Hey Guys!
I wanted to share a couple ways you can improve your aerial videos/photos. Most of this info is for pilots just starting out, but hopefully everyone can take something away from it.
1. Keep Your Lens and Filters Clean
This one seems obvious but it is important. I check my lens and filter before each flight
2. Time of Day
The best time to capture epic footage is to film an hour after sunrise or an hour before sunset, during these times the light is less harsh and will yield stunning videos.
3. Using Filters
Neutral density filters are used to reduce your cameras shutter speed. A general rule in cinematography is to have your shutter speed at double your frame rate. For example, when shooting at 30fps you want shutter at 1/60th which will yield a smooth cinematic look. This rule of cinematography is also called the “180 degree rule of shutter” for those of you who would like to read up on it. At PolarPro we manufacture a wide range of Mavic Filters that will help you achieve slower shutter speeds.
PolarPro | DJI Mavic Filters
4. How to Select the Right Filter
The goal you are trying to achieve with video is double your frame rate. If you are not familiar with f-stops and exposure, fear not, we have developed a free app that calculates all this for you:
IOS: Filter Calculator on the App Store
Andriod: Filter Calculator - Android Apps on Google Play
5. When Possible Shoot Away from the Sun
Shooting at the sun can be very tricky and often lead to severely under-exposed or over-exposed images and video. If I am shooting a subject, I always try to move the aircraft into a spot where the sun is behind the camera.
6. Smooth Gimbal Movements
Flying the Mavic in sport mode is really fun, it’s hard not to fly it like a fighter jet. However, if you are trying to create a cinematic composition, you need to slow it down. Try to move the gimbal smoothly and pan slowly, the slower the movements the better (you can always speed it up in post).
7. Manual vs Auto Mode
A common question we get is which mode to shoot in with our filters. The answer: whatever mode you are most comfortable with. Manual mode will lock your shutter speed which is perfect when you want it to be EXACTLY double frame rate. The drawback is that if exposure changes in the air you will need to use the EV comp to balance it, or else correct it in post. Have no idea what any of that means? Shoot in Auto, when you shoot in Auto the processor will keep your shutter speed CLOSE to double shutter, and you will not need to make any changes in post.
Hopefully this is helpful for some of you! Happy filming,
Jeff from PolarPro
www.polarprofilters.com
Jeff is a wise man and as a DP, I can tell you that everything he said is dead on.
When the time is right, you can addend all these things. As for auto vs, manual, one thing I want to mention is NEVER EVER EVER EVER shoot in AWB (Auto White Balance) mode. That is different than shooting in MANUAL vs AUTO mode and I just wanted to be clear because AWB is a mess. Shooting in auto is just fine. Difference. There are some who I will remain nameless on YouTube who tell you this is the way to get the shot you want to look the most cinematic which for about 50 reasons makes no sense.
If you are a photographer, you know why you wouldn't use it. I don't even know why it exists. One of the easiest things to correct in post is white balance but obviously you don't want to do as much color temperature change as you have to (temperature is what some post apps/software call white balance).
Color is real easy to get right and that is because if you have a perfect white or perfect black you can set all the temperatures to their right balance. You only need one right color to get all the others correct. If you set it to AWB and let's say you are heading to the sun and then you turn toward a bunch of buildings the camera will automatically change the color temperature to match that of the changing sun. In fact, the worst type of camera to have AWB on is a UAS because this happens often. Now if you have multiple color temperatures, the method I just gave you to change the color to the correct ones with a click just became impossible for all intents and purposes (or you would have to keyframe the changes which is literally almost impossible to do correctly and have it look right). You should either pick one of the presets like (sunny, cloudy) or whatever they are but the best method is to choose custom and push it to whatever it is closer to that day or WHAT YOU WANT IT TO BE. So if it's bright out (that is a K (Kelvin) color close to blue and you should push it closer red if it's less bright).
Photographers call blue "cool" and red "warm". Blue being brighter and red being darker.
AWB is never the way to go.
In the style white balance menu you should NEVER choose AWB and you are okay if you choose a close one with the style because all it will do is pick a custom color for you based on a word but once you have an idea, you should go to custom and push the Kelvin "K" to what is closest to your scenario.
PICK "Custom" and choose and Kelvin temperature. If you are unsure, put it in the middle and then WB in post. PM me if I made this simple process sound harder than it is but its crucial if you take one thing from this that you don't choose AWB (even when it is working as its supposed to, yo still see dramatic shifts in color temp that look horrible).
Cloudy for example would be Custom pushed closer to red. Sunny would be the opposite. Play around with "Custom" and figure out how to do it properly.
After that, I will start telling you my thoughts on how to manually get the other best settings, but this is the first thing you can start with and one of the important ones.
Next we will talk about the sensors and what ISO does and how it plays with the filters and the shutter speed and how all 3 work together. Usually its aperture, ISO, and shutter speed to get your desired effect but because we have a locked iris, we essentially "Step Up" or "Step Down" our "F-Stop" the amount our iris is open using these filters. We use polarizers to remove glare and reflection but to an effect, not complete removal.
Also, we want to learn how to make it look cinematic by ADDING what is called motion blur. That is what the 180 rule does in effect. It makes the camera look less PERFECTLY sharp and more like it would in film. Wave your hands in front of your face as fast as you can. You see blur right?
Well thats what we want, when we are shooting for cinematic effect. If we want the "Soap Opera" effect, we use different methods.
I am going to make a lot more tutorials in the coming months that will work for all the locked IRIS DJI products including the Mavic, Phantoms, and X3 Inspires, Phantom 3, etc.
SAFE FLYING!
And thanks Jeff. He is a true asset around here.