How to Shoot Better Travel Videos With a Drone

How to shoot better travel videos with a drone

Filming with a drone, even without professional knowledge, is a blast! However, if you want to do it better, there are specific steps you can take. In the hopes of helping you enhance your craft, we present a guide on how to shoot better travel videos with a drone!

Make a solid flight plan.

Now, you can, of course, wing it as you travel. Spontaneous filming does have certain advantages. However, planning often outweighs them considerably. This is not merely because knowing about the beautiful scenery and sights ahead of you allows you to account for them and plan how best to approach them. Equally important is the opportunity it provides to explore the rules and regulations governing drone flight. Certain areas do not allow drone access at all. It is due to safety or privacy concerns that using a drone might cause. The Grand Canyon, for example, is one such area. Going into things blind can land you in serious trouble.

Test out your audio recording abilities.

You may plan to include narration or utilize the audio your drone is recording. For example, you might be visiting a carnival or similar and want to capture the essence of the experience. And that cannot be done without the sound included! However, it is essential to consider that your drone will be flying; as a result, the audio quality and how it captures it will be only marginally similar to what you might expect from a regular camera. So, do some tests! Observe how the drone behaves and records audio at higher altitudes compared to when it is kept relatively close to the ground. You will find that there are significant differences between the two!

Plan for the time of day.

The atmosphere conjured by the sunrise differs significantly from that evoked by sunset or noon. You need to carefully consider what type of video you are looking to make. One that produces excitement and adventure as you engage in a physically challenging ‘adventure course,’ running along a suspension bridge and over obstacles? Or a romantic, panoramic viewing of the countryside as you stroll along a hiking or walking trail? Depending on your intentions, you will find that some times of day serve you better than others. You will not, for example, want to be filming an action sequence in near-complete darkness that your audience would not even be able to follow correctly.

The atmosphere created by proper lighting can make or break a video.

Do not only focus on aerial shots.

Now, spectacular aerial shots are the main draw of a drone-recorded video. There’s nothing like taking in the scene from high above. However, this does not mean you should never take your drone below ten meters off the ground! Sometimes, you can be very well served by letting your drone follow you as you stroll. Taking a shot with the drone right next to you as you peruse local wares in a traditional open-air market, for example, will add a lot more flavor and draw than simply having it hover above.

If you plan on traveling with your drone and looking for exciting new scenery, ensure that your belongings back home are safe. You can rent a storage unit and store your belongings there while you plan routes and scout out the best filming locations. This will ensure the safety of your items while you are away, allowing you to focus on capturing that perfect shot.

Take advantage of the safety a drone provides

This should be prefaced by saying that you should not, under any circumstances, put yourself or others at risk. Learning how to operate a drone safely in urban areas is particularly important. Having said that, if you are not in a metropolitan area, drone flight is allowed in the location. Some risk is acceptable with the supplement we are discussing, which involves risking the drone, not yourself. After all, the access and detachment recording with a drone is too sound not to take advantage of! You can look closer at perilous cliffs and into seemingly bottomless ravines of gaping black. The insides of caves are considered too dangerous for tourists to visit, and if you are reckless, you might suffer equipment damage. But if you are successful and careful, you will walk away with some stunning video footage! Additionally, if you want to edit drone videos, video editors like FlexClip make it easy to transform camera drone footage into engaging videos.

Be mindful of the weather.

This should not come as a surprise. Even planes cannot fly in certain weather conditions, and drones are much less durable. For example, a thousand potential disasters can occur if you take a drone into a severe storm. So, leave your drone behind when the weather outside is frightful and enjoy yourself.

Look into accessories and filters.

Specific attachments, like ND Filters, can produce various effects to enhance your filming, such as subtle motion blur. They’re a perfect choice if you’re sure you want to invest in improving your video. Of course, you should not forget to consider certain essentials. Extra batteries, lenses, and propellers will not necessarily improve the quality of your videos. However, they will ensure you can keep filming, even if an accident cracks your camera lens. Or one of your propellers getting damaged. You do not want to call your filming off simply because you didn’t have spares.

There are plenty of toys to add to your drone, and all of them are helpful!

Utilize the intelligent flight modes.

Unless you want to consider hiring a professional drone pilot or are one yourself, you likely haven’t mastered the art of drone flight. If you want the drone to follow you cinematically, manual control might make its flight wobbly as you focus on sightseeing. Alternatively, the flight mode can be set to ‘Active Tracking,’ allowing the drone to do the job for you. You can even set your drone to ‘orbit’ a certain point, allowing for some fantastic shots.

You can even record ‘Waypoint’ for your drone to automatically follow!

Summary of Advice

The core of shooting better travel videos with a drone is to plan smartly and make the most of your resources. If you approach the planning phase of your endeavor correctly, its quality will soar! Just remember to, as always, take the proper safety precautions for the sake of both you and your drone.