One of the biggest challenges that arises when using a consumer drone is the volume of noise you can experience when working at low ISOs. Because of the tiny size of the sensor however, the images even ISO 100 can look rather noisy, particularly when trying to recover shadow details. This article we’ll examine the simplest averaging method that can drastically reduce the noise in drone images.
The method involves taking several images in burst mode with drones, and then mixing the photos in post-processing programs like Adobe Photoshop in order to create an “average” stack of images. Because the patterns of noise in images are unpredictable, stacking images together in this manner allows you to lower noise levels dramatically while keeping all important details.
Here are a few essentials you must keep in mind:
- The drone you choose to use must come with a built-in feature that allows it that allows you to capture images with bursts (5+ image bursts are suggested). Single images may not be a good idea because of the potential movement of the drone and the subject.
- The drone shouldn’t be moved in the process of recording the images in a short burst. Any shift in perspective could cause it to be difficult to make sure that the images are aligned and averaged.
- In general, you should not be taking pictures of fast-moving subjects using burst modes. For instance, if you’re capturing ocean waves, or a subject moving and the image you end up with could not be pleasing.
- You should make use of a post-processing software with built-in capabilities to produce average images. I’ll be using Adobe Photoshop in this article however, you could employ other programs to achieve similar results.
It is important to note that although I suggest using this technique to cut down the noise of your drone photos The same averaging method can be employed to cut down on noise from all digital cameras. We will cover the technique in greater depth in a subsequent article.
I’ll use this image that I took in a flurry of 5 images for this tutorial
As you can see, there’s quite a lot of noise particularly at the top of the sky. Utilizing the averaging technique in the following we’ll be able to eliminate the noise pretty efficiently. So, let’s get started!
Make use of Drone’s burst mode
It is the first thing to do. prepare your drone to take pictures in bursts. The goal is to capture five or more photos at the same time, with minimal delay between them to ensure that the photos are able to be combined after post-processing. To accomplish this connect to your drone controller, open on your DJI Go app, then under the Photo settings menu, choose “Burst” as well as “Multiple”. Some DJI consumer drones, like Mavic Pro 2 Mavic Pro 2 allow capturing 3-4 image bursts using DNG format. Make sure you set it up for up to 5 bursts.
If your drone doesn’t come with a burst mode feature test how quickly you can snap single images. If the speed of your capture is acceptable, you may be able to use the images to create averaging. However, remember that any alterations in the perspective of the subject or movement can make it difficult to correctly average the image.
Then load the Burst into Post-Processing Software
Next, load your images into a post-processing program Then, you can load the entire pile into one layer. If you’re using Lightroom to import your photos, do so first. Then, you can select the images you want to import by right-clicking them, then selecting “Edit In” -and then Open As Layers” in Photoshop.” …”. This will combine all the images into one file within Photoshop and each image being displayed as a layer
Use Median Stack Mode in order to average the images
To make it easier to make the images more similar you’ll need to join them as the Smart Object within Photoshop. Select all images by clicking the initial image pressing the Shift key, and pressing the last image. Then, navigate to the Layer menu, then Smart Objects -> Convert Smart Object. It will then combine all layers into one Smart Object.
Now with an Smart Object, we can apply an average to all images to cut down on the noise. This can be done by using the Layer menu, then Smart objects and then Stack Mode> Median. The result will look something like this:
This means that all photos in the stack have been combined into one image and should show minimal levels of noise when compared to the images you previously seen in a single image.
Let’s look at the photo, before and after, at 100% crop
The final image, after having completely cleaned it up by using the technique above and then processed it in Photoshop:
If you’ve never tried this method of getting quality images with little or no sound Give it a go and you will see that it is effective!
Let me know whether you have any concerns in the comment section below.
