Need advice for interior shooting

[ZAM_BER]

Hi,

I'm completely new here on the forum and work for an architectural and interior design company in London. We design high-end architecture and interiors for private residential clients and sometimes do hospitality projects.

We're a very small practice and our budgets are tight when it comes to photographing/filming our completed projects for our website and advertisements, which is why most of the time I do it myself to save on the cost of hiring a photographer or drone operator. Not trying to say operators are expensive or anything, we're just such a small practice, professional photography just eats a lot into our bottom line, which is already very tight.

So I've decided to take it upon myself to look into purchasing a drone for creating video, not only for external shots, but also interior videos.

I've tried these with a gimble before for interior shots, but I like the smoother movement you get from a drone.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a drone with a decent enough sensor for interiors (sometime some rooms have a lack of decent natural light), which can also pull off cinematic slow dolly and truck shots (not sure its the correct term, its the shots that move from side to side, not panning from a single point though, strafing).

I've seen that you can modify controllers by adding physical augmentations to the rockers, so advice on the best for these kinds of shots would be much appreciated.

Any help would be appreciated.

Many thanks

B.

 

[Cafguy]

I'm completely new here on the forum and work for an architectural and interior design company in London.

Welcome to the Forum!

Not trying to say operators are expensive or anything,

Well- They aint cheap! lol

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a drone with a decent enough sensor for interiors (sometime some rooms have a lack of decent natural light), which can also pull off cinematic slow dolly and truck shots (not sure its the correct term, its the shots that move from side to side, not panning from a single point though, strafing).

You might look at the Avata. While I feel they are noisy It sounds like a good Drone for your needs being a whoop style Drone and able to bounce of a wall or doorway every so often.

I've seen that you can modify controllers by adding physical augmentations to the rockers, so advice on the best for these kinds of shots would be much appreciated.

?? Are you talking about your controllers RATES- If so let me know and I can direct you to some good videos--Getting the Rates you prefer is an individual thing You should first get to know your drone with its preset rates and then adjust from there.

 

[slup]

Welcome

Think you're starting in the wrong end of thing's... you don't just go out & buy a "tool" (a drone) you don't know how to handle & charge it up & bring it indoors & focus on getting pics & video for a design company.... you will likely trash both the drone & the interior.

First you need to learn how to fly & what makes a DJI drone fly stable & being able to just hover & hold position. When bringing a DJI drone indoors (especially as a newbie) you will effectively rip away everything that prevent it to go haywire & fly around as a drunken sailor.

All DJI drones heavily relies on a GPS to hold position when you release the sticks or being affected by outside forces like wind... most of them have a secondary system called Visual Positional System also, that up to a very limited height can lock on to the surface beneath the drone, but for that to work the surface needs to have a clear pattern with a proper structure & good lightening. Neither of all this can be guaranteed indoors... the VPS sensors can maybe initially/occasionally lock on & assist, but suddenly either the surface isn't suitable anymore or the lightening isn't good enough... there you will likely trash thing's, when the drone suddenly starts to drift all over.

Clips you maybe have seen earlier from drone flying indoors, is most probably made with FPV/Racing quads that are flown totally manually without any kinds of "unreliable" crutches... but in order to being able to pull that off indoors with a useable picture/video result, several hundreds of hours of training is needed.

I advice you to buy any of the smallest (cheapest) drones DJI have... Mini 3 Pro or Mini 4 Pro perhaps, both will give you all you need for exterior picture & video quality. With it, you stay outside & focus on the flying first & foremost & second to produce material for the company, that will come eventually... outdoors.

 

[GFields]

Greetings from Birmingham Alabama USA, welcome to the forum! We look forward to hearing from you!

I have only used the Mavic 2 Zoom with a handheld device I purchased for interior shots. Worked out great. But I do not fly the drone. And what has been suggested is great advice if you do plan to fly indoors. Other than that, I use a GoPro.

