DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Post flight video editing; how many do it?

Do you edit your videos that you shoot with your drone?


  • Total voters
    131
So out of 28 people who voted, 22 edit their videos. Can you give some tips on how you go about deciding on what to keep? How selective are you when pushing the record button when you go flying?

I love editing together the footage I shoot almost as much as I love flying. Finding music that fits the footage is fun too. For me, I try to only put stuff in the final video that has smooth, sweeping, cinematic motion and nice scenery. Living in Utah, it's all about the mountains, red rock deserts and such for me.

But I'm still learning what makes a compelling video. Most of what I edit together ends up too long. It's hard for me to cut shots I love even when it puts me way over that 2 or 3 minute sweet-spot length. So I'm trying to keep shots shorter to suit online viewing better. Each time I fly or edit I learn to do something better than the last time.
 
After reading a post from a member last night about how easy it is to add an amazing title to your videos, Im wondering how many members actually do any editing at all to their videos after they fly? Im guilty of doing maybe 1 out of 100 flights, and am lazy to do any compilations of past footage. How many of you take the time to edit your videos and what type of editing do you do?

One can be the best drone pilot and cinematographer imaginable, ultimately the real magic is in post production. Most, like myself, are just hobbyist. Post can be laborious and eat up a lot of time. Start with the most basic and easy to understand editing software ( there are many to choose from). Edit no more than 2 minutes of footage and simply play with the editing options. Don't bite off more than you can chew, above all have fun in post, it is where the magic happens.
 
Mostly editing if there is some type of story to tell when reviewing the footage.

I'll take an idea and just roll with it for a couple hours. having good knowledge of the software makes it easier to translate an idea, it can become more fun rather than a chore when you understand the tools available to you.

my 2 cents

 
I may start with 5 minutes of video, then end up with 30 to 45 seconds of what I think is best. This time frame seems to be the sweet spot of what sells.

So, not very selective at all as there is no penalty for shooting too much.

Currently using Pinnacle Studio 22 for editing. Other than some occasional freezes it works well enough for my purposes. Such as trimming video sections and adding pan or zoom, titles, etc.
 
At the moment I have an idea what I want to show and some basic flight ToDos. I always film areal views and closeups. I try to have a smooth motion in the videos and different angles. Some top-down shots, some at the same hight level and so on. I always add two to three seconds before and after the shot to have some margin for fadings.

In the editing process I go through my shots and copy the files I want to use to the project. Then I pick the music because in my point of view, editing to the music is vital. The music dictates the pace and the cuts. After cutting, I do the color grading.

But all in all I'm in the learning phase. After viewing my shots I mostly know what I've missed. For my "big project" I'll have to re do some shots. But I've already considered this and see many flights just as practice. And the weather/season isn't really good aside the winter and snow shots.

Greetings
Jürgen
 
Last edited:
I may start with 5 minutes of video, then end up with 30 to 45 seconds of what I think is best. This time frame seems to be the sweet spot of what sells.

So, not very selective at all as there is no penalty for shooting too much.

Currently using Pinnacle Studio 22 for editing. Other than some occasional freezes it works well enough for my purposes. Such as trimming video sections and adding pan or zoom, titles, etc.

That sounds like a very good ratio of footage/editing time.

Im thinking that the only penalty for shooting too much is an increase in editing time.

Ok, another thought. Does anyone shoot, and then note while they are shooting at what minute and second something significant happened to make sure it doesnt get dropped on the cutting room floor?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mavic Pro Platinum
So out of 28 people who voted, 22 edit their videos. Can you give some tips on how you go about deciding on what to keep? How selective are you when pushing the record button when you go flying?
Not selective at all. You'd rather have too much than too little footage to work with. And hard drives are cheap (kinda). What has helped me the most is to visualize what kind of shots I would want to work with in post. Try to get as many different shots as possible. Go in circles, follow somebody, go full throttle backwards to reveal a scene (my favorite).
I use Premiere Pro, and have since I was a beginner. It is great for both professionals and those who are just starting out. Quite expensive though, so davinci resolve is probably fine as well.
 
