Safest/Best technique for backwards flying.

[Paulsar]

Hi all,
Im new here and am hoping for some guidance. I would like to take a roller photo of my car (long shutter blur of road not car) from the front drivers side of car at ~17'. Other than flying at a set speed and flying backwards, what would be a better option?
Thanks in advance!

 

[Paulsar]

photo for reference

 

[MaxHam]

The option you described is the way to go.

You probably know all this:
Most important for panning shots is that object and camera have the exact same speed.
If you fly this entirely manual you need quite a stretch of a straight road to get this synchronized. It'll better be a road without poles alongside.
Then you want ND Filters 32 or higher to achieve the long exposure without having to dial down the f-stop all the way. Don't go beyond f/5.6.
You need to achieve a shutter speed of 1/2 a second or longer with the car going between 40-60km/h to get a result like in the reference pic.

Will you be driving the car? I hope not. Lot's of people do it though while using active track. See YT for this.
If you sit in the back you can keep an eye on the drone and keep the signal strong.

And I would still consider active track for this. Though I'm not sure how this performs at higher speeds.

 

[ZX14-R]

Photoshop !!

Onward and Upwards

 

[Dan C]

1. Make sure you have plenty of straight road to play with, clear of any obstacles your drone might hit.
2. Use Active Track | Profile Mode. This will allow you to maneuver the drone to a clock position of your choice.
3. Accelerate gently. You need to give the drone time to respond to changing speed.
4. Ease off gently, and maintain your chosen speed. Need it be mentioned to ensure that speed is comfortably within your drone’s capability. Don’t forget to take wind into consideration.
5. Fine tune the drones orientation to your vehicle, then snap away.

Don’t forget to consider other comments about preparing your camera, such as adding an ND filter to achieve the desired shutter speed.

Be prepared for multiple takes before you get it right.

 

[theDRONEranger]

You may also wish to reassign the stick defaults as well. This is quite useful when flying in reverse. Practice.

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Photoshop !!

Onward and Upwards

Has to be involved to some extent or personal taste I guess.
But getting the shot right in camera to 90 % definitely helps doing so.

@MaxHam and @Dan C gave helpful tips!
And reversing the stick input is great as @theDRONEranger said, it feels more natural and probably a lot safer not to constantly switching directions in mind while following the object.

 

[Jovetic]

what about AF ? It should be AFC on ? Or without?

 

[MaxHam]

what about AF ? It should be AFC on ? Or without?

AFC is meant for filming. But that's pretty much an overkill on a wide-angle camera being airborne. I recommend to never activate this.
There is hardly a scenario where it makes sense - unless you are filming something VERY close up.

In the OPs still photo situation I even recommend to switch off AF. Otherwise it's being re-focused each time when pressing the shutter which causes delay.
I recommend: Go up to intended height + distance, click the subject on the screen while being in AF in order to set the focus to it, then switch to manual.

 

[LenSavage]

... should I remind you that if you are flying under Part 107 Regulations, it is illegal to control your sUAS from a moving vehicle?

 

[Gizmo6257]

I always use AFC and never have anything out of focus or blurry. I tried both ways and AFC works flawlessly. In manuel I had issues all the time.

AFC is meant for filming. But that's pretty much an overkill on a wide-angle camera being airborne. I recommend to never activate this.
There is hardly a scenario where it makes sense - unless you are filming something VERY close up.

In the OPs still photo situation I even recommend to switch off AF. Otherwise it's being re-focused each time when pressing the shutter which causes delay.
I recommend: Go up to intended height + distance, click the subject on the screen while being in AF in order to set the focus to it, then switch to manual.

 

[Paulsar]

UPDATE:
Hello group,
I’ve experimented a little with this and will share.
First, I was not in the vehicle while operating the drone. My Brother was kind enough to help out.
Second: we found a road that was closed to through traffic.
(I’m new to the drone world but take safety seriously)
That being said I found a few things out.
I used a nd16 filter at .5 sec exposure at lowest iso.
Using active track mode I positioned the drone in front of the vehicle.
Driving slowly it tracked just fine UNTIL I took the photo!
Then it started tracking from the side.
I believe while the image is being processed (shooting RAW) it stops tracking and has to catch up.
Therefore I could only try to shoot 1 image before repositioning for another go.
We also tried driving backwards for the same effect and again it had to speed up to catch up for shot 2.
It was a little wind with a cross breeze and were limited on time so that is as far as I got unfortunately.
Far from a successful shoot but I’ve learned a few things and wanted to share.
I hope this info helps others interested in shooting “rollers”.
I’ll attach a photo or two from the test run.
(I was going to shoot my classic car but used my brothers van to test)
Thanks for all the input so far.
Cheers,
Paul

 

[MaxHam]

UPDATE:
Driving slowly it tracked just fine UNTIL I took the photo!
Then it started tracking from the side.
I believe while the image is being processed (shooting RAW) it stops tracking and has to catch up.
Therefore I could only try to shoot 1 image before repositioning for another go.
We also tried driving backwards for the same effect and again it had to speed up to catch up for shot 2.

I tried it with Active Track myself today and can confirm the issue that the tracking stops while the photo taken is being processed.
That makes it pretty useless for still shots.
As you said: You get one shot each run. That is bad.

Also: In order for it to work at all I hard to start with the car really slow, otherwise the drone couldn't keep the preset angle.
And: The required obstacle avoidance is a mess when flying while the sun is in the picture. I got constant error messages.
There should be the option to switch off Obstacle Avoidance in Active Track.

I'm back to manual flying

 

[Paulsar]

I tried it with Active Track myself today and can confirm the issue that the tracking stops while the photo taken is being processed.
That makes it pretty useless for still shots.
As you said: You get one shot each run. That is bad.

Also: In order for it to work at all I hard to start with the car really slow, otherwise the drone couldn't keep the preset angle.
And: The required obstacle avoidance is a mess when flying while the sun is in the picture. I got constant error messages.
There should be the option to switch off Obstacle Avoidance in Active Track.

I'm back to manual flying

Thanks for checking it out and reporting back. I’m back to hanging out the window shooting rollers ???