 

[old man mavic]

firstly welcome to the forum
some great advice in post #3 above

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I would only consider mini sized drones and definitely not an Avata, sorry Cafguy, I doubt there's much call for 'tilted horizon' shots and if that is wanted then the gimbal of a normal drone can be switched to FPV mode.

Why a mini sized drone?
Down draught, it can be bad enough with the mini sized drones but you have a potential gale with larger drones.
This is from someone who has flown a Mavic 2 p/z indoors and I think even the Phantom 3 Adv, the latter is most definitely not an indoor drone lol.

I fly indoors a lot and I would stress the need for adequate lighting and a suitable floor pattern otherwise the VPS position control will not work. If VPS can not work then the drone will enter ATTI mode and be at the mercy of any air currents indoors including those that it creates itself.
If the lighting and floor pattern is suitable VPS postion holding is 'rock solid', I have left a Mavic Mini or Mini 2 hovering, unattended, for 10 or 15minutes and it was where I left it when I returned.
Indoor flying requires GENTLE and small movements of the joysticks unless you are in large rooms.

Additionally stay away from flat surfaces such as walls and ceilings, there is a tendancy for drones to 'suck in' towards walls or up to ceilings. Don't fly over things that can be blown away and watch out for automated behaviours such as landing protection ( maintaining atleast 50cm clearance above any detected object ).
I would also suggest that being able to switch obstacle avoidance off is am absolute MUST. Indoors with OA on you could run into all sorts of problems.

As for training, practise in your own house or office, where breaking things or blowing them all over hte place is/are less likely to land you in the dog house.

I consider the cameras of the Mavic Mini and mini 2 adequate for my needs but I don't know if they would meet 'artistic' requirements and I have not played with their white balance or temperature settings, I do not even know if they have such settings lol

 

[StevenBrodsky]

I would only consider mini sized drones and definitely not an Avata, sorry Cafguy, I doubt there's much call for 'tilted horizon' shots and if that is wanted then the gimbal of a normal drone can be switched to FPV mode.

Why a mini sized drone?
Down draught, it can be bad enough with the mini sized drones but you have a potential gale with larger drones.
This is from someone who has flown a Mavic 2 p/z indoors and I think even the Phantom 3 Adv, the latter is most definitely not an indoor drone lol.

I fly indoors a lot and I would stress the need for adequate lighting and a suitable floor pattern otherwise the VPS position control will not work. If VPS can not work then the drone will enter ATTI mode and be at the mercy of any air currents indoors including those that it creates itself.
If the lighting and floor pattern is suitable VPS postion holding is 'rock solid', I have left a Mavic Mini or Mini 2 hovering, unattended, for 10 or 15minutes and it was where I left it when I returned.
Indoor flying requires GENTLE and small movements of the joysticks unless you are in large rooms.

Additionally stay away from flat surfaces such as walls and ceilings, there is a tendancy for drones to 'suck in' towards walls or up to ceilings. Don't fly over things that can be blown away and watch out for automated behaviours such as landing protection ( maintaining atleast 50cm clearance above any detected object ).
I would also suggest that being able to switch obstacle avoidance off is am absolute MUST. Indoors with OA on you could run into all sorts of problems.

As for training, practise in your own house or office, where breaking things or blowing them all over hte place is/are less likely to land you in the dog house.

I consider the cameras of the Mavic Mini and mini 2 adequate for my needs but I don't know if they would meet 'artistic' requirements and I have not played with their white balance or temperature settings, I do not even know if they have such settings lol

Don't forget prop guards. Well, I would use them anyway.

 

[Felix le Chat]

Hi,

I'm completely new here on the forum and work for an architectural and interior design company in London. We design high-end architecture and interiors for private residential clients and sometimes do hospitality projects.

We're a very small practice and our budgets are tight when it comes to photographing/filming our completed projects for our website and advertisements, which is why most of the time I do it myself to save on the cost of hiring a photographer or drone operator. Not trying to say operators are expensive or anything, we're just such a small practice, professional photography just eats a lot into our bottom line, which is already very tight.

