Once you’re done capturing some beautiful shots taken by your drone, you’re ready to head into the post. But what’s next? Well, if you just plop them on your timeline and call it good to yourself, that doesn’t really make it good. To enhance your footage and to give them some style and dimension, you have to employ some quick and easy techniques.
Flying a drone is overwhelming. A lot of people are entering the world of drones nowadays, it has become normal. People are shooting footages with drones but most of them don’t know how to get a nice video out of it. Today, I’ll offer you some effective things you can do to enhance your drone footage that they look more interesting, dynamic, and professional.
Avoid Shaky Movements
Don’t jerk your camera left and right again and again just to get another shot. It’s very disturbing and useless because while drone video editing, you need the smooth movements very much. They should feel organic, natural, and normal. It becomes robotic when you start jerking your camera.
Find your angle and move nice and slowly with subtle panning motions. Try to make your camera movements with the flight path rather than its camera.
Object of Interest
This technique is hard to do manually but in automatic smart flying modes on modern drones, it is easier. Just like the earth orbits around the sun, you have to orbit around the subject. But don’t do a full 360 circle around your object because most of the viewers find it boring. Just keep the subject in the middle and fly a little while to focus on its importance of beauty. Slide left or right while rotating the drone from your subject so that it always faces the point of interest.
Bird’s Eye
Bird’s eye shots are excellent, especially for photography. It is a perspective which is rarely seen. It can also work well for videos. You just have to put your drone at a sure distance in the air and fly in any direction while the camera is tilted downward. Some videographers like to stay in a place and let the action unfold down below. But I like to move forward or backward very slowly from side to side.
Fly backward
Flying backward helps a lot to reveal your subject. From an establishing shot, it changes your shot into a reveal. It allows the drone to reveal details in space like hills and trees, or buildings and people. The drone coasts in reverse and instead of focusing on one specific detail, it reveals a lot of objects.
Some of you may find this technique difficult but don’t worry, you can reverse your footage by using speed duration tool on your digital photography software.
Tilt Reveal
It’s a very basic movement and the result of this technique is always interesting. To be successful in this shot, you have to how to frame your shot. You should also have to have an idea about what to plan to reveal. So think about those things first. You have to do it by
simply pointing your camera downward and then move the camera’s gimbal up while the forward or backward movements to reveal a landscape.
Stay slow and stay low
You get to capture the best footage when you fly low. Your viewers need time to explore the shot and the surroundings. So, when you start shooting slow, you ultimately ‘give them the time, and it creates a cinematic feeling and increases the production value of your footage as it looks more crafted and controlled.
The wind is an important aspect to get nice footage. It’s more controllable when there is less wind. You possibly won’t get nice footage when the wind is 15-20 mph and also you might end up losing your drone because of the strong wind gusts. That’s why you should stay lower where the wind speed is not that high. It allows you to capture some nice, unique, and steady footages.
Side Follow Shot
It is one of my favorite shots when I’m out filming with my drone. Most of the modern drones have a “follow me” feature which helps your drone to follow people and objects that you choose on the controller’s screen. It’s actually used for tracking the subject all the time. But what you have to concentrate on is, keeping the subject in the same spot on the screen for as long as possible, When the subject changes directions or when you move further away from the subject, it gets really harder. Try adding a move like lifting into the air, it makes the footage interesting and creates a dynamic effect.
The Golden Hour
When the weather is clear, the golden soft light from the sun makes the landscape shot look cinematic, dynamic, beautiful, and more professional. The hour later sunrise and the hour ahead sunset is called the golden hour. Because during the golden hour, the sunlight is warmer and softer. It damages the exposure because of the bright harsh light of the sun when you shoot in the afternoon. Thus, I always recommend shooting in the golden hour light.
Sound Clip
Music works like wings to a viewer’s mind. It draws your viewer to the subject and synchronizes the shots with its harmonies. It makes a video look more professional. People love to watch videos that are matched with sound clips; Hence, you need to add sound clips to your video. You can find royalty free music on YouTube and also there are some licensed music tracks on the internet. Get the right one that matches with your video, add it and you’re ready to upload.
If you are able to follow these things smoothly, then I am pretty much sure that your videos are about to be skyrocket to another level. I hope that I could inspire you to get out there. What you need to always do is practice. Try to practice some dynamic filming moves. It’s better if you write these tips down so that you can practice them again and again until you’re the master of each and every one of them.
