A recent acquisition of mine is a DJI Mavic Pro. I've been practising and have started to take it to some more interesting places.

Although the camera has a lot of issues to work around I think it will do at a pinch for the odd aerial shot to add some interest.

This test video is from an area to do with a long-term project of mine; a doco about the Barron river in North Queensland, Australia.

When I finally choose an appropriate camera I will start the long process of filming.

https://youtu.be/Y59wIYvp7QE

I think you found your camera. What more do you need that this? Those shots are really awesome. But I can't help feeling the urge to grade it. You should bring those shots into Resolve and add a little saturation and contrast so they pop even more. I gotta get a drone one of these days.

Thanks Doug.

I shot that stuff in D-Log and all I did in post was bring the top and bottom is a bit with levels.

Whenever I need to grade I find it really difficult to get something I'm happy with and it takes me many iterations before I'm satisfied. I find it very hard to get good contrast and pop without crushing the shadows and blowing the highlights and end up with a compromise. As a result, any time I'm just playing I do the bare minimum, as happened here.

I should search for some tutorials.

Michael, when you say you are grading, are you actually using Resolve, Baselight, or some other true grading program? Because if you're tying to "grade" in your NLE (Premiere, FCP, etc.), that is not grading at all. If you are not using Resolve already, that is what you should explore.

Also, you need to make sure you are monitoring the output on a real video monitor and not just looking at your computer monitor. That makes all the difference. Even a decent quality consumer monitor is good enough once you set it up. If you're on a Mac you can get a Blackmagic box for outputing SDI and HDMI for as little as $135. Well worth it.

You might already be doing these things, but I thought I'd offer the advice anyway.

Thanks for the info.

No, I'm not doing any of those things, although I do know I need to.

I have a video monitor that was connected to my system for a few years, but at the moment I don't have room to set it up. I'm looking for a new house to buy at the moment and staying with friends.

The situation is that because I've been using crappy cameras since I got back into video in 2011 I haven't felt it worth putting a lot of effort into post. That will change once I start to get some source material I feel is worthy of the effort.

I've only been using the colour correction controls in Premiere and do intend to get familiar with Resolve. At this stage I haven't thought of a workflow I'm going to like.

Well I encourage you to take that next step and learn Resolve as soon as you can. Your raw footage is excellent and you're not doing it justice by not taking to that next level. I am of the belief that everything, no matter what camera is being used or what mode is being use to shoot it, can be improved with grading in Resolve. And it is free. Resolve is not nearly as complicated as people think it is once you understand the 4-step workflow. In fact, I find it a lot of fun. It is the modern equivalent of my old B&W darkroom.

What do you do, bring your individual shots into Resolve, grade and export then import into your NLE?

Yes, that is my normal workflow for b-roll and stock footage. But sometimes it makes more sense to edit first and grade later. Both workflows are valid for different types of projects.

Thanks Michael and thanks Doug.

Michael, those shots were unbelievably steady did, you need any stabilisation in the editing? Also I would be very interested in seeing the results after grading in Resolve. Finally good luck with the UX180. It aroused my interest but my reading of some reviews have been a bit of a turnoff.

Doug, I have tried grading and sharpening in FCP but I do not think I ever improved a clip. I will be very interested to see if I can do better with Resolve. Thanks for the tip.

Michael, those shots were unbelievably steady did, you need any stabilisation in the editing?

No. The gimbal is amazing on the recent DJI drones. I did (and still need more) practice to make the drone movements smooth, and especially when flying close to rocks and other obstacles it's hard to keep a smooth movement going before nerves take over and I jerk the controls away.

Also I would be very interested in seeing the results after grading in Resolve.

Me too. I've downloaded Resolve, but it will take me some time before I have enough time to learn it. Maybe, if it's not too much trouble, Doug might be able to show us a grade.

Doug, if you're interested, I can make the file available for you to download and play with if you are unable to download it from YouTube.

Finally good luck with the UX180. It aroused my interest but my reading of some reviews have been a bit of a turnoff.

Any specific points that stand out to you? I think I know all the negatives, but there might be something I've missed. I just can't find anything that doesn't have a bunch of negatives. In terms of picture quality, the GH5 is definitely much better, but the ergonomics and speed of setup kill it for me.

And this is where I'm afraid I'll go back into procrastinate mode. I need to just choose something and start shooting.

Michael, I'd love to take a crack at grading a few of those shots but I wouldn't want to use the compressed Youtube versions. So if you want to send me 3-5 original clips via Hightail or DropBox, each at least 10-20 seconds long, I'd love to see what I can do. You can have my assurance that I won't do anything else with footage and I won't even post my results. I'll send the graded files back to you and then you can decide what you want to do with them. No obligation to post them. If you don't like what I've done, you can throw them in the trash. Just send me a PM with a download link if you want to proceed.

Thanks Doug. I shoot long clips because I want to concentrate on flying and not worry if I've started or stopped the recording so as a result my files are enormous.

I've split some short clips out and uploaded to Dropbox. Email sent.

I've got the clips. Hopefully I'll have time to play around with them later today or tomorrow.

Thanks Doug.

I'll certainly post your grade.

I don't know if Resolve has the ability to show everything you did in one screenshot, but if practical, would you be able to post a screenshot of what you did, at least for one of the files?

Michael, is there a sharpness or detail adjustment on this camera? I'm working on the footage right now and it is so over-sharpened that there is almost nothing I'm going to be able to do to calm it down. It seems to shimmer because looks so jittery. Grading the colors was easy and took just a few minutes, but I don't have any experience with reducing the sharpness without making it look too soft. I have never had to deal with footage like this before in post. Is there an adjustment for that setting on the camera's menus so it could be dialed down next time?