So I've decided to take it upon myself to look into purchasing a drone for creating video, not only for external shots, but also interior videos.

I've tried these with a gimble before for interior shots, but I like the smoother movement you get from a drone.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a drone with a decent enough sensor for interiors (sometime some rooms have a lack of decent natural light), which can also pull off cinematic slow dolly and truck shots (not sure its the correct term, its the shots that move from side to side, not panning from a single point though, strafing).

I've seen that you can modify controllers by adding physical augmentations to the rockers, so advice on the best for these kinds of shots would be much appreciated.

Any help would be appreciated.

Many thanks

B.

Reading the 100% sensible responses to your query, I concur. Interior flying of a GPS quad is something you try ONLY when you are sure you can competently fly a drone seat-of-the-pants style. Competence comes with continual practise. Maybe you might consider whittling down your bottom line and hiring someone who already has the skillset, otherwise you're looking at up to 6 months to get to grips with both hardware and techniques. Even DJI drones don't fly themselves, they need the competent fingers wiggling the sticks.

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

You're much better off using a gimbal on a regular camera and learn the ninja walk, or DJI makes a 4D gimbal but I'm sure that's probably out of your price range.

https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwiyoqa7o_uDAxXj1sIEHSvcCoIYABALGgJwdg&ase=2&gclid=CjwKCAiAzc2tBhA6EiwArv-i6brwhDlh3j5aw4uthd4ny0VlpZ5NDzRHr1muFgb8IvJJuNSceHfzWRoCLwEQAvD_BwE&ei=V8OzZebAAraiptQPj9qS6AI&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESVeD2BStAjYFehgX4mYhB6bfYZuvlz9-4nNmfRK0DR73oZVgP-6rx2qm0pD_QNTIIfZUqcTDou-zpJi15_J-ghuP--1sfsv_bViK7loxpcKLYCToHnc0&sig=AOD64_0TwH2f8w1ltaoEaygnelFHxDaAGQ&ctype=5&q=&nis=4&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwimyJu7o_uDAxU2kYkEHQ-tBC0Q9aACKAB6BAgIEBE&adurl=

 

[DougMcC]

I flew in a large church once and it turned out well. There was a weak GPS signal present. I kept all lights on and never more than 15 feet above the pews or structures. Every thing was done very slowly. The air conditioner came on and added a sudden challenge. So some points. Gain experience with a lot of flying outdoors first. Walk the drone into and around while turned on and see what your real GPS reception might be, achieve the highest lighting possible, plan your videos to be a in a single plane. Forward-backward, ascending- descending. Perhaps an assistant pointing a large “torch” on what is below the low, slow moving drone would enhance stable flight. I’ve never tried that but it can't hurt.

 

[offtheback]

To sum up Slup's sage advice....don't

 

[BobaFut]

You might look at the Avata. While I feel they are noisy It sounds like a good Drone for your needs being a whoop style Drone and able to bounce of a wall or doorway every so often.

I would NOT use an Avata (or any whoop, for that matter) indoors unless you have an expert operator AND good insurance. The Avata is just too unpredictable and can do some crazy stuff when it bumps into walls. It also is very unstable in low light if you're flying in Normal/GPS mode. Also the camera is not great in low light and the wide angle introduces a ton of distortion.

Since you won't hire someone, the solution here is a gimbal, maybe with a makeshift dolly (just have someone roll you around in a chair while you film?).

 

[PHZ]

Sometimes it is the cheapest person who pays the most. Buying the drone, learning it, insuring it, and then practicing to achieve the results you would expect to get with a pro, will cost you more unless you are doing this a ton, and then you need to ask yourself, “What is my primary purpose in this company?”

Opportunity cost. Think about it. While you are learning and paying for all this experience, who is selling/doing the architectural jobs? Check in the GreyArrows forum. Someone near you may be willing to help you out.

