I recently came across 2 documents from DJI which have some really great tips for how to move your drone to get maximum cinematic effect such as:

• Combine Different axis Movements
• Fly at Low Altitude
• Follow the subject from different angles
• understanding relative motion
• capturing speed

and much more ...

​To read them in depth and to start bossting the quality of your shots download them here

An awesome feature of DJI drones is the Vision Positioning System (VPS) which keeps your drone rock steady even when there is no GPS. 

Unfortunately its sensors may not work over certain surfaces like water. 

So, there is a great deal of debate about whether or not you should turn VPS off when flying over water. I put it to the test and the conclusion is it doesn't seem necessary to turn it off. Watch the video below for more information. 

Up until now there was no sure way to check if your mission was going to result in a crash. You would have to place Waypoints at an altitude higher then surrounding obstacles like trees and buildings but could only be sure if this was calculated correctly by running a test flight. This was often time consuming and not 100% safe. 

However, Albert and I recently launched a new tool called The Bridge which allows you to plan your mission in Google Earth. 

Using Google Earth to plan a mission has a huge number of advantages and the Bridge taps into this by generating a Safety Checker file. When you open this file in Google Earth it shows you the exact flight path that Litchi will use with the ability to zoom in and move around in 3D to see if the flight path has sufficient obstacle clearance. As you can see from the example below the flight path has sufficient clearance above the buildings as well as through the space between them. 

You now have the ability to make your missions a lot safer by doing a quick safety check each time. 

For more information on how to use The Bridge and the Safety checker tool go to The Bridge page here

Today I got an interesting question from a student about how to run a Litchi mission and be able to reverse it halfway and then reverse again and continue. Below you will see the email from the student and then my answer. I hope it helps you with your missions...

Student question: 
I was wondering if I had a 10 waypoint mission. Can I fly waypoint 1 & 2, stop recording at waypoint 2, go to waypoint 3 which is at a higher altitude and 300 feet away from waypiont 2, turn and aim at POI 1, snap a image and fly back to waypoint 2 and resume recording at waypoint 2 and continue with my mission?
Is this possible with Litchi? Your reply would be mostly appreciated.

My answer: 
Yes there is a way. Set the cruising speed to 0 and the max flight speed to whatever you want as the fastest. Set finish action to Reverse. 

Then run the mission. The drone will sit still. Push right stick up and it will start moving to WP 1. You control the speed. Start recording at WP 1 and when you get to WP 2 take your finger off the stick. You will stop moving. Stop recording. Then push the stick up to continue to WP 3. Aim at the POI and use the shutter to take pics. Then pull the right stick down to go back to WP 2 and start recording. If when you get to WP 2 you want to carry on the mission at a set speed then open the mission settings and set the speed slider from 0 to whatever it is you like and that way you don't have to control the speed. 

Remember to disable your heading to user controlled/manual and gimbal to disabled if you want the ability to frame the shot exactly​

Most people buy a drone in order to shoot videos.

After teaching the subject for over 18 months I have learnt some useful tips which I thought I would set out as a quick list and handy reminder.

A key principle to remember, is what you are doing is getting a camera sensor into the air to capture light and movement. When you focus on this fact then these tips will make a lot more sense! 

Here we go and in no particular order:

1. To instantly boost your results by at least 50% shoot in golden hour. The light is gentle, beautiful and very photogenic. There are some great golden hour apps to help you know what time to go out. 
2. 9 out of 10 times it is always better to shoot with the sun behind you rather then into the sun. Shooting into the sun creates all sorts of issues like huge contrast and in general makes the video less enjoyable to watch for your audience.
3. A good tip I picked up from someone is the concept of trying to shoot in manual as much as possible, in other words take away as many "auto" modes from your camera as possible. So for example shoot in lowest ISO possible (100) and shoot in custom white balance. This is because if you shoot in auto white balance there is the risk that as you fly and change position and lighting the WB will adjust and if this is noticeable in your shot then it kind of kills it.
4. Choose a flat color profile so you have the most room in post to edit. I recommend LOG or Cine and also contrast -3, saturation -2 and sharpness -2
5. Create interest in your shot with a Reveal. You can use forward, backward, up or sideway - anything that reveals the subject to the user is much better then just starting with that subject. So for example if the subject is a beautiful castle, try start with a hill or tree in front of you and then climb, or move to the side and reveal the castle behind - and do it relatively slowly
6. Automate your shots with Litchi - as you know I am a huge fan of automating shots. This is because flying manually on the sticks often results in small noticeable movements that can ruin a shot. If you absolutely want to fly in manual then I recommend Tripod mode or Focus mode on Litchi or Spotlight on DJI Go as these are auto assisted and will give you the best support to get a smooth "manual" shot
7. To avoid motion cadence or judder for web delivery (Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook etc) shoot in 30p or multiples of 30p like 60p/120p - to do this you must be in NTSC
8. Always shoot in 4k or UHD as you have these advantages: will always produce higher quality on Youtube as they downscale your video anyway, can take advantage of zoom effect in post production and you get paid more with stock footage
9. Get the highest class Micro SD you can that can match the write rate of your camera e.g. Phantom 4 Pro writes at 100 megs/second so make sure your card can do the same
10. Make your shots more immersive by tilting the gimbal down - this takes advantage of the aerial perspective and its never a good idea to look directly into the horizon
11. To get a cinematic feel get your shutter speed to be 2X your frame rate, so if you shoot 30p then aim for a SS of 60-100. To get this you will often need to use a ND filter such as a 4 or 8 or maybe a 16. 
12. Always carry on recording for a good 10 seconds after the shot has finished - you will thank yourself in post production for the extra bit of film
13. Keep your videos under 2 minutes - people tune out a lot quicker then you think and anything over 2 minutes will bore them unless its an info piece or really unique 
14. Learn how to use LUT's to speed up your color correction in post
15. Try adding sound effects to your video to make it feel more authentic - a good source is www.pond5.com
16. With drones that have camera's that focus never forget to tap to focus before you start your shot
17. Always use grid lines and the rule of thirds in a shot to keep your subject at an intersection point - this will boost the value of your shot tremendously
18. Don't fly too fast as it can result in footage that is a little shaky
19. Avoid cutting your subject out of frame - this kills a shot and its worth re-taking it a few times until you get it right
20. Try find a shot where the foreground shifts against the background - this creates a stunning effect. 

Also, if you want to learn some pro tips on flash photography check them out here 
​
If you enjoyed these tips and have not taken any of my courses, a great place to start is the Sample course.

A lot of students ask me what happens if you lose signal during a mission. Well the answer is 2 things can happen and the 2nd affect might surprise you!

Check out this video to find out the answer ...

This video covers some of the more important items in the various Litchi updates over the period of May to August 2017, such as AFC (Autofocus continuous mode), Tripod mode, the on-screen Stop button and support for the DJI Spark

If you fly a lot or run a drone business then you are going to want to get an account with Airdata.com.

Its free but you can get paid options too. 

The beauty of this service is it automatically syncs all your flight data into the cloud and gives you actionable intelligence at your fingertips. No more pen and paper at the flying field and wasting precious time and energy doing log keeping. AirData will do it all for you. 

In today's blog I discuss how Airdata provide an easy way to sync with the flights in the DJI Go app and this is especially useful for those with a Phantom 4 Pro + drone which could not use Airdata until now. 

​As always happy flying

Do you experience any of these symptoms when using Litchi:
​

• lag or slow performance e.g. pressing a button on the app & it doesn't respond instantly
• video freezes for a second or longer
• erratic gimbal movements