In this tutorial, I’ll share tips on how to elevate your FPV drone footage and make it truly cinematic. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced pilot, these tips will help you improve your video quality. We’ll cover basic techniques you can apply right away, as well as some advanced methods to enhance your footage even further. Let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
What Makes Drone Footage Cinematic?
Cinematic FPV drone footage isn’t just about capturing stunning aerial views; it’s about creating a polished, smooth, and immersive visual experience. Achieving that cinematic look involves a mix of technical camera settings, flight techniques, and editing. Here are a few tips to help make your footage more cinematic.
Master Acro Mode
If you’re still flying in Angle or Horizon mode, it’s time to switch to Acro (manual) mode. Acro gives you full control over your drone, letting you execute smooth, precise movements that are essential for cinematic shots. While the learning curve can be steep, the control and flexibility it offers are unmatched.
Match the Drone to the Job
Different shooting environments require different types of drones:
- Cinewhoops: Ideal for flying close to people or objects due to their propeller guards.
- 5″ Freestyle Drones: Perfect for open environments, chasing fast moving objects and covering wide landscapes.
Using the right drone ensures safety, efficiency, and better shot quality.
Scout and Plan Flight Path
Before shooting, spend some time exploring the area you’ll be filming. Identify key features in the environment and plan a flight path that showcases them. Attention spans are short these days, so you want to highlight the most interesting aspects of your surroundings efficiently while keeping your flying smooth. Planning ahead also helps you identify any signal blind spots or hazards to avoid.
Smooth Flying and Stabilization
Smooth flying is essential for cinematic footage, but it takes practice. Avoid quick, jerky movements, and aim for slow, controlled flying. While aggressive maneuvers and crazy acrobatic are fun, they can make your footage look chaotic for non-FPV audience. Cinematic FPV focuses on fluidity, linking each element of the shot smoothly. This sets it apart from traditional FPV freestyle flying. Your goal is to mimic traditional cinematic camera shots, but with the unique agility of an FPV drone. To achieve this, keep your stick inputs small—avoid rapid flips and rolls, or sharp turns.
If you find smooth flying difficult, try adjusting your rates for better control. You can also practice this style of flying in FPV simulators to refine your technique.
While GoPro’s HyperSmooth and DJI’s Rocksteady provide decent in-camera stabilization, post-production tools like Gyroflow offer more flexibility. By using Gyroflow, you can fine tune stabilization settings based on your raw footage, allowing for more precise adjustments and better results. How to use Gyroflow: https://oscarliang.com/gyroflow/
Fly Close to Objects
FPV drones shine in close-proximity flying, diving, and weaving through tight spaces. To make your footage stand out, fly close to objects like trees, buildings, or landscapes. Diving shots, where you drop down the side of a building or mountain, are particularly dramatic.
Including a subject in your shot, like a person or a car (with permission of course), can also enhance the cinematic feel by adding context and storytelling. When flying toward a subject or through narrow gaps, your skill and creativity can really shine.
Flying low to the ground/water can also create a sense of speed and makes the environment appear larger. It also adds tension, drawing viewers into the action.
Motion Blur and Camera Settings
Natural motion blur adds a cinematic quality to your footage, especially when flying fast. To control motion blur, you need to adjust your frame rate and shutter speed. I have a post that goes into more details about GoPro settings: https://oscarliang.com/gopro-settings-fpv/
A good rule of thumb is to set your shutter speed to double your frame rate. For example, if you’re filming at 60 FPS, set your shutter speed to 1/120. You can control how much motion blur in your video by playing around with shutter speed – lower shutter speed increases the motion blur, or vice versa.
Don’t forget to lock your ISO to the lowest setting possible (typically 100, or higher in low light) to minimize digital noise, which can ruin the clarity of your footage, especially in darker areas.
Finally, you need to make sure exposure is set correctly – you may need ND filters to prevent overexposure during the day. ND filters act like sunglasses for your camera, reducing the amount of light hitting the sensor. For bright days, an ND16 filter is ideal, while an ND8 is suitable for cloudy conditions, or sunrise/sunset. You can learn more about ND filter in this tutorial: https://oscarliang.com/nd-filter-fpv/
If you intent to color grade your footage, make sure to switch your camera’s color profile to a flat or log setting. This captures more detail in highlights and shadows and gives you more control when color grading in post-production. Flat profiles may look dull at first but provide greater flexibility in creating a cinematic look through color correction.
Fly During Golden Hours
Flying FPV during golden hours—around sunrise or sunset—offers stunning natural lighting that enhances the cinematic quality of your footage. You don’t need to do much editing and the footage already looks pretty amazing.
The soft, warm light creates beautiful contrasts and long shadows, adding depth and dimension to your shots. It also reduces harsh reflections and overexposure, making it easier to capture balanced, visually pleasing images. The sky’s rich colors during golden hours—ranging from orange and pink hues to soft blues—can significantly elevate the mood of your videos. Overall, this time of day provides an ideal blend of lighting and ambiance, perfect for capturing breathtaking FPV drone footage.
Reduce Sharpening
Most action cameras come with enhanced sharpening by default. While this might make footage look better on smaller screens, it often results in overly processed, artificial-looking video. Lowering the sharpening in your camera settings usually gives a softer, more cinematic look, similar to what you’d get from traditional film cameras. You can always add sharpening during editing if needed, so it’s best to start with a lower setting in the camera to maintain flexibility.
Learn Color Grading
Raw footage from GoPro or action cameras often lacks the polished cinematic look. Learning basic color grading techniques can transform your footage into something truly professional. Start with:
- Color correction: Balance exposure, white balance, and contrast.
- Styling: Add your signature color tone and sharpening.
Mastering this step will ensure your footage looks like a movie scene, not just another GoPro video.
If you’re new to color grading, I have a tutorial explaining the basics of color grading for beginners: https://oscarliang.com/color-grade-fpv-videos/
Sound Design
Sound design for FPV drone videos refers to the process of adding audio elements to enhance the overall viewing experience of the footage. Unlike standard drone footage, which often relies on the drone’s buzzing motors, FPV videos typically involve intricate editing to craft a more immersive and cinematic audio experience. Sound design adds emotion, drama, and realism to the visual content, helping to tell a story or amplify the intensity of certain scenes. Learn more here: https://oscarliang.com/sound-design-cinematic-fpv-videos/
Practice Using GoPro Dummy
While practicing in simulators is a great way to improve your flying skills and make your movements smoother, real-life practice is equally important, if not more. Simulators will never replace actual flights.
You don’t need to turn on your GoPro for every practice session, but you risk damaging it during a crash. However, removing it can change how your drone feels in the air due to the weight difference. This is where a GoPro dummy comes in handy.
A GoPro dummy can be 3D printed using TPU and filled with coins, metal weights, or even rice to match the exact weight of your real GoPro.
Alternatively, wheel balance weights are an economical option to achieve the same effect. These are typically available in 5g and 10g pieces and can be easily attached: https://amzn.to/3GDHCYd.
Conclusion: From Basic to Cinematic
Cinematic FPV is an exciting way to capture drone footage that stands out. By following these tips, you can elevate your shots and create cinematic videos that capture attention. Remember to explore your surroundings, fly smoothly, and use a subject to enhance your storytelling.
Whether you’re new to FPV drones or have been flying for years, these techniques will help you produce smoother, more professional-looking footage. It’s all about practice, patience, and paying attention to the details. Happy flying!