Small request if you're so inclined....

[SmilingOgre]

Something that would help me on videos posted would be the settings used to capture the footage, e.g. locked exposure, manual exposure settings .... Some of the video I see here is exceptional per my opinion and I often wonder what settings were used as I would like to also achieve a similar degree of quality. I also know this can be a pain hence the "so inclined".

 

[Dave Maine]

The magic happens when you train your eye to see something that is beautiful not from some magic settings. The angle of the light, an interesting frame of objects, etc.

 

[MontanaMan007]

If shooting in raw format then use free LUT for DJI footage with color correction software. Then tweak the colors especially setting black, white and saturation. Tweak so it looks natural and not over processed. Many use the freebie Davinci. I use Premiere with Lumetri.

 

[SmilingOgre]

Ok then, so far two no and zero yes, lol. Not lookin good......

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

The reason I use manual settings mostly is to keep the automatic exposure from changing randomly when the light changes (flight direction or gimbal angle). It tends to be a rapid jump instead of a smooth change (which I'm sure has a lot to do with the speed of the lighting change and the range between exposure settings). I attempt to minimize the blown out highlights (unless they are specular areas) by using the zebra stripes in the brightest part of the sky without shooting directly into the sun. Sometimes though, there are dynamic range issues and you have to make a creative choice as to what you want to expose for. Hope that's what you're looking for.

 

[SmilingOgre]

The reason I use manual settings mostly is to keep the automatic exposure from changing randomly when the light changes (flight direction or gimbal angle). It tends to be a rapid jump instead of a smooth change (which I'm sure has a lot to do with the speed of the lighting change and the range between exposure settings). I attempt to minimize the blown out highlights (unless they are specular areas) by using the zebra stripes in the brightest part of the sky without shooting directly into the sun. Sometimes though, there are dynamic range issues and you have to make a creative choice as to what you want to expose for. Hope that's what you're looking for.

Not really looking for anything really although I very much appreciate your reply. It's just something done on some photography forums and on occasion can be interesting and give insight to how a particular shot was achieved. Sometimes I'll use all manual settings like yourself dependent upon light but now and then I'll leave the drone on auto and get an amazing reveal as I move from sky to ground. Sometimes I'll do a shot a few ways and see what works out best in post. Regardless nutten serious either way.

 

[John Locke]

It's just something done on some photography forums

Photography is different, it's fixed, one frame, and still. Setting suggestions are of some use to learn. Video has motion, of course. Lighting always changes.

As you fly different directions with different camera pitch, the light changes. You have to make the decision, do you want to manually fuss with exposure every time you turn the corner, or come into or out of a shadow, or pitch the camera up to include sky, or down to remove the sky? Are you that quick? Will you be able to keep the forward motion while making such adjustments? That really takes a lot of work, and skills. It also takes the 5 way button on the M2 craft, or RC Pro to do it real time. IMO it's not worth the trouble when auto exposure will do a good job.

I advise you to simply use the auto exposure all the time for general flight captures. Sure, the expose will suddenly change in the video. It shows up because the camera is automatically changing to the correct exposure. You can anticipate this with experience by flying into shade, or toward the sun, or pitch from having lots of sky to no sky in the view. All these things change the exposure. With auto, you have the ability to change the overall exposure little my little, if you deem it necessary, but lighting can also be adjusted to slight differences in post edit too.

If you don't like the sudden changes to show up in the video, simply edit them out and do a cross dissolve transition. Generally speaking the auto exposure works good for moving video from a drone. It's the least hassle, and the most effective for VIDEO.

With a standard auto exposure you can easily adjust the light and exposure with FREE Davinci Resolve, and most other editor apps. You don't need a raw capture to adjust lighting, saturation, highlights or contrast. Raw simply makes the adjustment capabilities a little more effective, but not that much that normal people would actually notice a difference, IMO. Especially in 1080. Raw is for commercial work, not worth the time and expense for recreational hobbyists, IMO.

The post edit adjustments are how you make an OK video turn into a great video, increasing clarity, contrast and saturation to your preferred look. That takes a little time to learn, but that's where you should plan to optimize things. For FREE DaVinci Resolve or $20/mo Adobe Premier Pro, there are many videos on YT that quickly show how to color grade.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

The post edit adjustments are how you make and OK video turn into a great video

I was going to post this almost exact comment . . . I think the OP will find the great videos have quite a bit of post editing work to make them pop.

 

[SmilingOgre]

Ok, so I have to apologize. Somehow I misrepresented myself. I'm really not looking for a tutorial. I simply wondered if anyone would be interested in listing settings with video posts. Obviously not and that's cool. Sorry to have made the misrepresentation and caused some of you to write lengthy assays for nothing.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I simply wondered if anyone would be interested in listing settings with video posts.

Many do this, especially if you click on the YT link and read descriptions.
I don't do it all the time, sometimes you just shoot and don't recall later when editing, or there might be multiple clips where settings / filters were 'all over the place' so not easy to list all of those relative to the content.

Your suggestion works great for photos, just harder for videos, especially multiple clips over a holiday, or even a long day 'drone touring'.