Latest video up. More or less happy with my progress flying and basic editing, just the colour grading I’m really struggling with now.
As always, constructive criticism more than welcome - especially as I’m about to start editing my Portchester video so can take it onboard for that.
Interestingly for this day out, I switched from 60fps to 30fps. I found that a challenge as I had to use a pretty strong ND filter even towards the end of the day. I think I also forgot to set the shutter speed on some of the footage, which means some of my footage was unusable due to being really choppy which I presume was from the shutter speed being mismatched to the FPS. May also just have been because some of my camera movements are quite fast - so I’ve switched back to 60fps for the next video.
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The flight and edit look fine to me, plus it’s a lovely location too 
Colour grading is subjective, like many bits of video editing, e.g. transitions are marmite. But I will share my own preferences below 
I noticed a couple of clips were over saturated, perhaps watch out for this in the next vid.
Personally, I don’t think it was required, as some of the scenes were a little dark - nothing major. I used to have ND filters for all my previous drones, wanting to have all the kit available. Now, I don’t even own any - despite folk swearing by them.
I know many who obsess over this rule. But I just film video on Auto in 99.9% of cases, at 4K30FPS on the Mini 3 Pro and 4K60FPS on the Air 3. Often I mix the footage on the same timeline, and have no issue. Saying that, I am mostly using Pro mode for photography.
I wouldn’t worry too much about it when starting off mate, just enjoy 
Hey thank you for the feedback, I really appreciate it!
Those doors on the lifeboat station were a nightmare. Even on the still images I shot, they were HUGELY saturated and bright, I think they genuinely are very vibrant in reality plus the very warm light from the sun was reflecting directly off them. For the stills, I ended up having to create a mask just for the doors to tone them down a bit, but I had no idea how to do that with video.
Overall though, I found it most challenging to get the saturation and temperature right, because the footage that was captured in the middle of the golden hour was really warm and nicely saturated which left the other footage from 30 minutes earlier in the day feeling rather lacklustre so I think I tried to bump the saturation up to compensate.
Also - I have two monitors on my computer. And the footage looks completely different on each monitor so I really have no idea which one is more ‘neutral’.
Interesting that you use auto… I see so many people ‘drone on’ about the 180 rule which is why I tried today to use the more cinematic 30fps. Certainly if I could leave the shutter on auto that would make things far easier. Trying to get the right ND filter was a huge pain, as I either ended up with the ISO getting bumped up too far, or they ended up being overexposed. I think I landed and swapped at least three times.
Maybe I’ll try again switching back to auto and forgetting about the 180 rule. My next video (portchester) was entirely shot at 60fps with 120 shutter speed so I can then compare if it really helps. But I already know some of that footage is too dark so unusable.
I do that quite a bit for videos containing bright skies and darker forgrounds. But I am using Adobe Premiere, not sure what you use.
I guess that can be a challenge. I use a 55" 120 hz OLED, so it all looks the same to me. I know a lot of folk do calibrate their monitors for this reason. You may want to calibrate each one so they have the same look and feel as shown here.
I’m using Davinci Resolve (free) so I’m sure it’s possible. Just need to watch some tutorials.
Monitors wise, my main display is predominantly a gaming monitor (Asus ROG something) and so I suspect it boosts the brightness and colours artificially to support gaming.
My other display is a cheaper display, only 60hz but I wonder if maybe it’s more accurate for colours.
I did a colour calibration, but without an external device its all subjective I suppose.
I was kind of hoping maybe there would be some sort of printed colour wheel I could hold up to it as those plug in devices are a bit pricey. But maybe something I look in to down the line.
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For Resolve I can recommend a load of videos on YouTube by Darren Mostyn…
He is a professional colour grader with 20 years experience and a DaVinci certified tutor He has grown up with the software since the very early days (and has to requalify with each successive release).
He has tutorials for absolute beginners like me right up to expert. He runs his grading studio near Brighton so videos are in English English
Give him a try!
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Perfect, will check him out!
Looks fine to me!
As others have said grading is subjective… I use Final Cut Pro mostly as I made that my path for learning… I use Davinci for a couple of things, but didn’t want to spend lot’s of time on a another NLE*
You didn’t mention what you shoot in Normal/HLG/DLOG-M… you’ll get more latitude out of HLG & DLOG-M as I’m sure you know… worth a test… remember grade colour first then apply LUT (if LUT even needed on HLG).
As for colour in the golden light and dark, that’s not so easy, so I tend to use colour matching or White Balance adjust using vector scopes to white… a learning curve in itself…
I do use ND filters all the time, and use the 180° rule - mostly 24/25 FPS - and it then under control - Auto is fine but I get mixed results… but that’s just me
*I have tried so many on Windows and Mac, but invested so much in FCPX with the plug-ins now… I will only use Davinci now for Roto-Scoping (Magic Mask in Davinci) as it means a one off investment for the paid version = £300 incl. VAT) it is incredibly useful for auto-masking objects and adjusting; MotionVFX now add it to a subscription over £200 p.a. !! and I have most of the components under the Cinepak subscription anyway…)
I shoot in normal for now. But my next flight I was tempted to try out something different…
Interesting you say colour grade THEN LUT. I have been applying the LUT directly to my raw (normal) footage and then tweaking.
The rest of what you said mostly went over my head…
Cant beat a good bit of ship chasing in the Solent! Lovely vid, I miss it already!
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You’ve moved? I shall miss your ship-chasing vids.
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Yeah, up in the midlands at the moment, gonna have to switch to canal boats!
FAR easier to chase! … except for the bridges and tunnels, of course. But I’m sure they won’t prove a problem for you. 
Yeah it’s really easy to get distracted in the Solent chasing a ship and then all of a sudden you’re further away than you would like to be!
… or the top-most parts of another ship, that’s a tad taller than you realised, enters from stage-left … 
Yikes! That’s a close call!!!
I actually thought I was the far side of it … and as it happens I was just high enough. Watching my phone, though, it was a surprise!
