winter days, but I think if you want something that is visually compelling you need the sun shine or a whole lot of photoshop. One quick tip someone taught me. Take your dreary picture in photoshop/gimp/etc. and stretch the histogram so it covers the whole range. In some tools this is called "histogram equalization". OpenCV has a really cool "adaptive histogram equalization" function. This can really help the details in your image pop out and [in my view] it's not really cheating.

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

Take advantage of the bright days you do get. Setup props and scenery that adds a pop of color.
Otherwise, you're going to be limited to photoshop manipulation, can't really control the weather.

 

[Drone-Scapes]

What color mode are you shooting in. If you are in Dlog or D-cinelike you'll want to color grade all your footage. This will allow you to pull out the color and light information that is available in your images.

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