Whether you just got a drone license, or you’ve been flying for a while, it can be tricky to get the shots you want while also piloting the drone itself. However just getting a camera perspective from the sky isn’t enough to wow your viewers, you still need to craft engaging, dynamic images.
Here are four points you should focus on to improve your own drone videography.
Frame Rate
One important aspect of improving your drone footage is to know what frame rates to use for different situations. If you’re filming moving objects that you want at full speed, then you should generally be shooting at 24 frames per second. If you want a slower, smoother look for your footage (like for big landscape shots) we recommend shooting at 30fps and then slowing your footage down to 24fps. You can also shoot at 60fps for additional slow motion, but often times this degree of slow motion can seem too slow for most scenarios you’re shooting from the sky.
Exposure
When you’re filming with a drone up in the sky, your camera is exposed to lots of sunlight. Unlike on the ground, there isn’t any shade to move into to adjust your frame. That’s why you need to be especially careful with your exposure settings. The settings you need to balance are your shutter speed, your aperture (or F stop), and your iso. For your shutter speed, you should usually be set to double whatever your frame rate is (at 30fps, your shutter speed should be 1/60) to get the smoothest possible footage, so essentially you’re just going to be balancing your aperture and iso.
In setting your aperture, you want to balance your image exposure while also considering your depth of field. If you want a shallower depth of field and a brighter image, you want a lower aperture. Alternatively for a wider depth of field and less light, you want a higher aperture. For iso, you generally want to have as low an iso as possible. A higher iso will increase your exposure but add visual grain to your image.
If you’re filming on a particularly bright day but still want to have more flexibility with your exposure settings, you can also use drone ND filters. ND (or Neutral Density) filters are filters you can put onto your camera lenses to adjust how much light you let in. ND filters allow you to shoot on bright sunny days and still use a low aperture for a shallow depth of field.
Composition
After you’ve dialed all your settings, the next step to improving your drone cinematography is your formal composition. Just like with “normal” videography on the ground, one of the most important parts of developing stunning footage is composing your image.
There is the rule of thirds where you divide your image up into thirds and you can put your main subject on one of those thirds. In some situations you might want to center your subject. Alternatively you could compose a symmetrical image with balancing subjects on opposite sides of the screen.
There is no single right answer, but it’s important that you consider your options and choose what you think fits best for the situation. Important things to consider are your subject and how much it’s moving, the background and how well it complements your subject, and where the horizon line is in relation to everything else.
Smooth Motion
Similar to filming handheld, on a tripod, or on a gimbal, you need to practice in order to get smooth consistent footage. It’s not enough to just move the joysticks of your drone and hope for the best. You should get used to slowly accelerating the drone. This will start to give you a dynamic floating effect, like your viewer is gliding through the air.
Now that you’ve read these tips, go out and practice. Shoot on days with different conditions and figure out what settings you like best for each situation. The more you play around and get to know your drone and it’s settings, the better prepared you’ll be for any commercial video shoot.
If you want examples of our own drone work, check that out here. If you need help with your own aerial photo or video project, you can also contact us about whatever stage(s) of the process you’re on.
