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Cancun 2018

Jhun80

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First trip to Cancun, its windy in that morning and all default settings on my MA with a ND16 filter.

Any tips would be much appreciated. Thanks

 
Hi Jhun

Are you looking for tips on anything specific? I would certainly suggest you change the EXP settings for your controls - see the jerkiness when you yaw? that's caused because your sticks are too sensitive. Change the values from the default of 0.4 to either 0.2 or 0.1 (I use 0.1). That will make for much smoother turns - I would change all three values to smooth out other movements too. Also change the gimbal speed right down to about 4 (that's what I use). It's slower but much easier on the eye. There's also a setting that smooths out gimbal movement when it starts/stops.

You must be on Manual exposure since you are using a ND filter - am i right? If not make sure you use Manual exposure settings, enable the histogram and use that to determine the exposure (peaks in middle/to the left) and no peaks at the left/right edge.

Amazing place fly your drone - hope you have a great time!
 
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Thank you for th tips.

I was using auto exposure and don't know how to look at histograms.

Had a great time there, but didn't fly that much because it was always windy in the beach and keeps giving me error ("wind to strong...")
 
If you go into the camera settings (click on the sliders) then on the right theres a cog - click that. Here you will find some extra settings - enable the histogram and you will see a graph appear on your camera screen - you can hold it to move it around. This shows you the intensity of different colours in a graphical form. When you use automatic exposure the software will adjust the exposure automatically to move this graph to the centre. This can look unnatural in your final video as the exposure is adjusted and is near impossible to correct. If you choose Manual and ISO 100 then adjust the exposure to move the graph to the centre (left of centre is better - as long as there is no part of the graph at the very edges) then that would be optimal.

ND filters are used to enable you to use a longer exposure in manual mode which can give a more natural result (due to motion blur).

Also dont use auto white balance for the same reason as above. Just choose sunny or cloudy - works for me.

You were wise to not fly due to those wind warnings but unless it's the red one that advises to land immediately you would probably be ok (the yellow one is advisory). Just keep your drone low (less wind) and within line of sight and not too far away and you should be fine. If it starts to drift and cannot hold position then I would land and not fly again. Also don't go too far downwind in case it struggles to come back.

Happy flying!
 
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As for composition, try to keep the gimbal level in the majority of your shot so there's a visible horizon. I found this makes for the nicest images in general, unless there's a really cool flyover to film whilst pointing the camera down.
Also, try to think of a cool shot to make beforehand and always perform it slowly. Flying the quad can be exiting and can easily make you think that you've taken a cool slow flyby that takes half a minute while in reality you zipped past in 2 seconds, so to say.

Another cool trick is to slowly and smoothly fly while repositioning your drone. You'll be surprised how useful the footage gets in between shots when the camera flows smoothly instead of having jerky movement.

Lastly, edit your video in post and cut any footage where you are positioning your quad and just leave the cool footage in. This can shorten a 10 minute video to 1-2 minutes. The footage filmed during positioning usually adds nothing to what you're trying to show, so the only thing that it does is make people lose their attention (which honestly isn't a lot these days), not to mention possibly nauseated if the camera jerks too much and too frequently. Leaving only the interesting parts in will deliver a much better pacing in your video and will keep your audience interested throughout.
 
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Thanks guys, very informative.
 
Best tip for cinematic footage is the 180 rule, google it and try stick to it, use the correct ND to get the 180 right :)

 
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