AT 209 Lab 2: Adjusting Camera Settings

Introduction

Since the conception of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) back in 1907, world's first quadcopter created by Jacques and Louis Bréguet, it is obvious that they have come a long way (Dormehl, 2018). Once 1922 rolled around, the U.S. Air Service created the first drone equipped with a camera (Quadcopter, 2019). Since then, UAS companies strive to create effective and potent drones; for instance, decades after the first camera-equipped drone, compact digital cameras became paired with high powered consumer drones.


The visual quality of digital cameras on UAS can be altered in many ways. ISO, shutter, and aperture were used during Lab 2. ISO, which stands for International Organization of Standardization (In case you were wondering), refers to the sensitivity of the image sensor.  If a photograph is set to take a higher ISO, it would create a much lighter image and a lower ISO setting would create a converse result. Shutter refers to the determined time period of allowing light to pass. When using shutter, it allows for a light sensor to be exposed to create the image. The last main function that was focused on was aperture. Aperture is the control of the brightness of an image. In terms of data processing UAS, images cannot have too high or low amount of light pass through to the sensor, otherwise the images are unable to be processed.

Methods 

For Lab 2, we were required to use a DJI Mavic Air and the DJI Go 4 app.  With these two, it allowed us to control the UAS, but more importantly, it allowed us to alter the ISO and shutter speed. Since it was later found out the Mavic Air does not support altering the aperture, the Mavic Pro 2 was used since it did allow the setting. Below, Figure 1 shows the interface that was used:

Figure 1: This is the interface of the DJI GO 4 app; The boxed items are the settings used: green is ISO, orange is Aperture, blue is Shutter.

Once the drones were received, the lab then consisted of placing a subject a specified distance from the sensor. In our group's case, we used a tape dispenser and placed it ten feet away from the drone. Pictures were then taken to document the effects of each setting.

Discussion

This following section will now present the photographs taken. Figure 2 will now show what a standard picture without any settings adjusted:

Figure 2: This is a photograph of our subject without any changes to any of the settings.

After the standard photograph, we were then permitted to "mess around" with all three of the settings. In the next series of pictures, we will be looking at the effects of ISO. Figure 3 will be representing the transition from a lower ISO setting to a higher one.

Figure 3: This figure shows ISO settings 150 through 3000.

As you can see, as ISO increase, the sensitivity to light also increases, so that would translate to a lighter image. In terms of data processing, images with a lower/higher ISO setting could constitute in images that cannot be processed, which would make the data set useless. In the next figure, Figure 4, it will show the effects of changing shutter speeds.

Figure 4: This shows shutter speeds from 1/1000 of a second to 1/1.

We can conclude that increasing the shutter speed results in making the image darker. With a slower shutter speed, it allows more time for the light to reach the sensor, creating a lighter image and creates motion blur if the subject is in motion. The faster shutter speed makes the image darker and it creates less image blur, since it allows less light into the image sensor. Now, Figure 5 will show what the effects of going from a lower aperture to a higher one:

Figure 5: The shows the transition from aperture setting f/10 to f/2.8.

  

Changing the aperture affects the depth of field and the amount of light allowed into the sensor. With a lower aperture, it creates a darker image and creates a deeper depth of field. A higher aperture creates a much lighter image with a broadened depth of field, which means that the focus is pretty shallow.

Conclusion

What to take away from this lab would have to be that changing the camera settings has a big impact on the images being generated. An image that has too high or low of light makes it useless to be processed. For example, when surveying a specific area, it is important to have a significantly high shutter speed, moderately high aperture, and an ISO that is around the middle because you want the images to be crisp and viewable. In this lab, we were able to learn the importance of ISO, shutter, and aperture and how it directly relates to the UAS realm.

References

(2019, August 2). Quadcopter. Retrieved August 27, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadcopter

Dormehl, L. (2018, September 12). The history of drones in 10 milestones. Retrieved August 27, 2019, from https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/history-of-drones/