Six Ways to Make Your Drone Footage More Cinematic

If you've got a drone, you know that it opens up a near-infinite number of new possibilities, but with those also come a unique set of challenges. This quick and helpful video will show you six tips to get more cinematic looking aerial footage.

Coming to you from Travel Feels, this helpful video shows you how to use that magical flying camera to get better video. Much like a normal camera, you can get some great shots around sunrise and sunset, but don't let that limit you either. Depending on what you're shooting, other times work as well. For example, if I know I'll be shooting straight down just to show off the abstract geometry of something, I'll shoot at midday to eliminate any shadows that might distract from the structure I'm trying to capture. It all depends on your subject matter. Furthermore, as the video mentions, slow movements are generally better, and if you own the DJI Mavic Pro or Phantom 4 Pro, remember you can set it to tripod mode, which limits the speed to 2.2 mph and 5.6 mph respectively and also gives the control sticks more travel for the same movements, enabling smoother and more precise shots. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

Log in or register to post comments
1 Comment

Couple things I've also found helpful..

- Shooting in full manual usually produces the best results, so you don't get annoying exposure changes in the middle of a shot (compared to shooting Shutter priority for example)

- Typically shooting with a custom white balance at 5600K, instead of Auto

- My default picture style is also really flat for the most amount of room in post. The settings I use are:

Sharpness: -1
Contrast: -3
Saturation: -2

Just did some flying around Portland as well with these settings if you're curious how they contribute to the final outcome:

https://youtu.be/C35qt0mgYL0