How to Shoot Cinematic Videos With Rotation. Is It Possible to Simplify the Shooting Process by Rotating the Camera Around the Subject?

To shoot qual­i­ty mate­r­i­al, you need to try very hard. Spe­cial­ists, and even sim­ple ama­teurs, are always look­ing for ways to improve their videos. It’s safe to say that rotat­ing the cam­era around an object is one such way. With this trick, you can get an incred­i­ble cin­e­mat­ic effect that will sure­ly sur­prise every­one who watch­es this video in the future. If you learn how to use this tricky trick, you can sig­nif­i­cant­ly improve your skills in con­trol­ling a quad­copter.

More about rotation

Recep­tion with rota­tion, as you can already under­stand, is video shoot­ing when the cam­era moves around the object being filmed. Thanks to this tech­nique, you can focus on a spe­cif­ic object, because such move­ment helps to cre­ate a dis­tinct sense of space and sur­round­ings. This is not only a way to focus on a spe­cif­ic object, but also a tech­nique that allows you to achieve unre­al­is­tic beau­ty in the video.

It is not nec­es­sary to do the usu­al rota­tion, because it can be sig­nif­i­cant­ly diver­si­fied if you per­form any addi­tion­al tricks. As the cam­era rotates, it can also be zoomed in and out of the sub­ject. Thus, you will con­cen­trate the view­er’s atten­tion on the object even more.

You can also focus on the sub­ject and then raise and low­er the quad­copter to get a sense of depth through chang­ing shoot­ing angles.

If you turn on the Time­lapse effect, then the rota­tion of the cam­era will look more beau­ti­ful and incred­i­ble. Look at the image to see for your­self.

Do not for­get that you can shoot not only from the air. Grab an Osmo Pock­et or Ronin‑S and you’ll be able to achieve an equal­ly beau­ti­ful video. It is enough to raise the cam­era up and find a low point, and you will get the desired effect.

Improving your shooting skills

If you are film­ing an object with a drone, try pulling the right stick to the right, which will allow you to move your device to the right. While the drone is fly­ing around the object, pull the left stick to the oth­er side — this will allow you to pan the cam­era to the left. How­ev­er, here it is worth not­ing the fact that we mean to use Mode 2. This method will allow you to get an amaz­ing effect.

Just remem­ber that the recep­tion, although beau­ti­ful, is quite com­pli­cat­ed. It is nec­es­sary to take into account such impor­tant fac­tors as the dis­tance between the drone and the object, the flight speed and oth­er fac­tors. Change the posi­tion of the sticks in time to main­tain smooth shoot­ing sta­bly.

Don’t be dis­cour­aged if you don’t get it right right away. It takes a lit­tle prac­tice to be able to shoot objects in this way. We advise you to start by con­trol­ling the sticks with two fin­gers. This will allow you to achieve the great­est accu­ra­cy, because it is very impor­tant for this tricky maneu­ver.

In addi­tion, you should make the reac­tion speed of the sticks a lit­tle less. To do this, go to the Main Con­troller Set­tings menu in the appli­ca­tion. After that, you need to find Advanced Set­tings — EXP. There you will find an option such as Rotate Right. That is what you need to reduce by 0.1–0.15. This way your sticks will not be as sen­si­tive. You will be able to get rid of too sharp move­ments when the drone is in the air.

Is it possible to simplify the shooting process by rotating the camera around the subject?

As you can already under­stand, man­u­al­ly achiev­ing this effect will be dif­fi­cult, espe­cial­ly if you are new to this busi­ness. How­ev­er, I want to tell you the good news — you can auto­mate this process. To do this, sim­ply select the Orbit mode in the DJI GO 4 app.

Go to the app and search for Quick­Shots. You will be able to find sev­er­al flight modes. After you select the mode that suits you, sim­ply fix the cam­era on the sub­ject. Every­thing is ready, now you can start shoot­ing.

Love to be cre­ative? Then you will def­i­nite­ly love the Active­Track fea­ture. Just click on the desired object on the screen, and then wait a bit until the cam­era fix­es on it. Now you need to set the appro­pri­ate rota­tion speed. The unmanned aer­i­al vehi­cle will exe­cute this com­mand by start­ing to rotate around the object.

If you use Active­Track and Orbit at the same time, you can con­trol the drone so that it moves up and down, as well as flies towards or away from an object. Such a video will get more dynam­ics.

With Osmo Pock­et, you’ll find a handy fea­ture called Active­Track that allows you to eas­i­ly per­form cam­era roll recep­tion.

Safety is very important

If you’re going to start shoot­ing with the roll-around tech­nique, there are a few rules to fol­low:

1. When the drone is fly­ing in a cir­cle, you will not be able to see on the screen the obsta­cles that may be in front of the device. This can play a cru­el joke on you. Before shoot­ing with rota­tion, you need to eval­u­ate the flight path to make sure there are no obsta­cles;

2. Make sure that there are no peo­ple near­by that the drone could hit;

3. When rotat­ing, you need to tire­less­ly adjust the move­ments of the device;

4. If you have start­ed the auto-rota­tion of the device, then you still can­not lose vig­i­lance. Keep your hands on the sticks, because there can always be some kind of inter­fer­ence, so you need to be ready to take con­trol;

5. An unmanned aer­i­al vehi­cle should always be in your field of vision, because you nev­er know what may appear next to you;

6. If a hand sta­bi­liz­er is used, it is very impor­tant to keep track of your course when you go around the object, because there is a chance of trip­ping;

7. Always fol­low safe­ty pre­cau­tions so that no one gets hurt, includ­ing those around you, as well as the drone;

8. There are coun­tries where local laws require such secu­ri­ty mea­sures.

If you learn this tricky trick, then your videos will become even bet­ter and more inter­est­ing.