Noob thinks he's Frances effing Coppola

[Ryder]

OK, new at drones. I've flown the Mav for not even an hour... and in that time tried lots of camera presets and even mixed resolutions from 1080 to 4K... different shutter speeds, frame rates, and played with ND filters... and eventually got round to control and gimbal settings for cinema.

Somehow in the midst of all of this monkeying around, I got a little bit of footage that might pass for useable, so I thought I'd try to find a free editing package, beat the clips into submission, steal music from the late great Jerry Goldsmith... so now I'm a big time producer.

It's OK if you squint.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Yeah... I have a long way to go The inspiring work found in these threads will really challenge me to up the skillz a notch or two.

 

[JoostGT3]

Haha so recognizable! And nice footage/editing, nothing to be ashamed of!
I see a lot of softness in the clips, is that youtube compression? What sharpness settings were you running at?

 

[geigy]

C'mon, man, you really are FF Copola. Admit it!

 

[Ryder]

Haha so recognizable! And nice footage/editing, nothing to be ashamed of!
I see a lot of softness in the clips, is that youtube compression? What sharpness settings were you running at?

Well, that's the thing... I was trying everything under the sun... from out-of-the-box to custom everything. Some of it was 1080 with -2, -2, 0. Gah! (I got bad advice off the internets)

These days I'm +1, +1, 0, @ 2K. Art mode (it's reasonably flat)... 30 fps at a shutter of 60. Running 4 or 8 polarized NDs.

I'm using VideoPad because it's free/simple... and I've not played with the default compression (Windows Media Video 9, at 90%)

ALL of this is new to me... the ship, digital photography (you can't count the iPhone, can you?), VideoPad... so it has been like drinking from a fire hose. I managed to fly off of perches a thousand feet up, off coastal cliffs, under a bridge, in controlled airspace... all in my first hour of flight time. I've attempted only two planned shots... the rest is just leaving the camera running while I goof around.

Must. Keep. Fingers. Off. Yaw channel. Far better to crab to make small heading adjustments. I ruined plenty of shots before nerfing my yaw exp... but best not to use it at all I'm thinking... unless you have to. I've adjusted the gimbal settings too... it's a lot easier to control now...

I over exposed on a few flights... until I learned how to properly use the histogram.

I can start to get serious about planning shots now... no place to go but up

 

[geigy]

HAHA - yes, I've ruined just about 3/4 of my shots by yawing at just the wrong time! The pilot in me want's to yaw, as does the still photographer. So for now the videographer suffers.

 

[Ryder]

C'mon, man, you really are FF Copola. Admit it!

I'm old... but not that old

 

[JoostGT3]

Yeah, I went through the same steep learning curve. What I actually find the most difficult is to sit back and think before you fly; I mostly plan my visits (during work time ;-)) and when I am finally able to leave work, I race to the location I want to film, find a spot where there's not too many people around and get the bird in the air. Once that happens, I am all happy and flying around, <trying> to think about nice shots to make (opening view, nice close passes, some closing shots), but I completely stop thinking about different creative shots, camera settings, etc.

One big tip when you are beginning: make the drone move in a constant manner when shooting. So no course adjustments halfway a shot. Also make sure you continue filming for at least 10 seconds after you finished the shot you wanted. This helps when editing and also I have had many times where I thought I had filmed something cool, and in post processing I found out that the really exciting stuff happens just at the edge of the field of view or starts at the end of a planned shot

 

[Ryder]

[QUOTE="JoostGT3, post: 198438, member: 17435] "One big tip when you are beginning: make the drone move in a constant manner when shooting. So no course adjustments halfway a shot. [/QUOTE]

Yeah, that's what I was talking about re: don't touch the yaw... instead, crab if you need to (x translation)... imperceptible in most cases.

For turns, pans and orbiting you're stuck with a yaw input, but if established early and held, yields a nice result...

... until one becomes a real stick jockey and can do anything smoothly. Hopefully someday.

Many thanks!