Jim Dockery
Well-Known Member
Shot this week up The Mountain Loop Highway in Washington's central Cascades, near my house. I finally went out and found some copyright free music so I can freely publish this.
Autumn on the Mountain Loop
Shot this week up The Mountain Loop Highway in Washington's central Cascades, near my house. I finally went out and found some copyright free music so I can freely publish this.
Wow Jim, this is fantastic. I am watching on a 4K monitor with a good sound system and it works really great. A few artifacts in some places but otherwise spectacular. Do you edit this video for stuff like color or exposure? It came out really well. I also really like the first music choice.
Ben
Ben
Jim Dockery
Well-Known Member
Thanks Ben, I didn't edit color or exposure, just cut and pasted, added transitions, titles, and music. The artifacts are inevitable with YouTube's compression, esp. blown up on a big monitor (uploaded at 1280x720). On my HD tv the 1080 export looks great.
Flying a drone around in these woods I'm seeing them like never before and I've been going up there for over 20 years.
Flying a drone around in these woods I'm seeing them like never before and I've been going up there for over 20 years.
Amy Nelson
Well-Known Member
Wow...Wow...Wow...This is most excellent. I love everything about it. Great music selection for it too.
How long have you been working with a drone? This is by far the best drone video I've seen.
How long have you been working with a drone? This is by far the best drone video I've seen.
AlanLichty
Moderator
I love the perspective this gives for these forests - completely different from what I am used to seeing on the ground. Don't try full screen with a 4K monitor. Lots of resolution artifacts but looks much nicer at the native 1080 size. I love he wetlands at the end - my favorite kind o scene in the woods and very difficult to get a good place to shoot from. This alleviates that problem and then some.
Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks for sharing this.
Jim Dockery
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the comments everyone.
Amy, I've only had the drone for about 2.5 months and have only taken it out for real flights around 10-15 days. It felt very tricky at first, but one problem I had was trying to keep my eyes on the drone itself. The rules state that you should do that, but if you fly alone, like I normally do, that is pretty much impossible since it is so small and grey. Once I let that go and concentrated on the phone screen, trusting the object avoidance system for a warning if I got to close to things, it got much easier. A light touch on the controls, keeping things slow, is the other key for scenic/landscape work like this. The bottom line is that these latest generation drones are incredibly fun and easy to fly after a little practice. Getting 2 extra batteries was another key that enables me to get a good hour of flight time in each session.
Jim, getting close to the trees is part of the magic of these little drones, flying past them gives a feeling of depth and immersion. My Mavic 2 has very good object avoidance in all directions, so it's almost impossible to hit anything, esp. at these speeds. I'm using Adobe Premiere Elements to edit. Many years ago, when I was more into video on my Mac, I used Final Cut Pro, but haven't picked it back up now again now that I"m getting back into it. At some point I'll try the capture modes that are like RAW and require more PP, then might go for the pro software. Right now I'm pretty happy with how the camera processes the footage.
Amy, I've only had the drone for about 2.5 months and have only taken it out for real flights around 10-15 days. It felt very tricky at first, but one problem I had was trying to keep my eyes on the drone itself. The rules state that you should do that, but if you fly alone, like I normally do, that is pretty much impossible since it is so small and grey. Once I let that go and concentrated on the phone screen, trusting the object avoidance system for a warning if I got to close to things, it got much easier. A light touch on the controls, keeping things slow, is the other key for scenic/landscape work like this. The bottom line is that these latest generation drones are incredibly fun and easy to fly after a little practice. Getting 2 extra batteries was another key that enables me to get a good hour of flight time in each session.
Jim, getting close to the trees is part of the magic of these little drones, flying past them gives a feeling of depth and immersion. My Mavic 2 has very good object avoidance in all directions, so it's almost impossible to hit anything, esp. at these speeds. I'm using Adobe Premiere Elements to edit. Many years ago, when I was more into video on my Mac, I used Final Cut Pro, but haven't picked it back up now again now that I"m getting back into it. At some point I'll try the capture modes that are like RAW and require more PP, then might go for the pro software. Right now I'm pretty happy with how the camera processes the footage.
Jim Dockery
Well-Known Member
Post script. After posting this in a drone forum I got some nice complements, but also criticism for the length of it. It was suggested I edit down to about 3 min. and leave my audience wanting more. After showing it to my wife and noticing her attention wandering half way through I've got to agree. I'm afraid I fell victim to my infatuation with this new toy and it's amazing abilities to see things in a new way. It all looks so cool to me that I thought everyone would feel the same way! While I certainly appreciate the nice comments here, I've learned my lesson (for the millionth time in my photography life); wait a bit before publishing, think about your audience not yourself, and edit down to just the best bits for YouTube.
For anyone who has the time, here is the half as long edit.
For anyone who has the time, here is the half as long edit.
Last edited:
Craig Zerbe
Well-Known Member
Nice video
Jeffrey
Well-Known Member
Jim, I watched intently, not just because it was captivating, but because I'll have my drone next week. From a production standpoint, I thought it was too long, Each segment was too long and often too similar. Brains like enjoyment refreshed more briskly. The short version would go nicely into a longer vid that shows segments of many different places.