That sounds like a very good ratio of footage/editing time.

Im thinking that the only penalty for shooting too much is an increase in editing time.

Ok, another thought. Does anyone shoot, and then note while they are shooting at what minute and second something significant happened to make sure it doesnt get dropped on the cutting room floor?
No, never done that. Only can think of one purpose of this: if it is ages between you editing and flying. You will remember it, trust me :) That said, you do fly more than me, so things might get mixed up. In that case, make a folder with your favorite shots and add to them after every flight
 
After reading a post from a member last night about how easy it is to add an amazing title to your videos, Im wondering how many members actually do any editing at all to their videos after they fly? Im guilty of doing maybe 1 out of 100 flights, and am lazy to do any compilations of past footage. How many of you take the time to edit your videos and what type of editing do you do?
I spend a significant amount of time with editing, color correction, and color grading. I use Davinci Resolve 15.2. It's FREE!
Free is good.
I knew nothing about any of this when I started, but I've reached a level that when I switch from un processed to processed the improvement is significant.
Do I recommend others pursuit this? Probably not. The learning curve is steep. Not so much the editing, but the color piece can be frustrating; chiefly because so much of it is around white balancing. Landscape does not have much white in it, and when you fly in the civil twilight, or golden hour white is not what it used to be.
 
The whole reason I started flying drones was because I was captivated by aerial videos. I started with a phantom 1 and a go pro and quickly switched over to building my own drones because at the time you couldn't get quality video unless you built your own drone and put a DLSR on it. The Mavic and phantom 4 changed all that, now I can get good video easily. I strive to get stunning aerial shots and put together quality stuff but when I look at others work I know I still have a long way to go. Sometimes I get lucky and I'm always improving but I keep trying.

 
The whole reason I started flying drones was because I was captivated by aerial videos. I started with a phantom 1 and a go pro and quickly switched over to building my own drones because at the time you couldn't get quality video unless you built your own drone and put a DLSR on it. The Mavic and phantom 4 changed all that, now I can get good video easily. I strive to get stunning aerial shots and put together quality stuff but when I look at others work I know I still have a long way to go. Sometimes I get lucky and I'm always improving but I keep trying.


Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I think my wife is the greatest artist in the world but she doesnt sell it. If it makes you happy, its worth it.
 
So out of 28 people who voted, 22 edit their videos. Can you give some tips on how you go about deciding on what to keep? How selective are you when pushing the record button when you go flying?
I often preplan what i am going to video using DroneHarmony, and wait for the right conditions to go fly my plan. Find this gives me very smooth video, much better than i can get flying myself. I will then film some manually to pick up things i have seen flying the preplaned mission.

This will often give me 30 to 40 minutes of video which i willl edit to 3 or 4 minutes. I like to edit to the music so will choose music early in process of sometimes before flight.
I video in d-log
In editing I first look closely and discard any thing i think is not technically perfect and decide what i want to use, and then work through cutting discarding etc till i have it nearly complete. Then do color grading which again mean swapping clips to get the effect i am looking for.

Titles are decided early in the editing process.

At the end i keep all the video clips incase i want to go back and reuse. Disk storage is cheep
 
I'm a somewhat of an editing newbie and use HD Movie Editor on a very low-end Dell laptop. And I do very basic split / trim, add music, and a little bit of transition, mostly because of time and my laptop is sooooo slowwwww! Tried to upload a sample, but Forum won't take MP4.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Former Member
I am new to both drones and editing but see the advantage of using an editor. I downloaded Resolve and then just started watching YouTube videos (there are tons of them). Each time I start on another project I learn something new. Lately I've been working with raw footage and experimenting in color correction. It's amazing what you can do, but can be frustrating. LUTs are my friend in Resolve. They can take a raw video and turn it into a masterpiece with one mouse click.

Editing is fun for me, but does take a lot of time and planning. I'd have to guess my ratio of filming to editing is probably 25% to 75% - I hope that improves as I get more proficient in Resolve.
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
130,414
Messages
1,552,358
Members
159,421
Latest member
nicko222