If you want to learn drones, just get one and play with it. All on this forum love it.

 

[JimSteadman]

Once you learn to fly it outdoors well enough to get instinctual as to up, down, left, right, etc (and that takes some time and practice), If you are then brave enough/foolhard enough to fly indoors, get all the light you can into the space and fly ridiculously slow. (you can speed up the video in the editing program. You will terrify yourself the first time inside. The drone will not behave as you expect and you may find that you have lost control.

So if you add up all the time and money spent in getting the drone, practicing with it outside to get fully comfortable, and then getting inside (perhaps in a warehouse where there is not much to run into at first, then moving inside one of your carefully done interiors, you may find that in both time and money (and whatever amount of anxiety you can stand) you would be better off hiring someone who knows what they are doing.

 

[Droning on and on...]

All DJI drones heavily relies on a GPS to hold position when you release the sticks or being affected by outside forces like wind... most of them have a secondary system called Visual Positional System also, that up to a very limited height can lock on to the surface beneath the drone, but for that to work the surface needs to have a clear pattern with a proper structure & good lightening.

A slight correction... VPS is the primary positioning system below 30-45ft, depending on the model and sensor system (ultrasonic vs. IR). GPS is ignored entirely when in VPS range.

This is why a DJI drone will "hold" position over an object in a stream and follow it with the water flow, despite the fact the GPS position is changing.

 

[slup]

A slight correction... VPS is the primary positioning system below 30-45ft, depending on the model and sensor system (ultrasonic vs. IR). GPS is ignored entirely when in VPS range.

This is why a DJI drone will "hold" position over an object in a stream and follow it with the water flow, despite the fact the GPS position is changing.

Any reference to that?

Have never ever seen a incident with a drone following a object in a stream without a sketchy & weak GPS reception (meaning a low GPS Level recorded in the log).

This is for instance from the Mini 3 Pro user manual...

 

[Droning on and on...]

I would only consider mini sized drones and definitely not an Avata, sorry Cafguy, I doubt there's much call for 'tilted horizon' shots and if that is wanted then the gimbal of a normal drone can be switched to FPV mode.

The Avata is capable of producing excellent stabilized video, although an extra post-production step must be applied. Unlike other DJI drones, the Avata includes gyro data in video recordings.

Stabilized video is not an issue.

 

[Droning on and on...]

Any reference to that?

Have never ever seen a incident with a drone following a object in a stream without a sketchy & weak GPS reception (meaning a low GPS Level recorded in the log).

This is for instance from the Mini 3 Pro user manual...

View attachment 172147

There was a recent discussion of this in another thread, logs were examined confirming that VPS is providing primary positioning sensing when in range. Some thread about yaw error and flyaways IIRC.

It make sense, of course. GPS lacks the accuracy necessary to hold position as precisely as our drones do. There would be quite a bit more perturbation around the "hold point" than there is.

 

[Droning on and on...]

While the Avata would be an ideal aircraft, low light performance sucks.

Recommend a Mini 4 Pro with prop cages, with the DJI Goggles Integra Motion Combo for FPV flight.

 

[slup]

There was a recent discussion of this in another thread, logs were examined confirming that VPS is providing primary positioning sensing when in range. Some thread about yaw error and flyaways IIRC.

It make sense, of course. GPS lacks the accuracy necessary to hold position as precisely as our drones do. There would be quite a bit more perturbation around the "hold point" than there is.

So no link... would be interesting to follow the reasoning behind that conclusion?

And just because the GPS lacks the hover accuracy expected when flying low doesn't mean that good reliable GPS positional data is ignored... if that had been a fact, it's really strange that I haven't seen it in all numerous incidents over the years. If a drone hovers low over a stream with floating objects & have a reliable GPS lock, the VPS can try to follow objects, making the drone drift slightly back & forth... but that doesn't mean that the GPS is ignored.