My Best Shots Ruined By Wavy Prop/Sun Reflection?

BrandenB2 · Jul 15, 2014

I was so pleased with the shots I was able to get after driving 3 hours round-trip to this location. Wind conditions were perfect and I returned confident it would be some of my best stuff. To my dismay, my favorite/best shots had that wavy, almost interference-like, distortion from the beaming hot sun reflecting off/through the spinning props

At least that's what I've read it's from. Any expert advice on how to avoid this? Otherwise, enjoy what I was able to put together

http://youtu.be/-WnotXqcmJs

Elfman12 · Jul 15, 2014

I'm with you there. Had several shots marred with that. I've tried flying with a polar pro polarizing filter thinking that in addition to controlling haze and reflections, that it's frame would block the lens from those prop shadows. Nope, although they weren't quite as bad. If the shadow hits the glass of the lens, it's going to happen.
I've seen some people cut a shield for the normal GoPro lens out of a plastic Solo cup. I rigged one up using a protective GoPro lens (just plastic), but used super-glue to hold it and it fogged the cap's plastic lens. But I would assume it would work, just don't use super-glue ESPECIALLY if you try to use it on the actual GoPro lens itself - that would really stink.

Fair Game · Jul 15, 2014

Think you have this building covered from every angle and the two or three shots with obvious prop shadow you could lose with out detracting a thing from your film. There seems to me more gelo that prop shadow! Maybe this is what you are refering to?!?

ianwood · Jul 15, 2014

You have to be careful flying towards the sun with the gimbal fully up. A sunshade will help with prop shadows but it won't fix glare. You also have tons of rolling shutter jello as well. If you don't have an ND filter, you need one. Filming at sunrise/sunset also helps and will make for a much better color grading over all.

pietrekpong · Jul 15, 2014

MicBergsma on YT - I really recommend his tips on GoPro and Phantom - he also reviewed this issue.

BrandenB2 · Jul 15, 2014

Great feedback fellas. Really appreciate it. My props are probably so unbalanced at this point. So many scratches, scuffs, and small dents over time. I've ordered the Phantom 2 props and hopefully that will smooth things out a bit more. I've seen the shield thing before, even seen them sold online that fit the GoPro lens. But I've got the GoPro lens protector on my camera so I'd have to fashion something on top of that... Too afraid to leave that lens exposed

noiseboy72 · Jul 16, 2014

I made a sun shade out of some black card. It is a simple funnel, 1.5" long, which is simply taped to the camera. It cures the issue in pretty much all cases. I also trimmed the gimbal stop so that it can never point directly forward, but always slightly down. This keeps props out of shot as well.