HI guys I'm a new addition to your DJI family. Just did my first clip of our island trip. Feel free to comment and provide feedback as I'm fairly new drone pilot and still learning. Highly appreciated all your guru advices. Kudos !
Island video
- Thread starter Alexei111
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Wow lovely video and pretty brave flying over open water as you are a beginner!
Where is that?
I was on the beach today as well - 75mph winds and lashing rain - we have that forecast for the next 2 weeks!!!
Where is that?
I was on the beach today as well - 75mph winds and lashing rain - we have that forecast for the next 2 weeks!!!
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Really goood vid man.. But was the beginning abit choppy like low fps? According to the waves it was skipping abit. Wt was ur camera setting?.. Any post production?
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Best advice I can give you is keep filming beautiful areas. Being relegated to parks, parking lots, and school yards doesn't make for inspiring video. Beautiful islands- you're 80% there just pointing and recording. Nice video!
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After watching these two videos I realize my videos suck [emoji1]. I thought I was an amazing photographer on my way to stardom with the regular "honey come here and look at our rooftop from 200' up" video [emoji1][emoji1][emoji1]. Exotic location here I come....
Thank you for comments. It's pretty scary to fly over the ocean for the first time. Winds were really strong and we delayed flight couple of times.
This is in Punta Cana, Bavaro beach.
Thank you for reply. Your video is really nice too, especially if you're beginner as I. Yes, you're right, you're moving camera a bit too much. It really looks better if you move camera smoothly.
The place is so beautiful, I wish I can got here one day. How many days it took you to record this video?
Thank you! Yes, the beginning was filmed 2.7k with lower fps, the rest of the video was 1080p60. Camera settings were similar to Frederick Hagan video
Thank you, I agree with you. Location is everything. I wish I could go to island more often to make nice videos
Nice area to shoot, Hawaii is a haven for drone targets, a very pretty area.
In the interest of improving your videos here are some suggestions to consider when capturing with Phantom 3.
1. It appears you may be using a neutral density filter of ND4, maybe not. In bright sunlight like that I recommend ND16 or ND32 to slow down the camera shutter speed. This will help minimize the washed out areas in the upper part of the view in some of your shots. It will also add better color saturation to the bottom part of the view.
2. Shoot in 1080P and edit and export in 1080P. The YouTube video you uploaded appears to be 720P, like you edited it with the DJI software from the iPad.
3. When you pan left or right, you have a habit of tapping your left stick. Don't tap, it makes the video jerky. Pan left or right ever so slightly, very slow. When you pan, don't pan just a little, pan for at least 5 seconds, minimizing the impression the pan was a mistake. Pan with a purpose, not for navigation corrections.
4. Practice the skill of revealing something in each shot. Flying backwards is a way to do that when you absolutely know there's nothing you'll run into when flying blind, such as flying over water where there are no trees or mountains. Another reveal opportunity is to accend above something (like a rock or mountain) and revealing what's on the other side, hopefully something spectacular. "The Reveal" is the secret to dramatic videos.
5. Always watch the top of your screen view, it may be washed out, ruining the clip. If you tap on the screen in the area that's washed out, it will auto-correct the exposure, and darken the lower part of the screen, making it look more rich.
6. The closer you are to the water or ground when moving, the more exciting the video can be at times. I know it's scary flying low, but if you watch the craft LOS, it's less scary to initialize the height level. Once you set the height to a comfortable level and you are 100% you won't run into anything, then you can focus on flying FPV to capture the scenery.
7. Don't forget to always angle the camera down about 15-25 degrees to alleviate the risk of capturing prop shadows when flying forward at full speed. Flying backwards at full speed doesn't matter, the camera can be full up, no problem.
8. I personally don't like straight down shots because you lose the 3D perspective, even though it's not 3D video. It's often difficult for a viewer to understand exactly what they are looking at sometimes in straight down shots with no horizon or other background items. It's more dramatic to have some background scenery. There are exceptions to this of course, such as getting close-up shot of a whale or turtle in the water, when straight down shots offer the least glare and best view in the water.
9. The last hour of the day usually offers the best chance to get some golden color and dramatic shadowing of trees. Look at the clouds too, see if the cloud formations will offer opportunities to use them in the background with golden colors. Sunsets in Hawaii are often spectacular year-round, I always try to keep my options open to shoot at sunset, and the hour before.
10. When you get more experience and confidence under your belt, flying between trees is a dramatic effect, especially flying backwards LOS, revealing the trees you're flying between. Of course I don't recommend the trees being very close together, at least 20 to 30ft apart. If possible, position yourself so the craft is flying toward you between the trees, flying backwards LOS, insuring an easy navigation between the trees with little risk.