Michael, I just noticed in your email to me that you have sent me down-rezzed version of the files instead of the originals. Is it possible that you buggered up these files when you created them? They really look awful. I wonder if the original files (as I had requested) would look better?

That's a limitation of the camera. If sharpness is set to anything less that +1 a really aggressive NR is applied that turns everything below mid-tones to mush.

DJI Mavic Pro - DON'T Get This Setting WRONG! | Soft Footage Fix - YouTube

I've done some experimenting and found adding a 1.3 to 1.5 pixel fast blur tames it to some extent.

Micheal, I just noticed in your email to me that you have sent me down-rezzed version of the files instead of the originals. Is it possible that you buggered up these files when you created them? They really look awful. I wonder if the original files (as I had requested) would look better?

Are they not 3840 x 2160?

That's what the properties on the files on my hard drive say. I just losslessly split the clips out of the larger files. There was no processing at all. Maybe DropBox has resized them.

I just downloaded one of the files from the links I sent you and it came out at 3840 x 2160.

Yes they are 3840x2160, but bad things can happen to files during a conversion. When you look at the downloaded file would you say that it is representative of how overly sharp the original is? I just got back to my computer after being out shooting for awhile, so I watch the video above in a few minutes.

Okay, I think I've narrowed down the problem. The footage is way too sharp for my taste (as talked about in the video you linked to) but it's not as bad as I thought it was at first. The way my setup is displaying your 25P footage on my monitors has really made the problem look worse than it really is. I've made some changes to the way 25P is being displayed and things look a little better. So I'll go back to ground zero now and start with a fresh grade from scratch.

PS. Sorry for misspelling your name in a couple of threads -- my dyslexia rears its ugly head sometimes. I've fixed them.

The camera on the Mavic is tiny and the file compression very high, but the Mavic is very appealing for it's compact size and weight (734g) compared to the Phantom, which produces slightly better video. But the picture quality only starts to become decent on the Inspire, which is much larger again, and way more expensive.

With the Mavic, I can fit everything in a small bag and carry it with me into the bush along with normal camera gear. The whole drone kit including spare batteries, chargers, all accessories and bag only weighs about 3kg. If it was much larger or heavier I wouldn't be able to carry it and therefore no aerial footage at all.

As the saying goes, the best camera is the one you have with you. Adding the fast blur tames the sharpness and makes it usable IMO.

The split screen grade you showed me looks great on my laptop at 1920 x 1080. You've made the colours rich without crushing the blacks or blowing the highlights.

I'm pretty sure the files I spilt out for you are made from completely unchanged data. The program that I used, Wondershare Filmora is supposed to do lossless file trimming.

Like I said, a lot my initial reaction to the footage can be chalked up to viewing 25P video on my 30P/24P monitors. Once that was changed it looked a lot better. I will take the blame for not catching that sooner. I'm rendering out a "final" version and will end will try to send it to you when it finishes. I'm traveling and the WiFi is not up to par for moving big files.

Here's Doug's grade:

https://youtu.be/rFQDd1mqxaw

I very much like it. Lots of contrast and pop without crushing the blacks or blowing the highlights. I need to learn how to do that.

The contrast is a little stronger than I would probably make it, but I can see how Doug's grade would make a great impact to viewers.

Thank you Doug. I really appreciate all the trouble you went to.

Michael, thanks for letting me play with the files. I think you did a nice job flying the drone and the viewer really gets a better feel for the scale of the gorge with the camera moving like that.

I've tried a couple of times to send you the original ProRes files but it craps out every time. A problem on my end. I will try to send them to you later when I am home next week and have better WiFi speeds.

I agree with you completely that a big part of grading is just a matter of taste and everyone doesn't need to agree on what looks best. I might have graded it differently myself if I knew what the gorge looked like in real life. We don't all have to agree on the same flavor of ice cream, as long as it is good ice cream.

It was a learning experience for me as well to work with some Phantom files. I will say that Phantom footage was much harder to work with than Sony's XDCAM, XAVC, or even RAW files. It is not as malleable and it plays back horrendously. I can play back gigantic 16-bit RAW files smooth as butter in Resolve, but the Phantom footage won't play smoothly at all. Also, it took 90 minutes for the five ProRes files to render out, but if the footage had been any of the Sony formats it might have take 5-10 minutes at most.

I will say that Phantom footage was much harder to work with than Sony's XDCAM, XAVC, or even RAW files. It is not as malleable and it plays back horrendously.

I think now that shooting in D-Log may have been a mistake. With only 8 bits of data available, D-Log probably only uses about 7.5 bits. Once graded, there are far too few tones left and the compression artefacts become much more prominent.

I'll experiment with shooting in D-Cinelike, but will have to be careful not to over expose.

WOW Doug what a difference. It looks so vivid. I think I will give resolve a try. Thanks to you and Michael for first off posting the video and then to you for showing us how much better we can all make our videos look. Every day is a learning experience. Bob

I've been playing with Resolve for the last few days and it's actually quite a capable NLE.

But I'm having a similar problem to Doug in that the Mavic footage comes out terribly flickery, and I have my frame rate set right.

I've been using my laptop, but will load Resolve on my editing computer in the next few days.

WOW Doug what a difference.

If you like that, you might like this. Of course the ungraded footage is S-LOG so it has to be graded, but still, I'm always surprised what a difference grading makes and how much color and texture can be pulled out of the footage with very little effort using Resolve. Shot with Sony FS7 and an assortment of Sony e-mount lenses.

Sony PXW-FS7: Before and After Grading - Cape Cod Stock Footage on Vimeo