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Want to grade this footage?

phaeton

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Oct 15, 2016
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I'm curious what others can get out the footage I've shot. I'm still a novice when it comes to post production, but I still have this nagging feeling that the Mavic footage is still not up to the quality that I see in others. However, rather than blame the tool I'll hold the operator (me) at fault for the moment.

I've put some footage from a local spillway I shot last week in the following folder:


I shot in 2K with a ND-16PL filter to try and bring my exposure down. Take into account that it was a pretty overcast day to begin with and I shot mid-afternoon. The settings I was shooting with are:

Colour D-Cinelike Sharpness 0 Contrast -1 Saturation -1​

I appreciate whatever help I can get with this. Thanks.
 
What were the actual camera settings? (ISO, FPS, Shutter)
 
What were the actual camera settings? (ISO, FPS, Shutter)

If I remember correctly, it was ISO 100, 24 FPS and for shutter I was probably around 1/100 (I was trying to hit the 1/50 mark, but the filter probably should have been a ND-32 to get down to that shutter speed.

Just for my own kick at the can, I put together clips from the same day in DaVinci resolve. I did one run through, where I did a colour boost and there's this noticeable colour pixelation in the bottom middle of the video.


I took another crack at it, avoided the colour boost and just brought up the saturation a little bit. I'm a bit happier with this, but again I'd like some opinions if there's more to be squeezed out of the footage or if I'm having some issues with the hardware.

 
Last edited:
You are getting there!

Many will say all comes from post however you have to have great footage to produce even better videos in post.

Take no offense and I am just trying to help but you need to learn how to fly the machine first. Don't go fly to video, go fly to fly. Learn that bird inside and out, top to bottom. Extremes and all. Then start to use the basics of intro to photography, what we all learned. Rules of 3, how to center and how to focus on objects.

You video is a lot of basically nothing. No point to this or that, no focal points. A lot can be made out of cutting it up because there is some good footage there but its causing you a lot of work. The sound correlation to the video really has nothing. Follow patterns int eh footage to the beats or changes in the music, change scenes with tone changes.

I would stop trying to produce any footage though and do what I suggested and learn to fly well. Fly smooth. Reduce some of your setting so your gimbal control isn't so pronounced. Then look up a small segment in intro to photography in learning your subject and rule of 3rds / 3's. That will give you an idea of where to have the bird flying or what you need to edit in post.

Set the mavic to auto and let it control all that stuff. Remove your filter and don't worry about those settings. Focus 100% on your ability to fly, learning how to capture the subject/how to express yourself through the screen. Don't over complicate it.

Focus on that and then you will learn adding music over time.

If you are always willing to learn then great results are in your future.
 
Also, you cant pull color where there isn't any. It was an overcast day, with nothing but browns around. Like the poster above me stated, there just isnt really anything interesting shown. It is a flat area with muddy water and brown grass with concrete here and there. There isnt anything to focus on. You will want to work on composition, as it is even more important than composition in a still photograph. It is something that just comes down to practicing and paying attention to the lighting, foreground, background and subject.

On days like that, I just practice flying and performing certain movements I want to learn to achieve, like a sweeping pull-back, mimicking a crane shot. Or the long dolly shot running parallel with the subject, or using POI and spinning upwards to show confusion and make the viewer uncomfortable.

Also, keep in mind, you dont HAVE to do any color work. Check out and use the color profiles that are in the app - personally I have found the "Blue" to be a great one for a lot of shots. Personally, I will generally use one of those now if I am not having to color match with a 2nd camera.
 
Thanks very much for the feedback, it's appreciated. I'll put some more work into composition and try and get better lighting for shooting. I'll also spend some more time with tutorials to get a better handle on photography essentials.

The challenge here in Canada, is finding interesting places to shoot that doesn't violate the new drone interim order. You pretty much need to go out of the urban centers and into the countryside now. Not that you can't find many interesting places to shoot, it just takes time to get out there now.

Understood about the editing phase. I just put the raw clips up, without snipping the extraneous stuff there. The music was just slapping some YouTube free to use music on the clip, just to try it out. I know I'll need to tailor that in the future to the footage (or vice versa).
 
The thing about composition is it really takes some effort (at first) to get it right. getting it wrong only means you created a snapshot.

For a photograph, you want to tell a story with the image. Show action and evoke emotion. There are plenty of "rules" to follow. The Rule of Thirds being a great one to really get to know. And remember, just because you can break it, doesnt mean you should. In the same respect, just because it is a rule doesnt mean you should always follow it. But knowing it will help tell that story, show action and evoke emotion. Takes practice. And it will take study. Find photos you like, figure out what about the photo you like, what emotion it brings up. And figure out why that photo does so. Once you get this, the tools wont matter any longer.

A lot of the same applies to video, however showing action gets a little more complicated with multiple sources able to show that action (camera, cameraman, subject, background, foreground) so that has to be managed. Color grading (not correcting) will force a feeling and music/sound will make/break that feeling.

there are a lot of drone videos out there, and after a while, one landscape/seascape/cityscape all start looking the same. What is going to change your video and set it apart from all the rest? It is less about the technical aspects and more about the overall composition, all the way to the cuts being enhanced by the music or vise versa.

So, go out, practice flying and moving the camera around. Make changes to the gimbal speed. Utilize Tripod Mode to practice movements. Watch videos of how to fly smoothly and operate the camera at the same time. Keep in mind this is a camera platform more than a drone platform.
 
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