11. When editing, clips should be at least 5 seconds long, no more than 10 second, that's what I feel keeps the audience attention, but doesn't leave them feeling they missed anything. Longer than 10sec clips need to have a purpose to be justified. Sometimes short clips less than 5sec leaves the audience feeling robbed of the moment when doing scenic videos like that. Movies for television don't apply to this guideline of course, I'm only talking about scenic videos like Hawaii with no script. Timing is everything in life, even editing.
In the interest of improving your videos here are some suggestions to consider when capturing with Phantom 3.
1. It appears you may be using a neutral density filter of ND4, maybe not. In bright sunlight like that I recommend ND16 or ND32 to slow down the camera shutter speed. This will help minimize the washed out areas in the upper part of the view in some of your shots. It will also add better color saturation to the bottom part of the view.
2. Shoot in 1080P and edit and export in 1080P. The YouTube video you uploaded appears to be 720P, like you edited it with the DJI software from the iPad.
3. When you pan left or right, you have a habit of tapping your left stick. Don't tap, it makes the video jerky. Pan left or right ever so slightly, very slow. When you pan, don't pan just a little, pan for at least 5 seconds, minimizing the impression the pan was a mistake. Pan with a purpose, not for navigation corrections.
4. Practice the skill of revealing something in each shot. Flying backwards is a way to do that when you absolutely know there's nothing you'll run into when flying blind, such as flying over water where there are no trees or mountains. Another reveal opportunity is to accend above something (like a rock or mountain) and revealing what's on the other side, hopefully something spectacular. "The Reveal" is the secret to dramatic videos.
5. Always watch the top of your screen view, it may be washed out, ruining the clip. If you tap on the screen in the area that's washed out, it will auto-correct the exposure, and darken the lower part of the screen, making it look more rich.
6. The closer you are to the water or ground when moving, the more exciting the video can be at times. I know it's scary flying low, but if you watch the craft LOS, it's less scary to initialize the height level. Once you set the height to a comfortable level and you are 100% you won't run into anything, then you can focus on flying FPV to capture the scenery.
7. Don't forget to always angle the camera down about 15-25 degrees to alleviate the risk of capturing prop shadows when flying forward at full speed. Flying backwards at full speed doesn't matter, the camera can be full up, no problem.
8. I personally don't like straight down shots because you lose the 3D perspective, even though it's not 3D video. It's often difficult for a viewer to understand exactly what they are looking at sometimes in straight down shots with no horizon or other background items. It's more dramatic to have some background scenery. There are exceptions to this of course, such as getting close-up shot of a whale or turtle in the water, when straight down shots offer the least glare and best view in the water.
9. The last hour of the day usually offers the best chance to get some golden color and dramatic shadowing of trees. Look at the clouds too, see if the cloud formations will offer opportunities to use them in the background with golden colors. Sunsets in Hawaii are often spectacular year-round, I always try to keep my options open to shoot at sunset, and the hour before.
10. When you get more experience and confidence under your belt, flying between trees is a dramatic effect, especially flying backwards LOS, revealing the trees you're flying between. Of course I don't recommend the trees being very close together, at least 20 to 30ft apart. If possible, position yourself so the craft is flying toward you between the trees, flying backwards LOS, insuring an easy navigation between the trees with little risk.
11. When editing, clips should be at least 5 seconds long, no more than 10 second, that's what I feel keeps the audience attention, but doesn't leave them feeling they missed anything. Longer than 10sec clips need to have a purpose to be justified. Sometimes short clips less than 5sec leaves the audience feeling robbed of the moment when doing scenic videos like that. Movies for television don't apply to this guideline of course, I'm only talking about scenic videos like Hawaii with no script. Timing is everything in life, even editing.
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Yes the missus and I will be doing our annual pilgrimage to the Caribbean in Feb or March. Doubt if I'll be taking the bird tho, being we'll be on a cruise ship. Waaay to much hassle to board a plane much less than a cruise ship with a drone IMHO. I know from experience that the cruise ship's security is extreme and I don't want to explain my actions every time I leave and return to the ship. The heavy security is OK by me though in this crazy mixed up world.
Yeah this was my first time every recording a video like this. I might redo the editing and cut out the parts with too much camera movements. You live and learn
this place is amazing and you must goto maui one day, i didnt want to leave. I recorded this in a span of 5 days,
Dear John, you're really GURU, wow!!! Sorry I didn't get if it was about mine video or about Hawaiian?
Anyway thank you for all your advices, way to improve my skills. Next time I fly my drone I will keep your advices in my mind. Do you have any videos to share with us as an example?
Good job as it was your first video and the picturesque place is everything. Waiting for your new video bro!
