Vermont is known for its spectacular Fall foliage. If you have lived here a while you know that there is a 24-48 hour period when the leaves at are their absolute peak color. After that they begin to become a uniform golden or brown while the rain and wind takes its toll on the trees.

If we are lucky (and we generally seem to be) that brief period will be greeted with sun and blue skies. Such was the case the last two days. I ran all over the southern part of the state for the last two days filming, dumping video onto my computer and waiting for my two batteries to recharge. Undeterred by DJI's software problems, I persevered through no video and heart stopping loss of signal issues.

Here is the final effort for your review and comments. Crank the volume if you have a good set of speakers or sound system.

Oh and these colors are right from the camera shot on LOG. The only correction I made was to bring down the blacks a little.

Thank you.

Beautiful fall colors!  Very Nice.

Sir Edward K Posted at 2015-10-17 10:30
Beautiful fall colors!  Very Nice.

Thanks for watching!

Very nice. Those P3s work great.

Very Nice.  I am hoping to get my P3 up in the air this weekend to get some video of the VT Fall Foliage before it is all gone.  I'll be probably a bit north of you and won't get the same brilliant colors unfortunately but the colors are still pretty nice up here (around Killington)

Again, Beautiful Video.

lignow Posted at 2015-10-17 10:55
Very nice. Those P3s work great.

Thank you.

This was shot with P3A. Just about the same in terms of knowing what to do with the camera, but I couldn't have achieved the distance with a Standard.

Specboy Posted at 2015-10-17 11:30
Very Nice.  I am hoping to get my P3 up in the air this weekend to get some video of the VT Fall Fol ...

Thank you.

It was interesting to see how the colors on the first day of shooting went from peak in the morning to just past peak by sunset. It goes so fast. I went 20 miles south to Bennington yesterday and it was still really good there.

Your cinematography is excellent....wish I had that kind of talent.  Beautiful colors and great video.

Flight Raptor Posted at 2015-10-17 12:26
Your cinematography is excellent....wish I had that kind of talent.  Beautiful colors and great vide ...

Thank you very much.

This is first and foremost a camera for me. It just happens to be in the sky. I am still learning on how to translate what I see in my mind with how to get it on the SD card. There is so much going on when flying the Phantom (as easy as it is) that it is going to take some time. These shots were taken at about 70 flight mark.  

Looks great. To bad you used Auto Exposure and no ND filter. Correct me if I´m wrong please.

Very nice job!  I always enjoy videos such as yours.  Vermont is a very pretty state!

Swedrone Posted at 2015-10-17 19:41
Looks great. To bad you used Auto Exposure and no ND filter. Correct me if I´m wrong please.

Thank you. And Thank you for your comment.

Why is it too bad? Just because some say that a blur effect is desirable does not make it always right.

There seems to be quite a preoccupation with ND filters and their use.

In fact I did use a ND filter just to keep the shutter speed down. I did not want to go full manual as I wanted even exposure during changing light conditions based on the aircraft position. I chose even exposure over motion blur. Would I like that cinematic effect? Yes, mostly. Do I want some video to be overly dark and some blown out at the expense of a consistent shutter speed? No. Sure, I can change the exposure as I fly but then I am changing the shutter speed defeating the purpose of shooting at twice the frame rate. With only 18 minutes of flight time I don't have time to bring it back from a few thousand feet out and several hundred feet in the air to keep messing with filters.

I will hopefully begin to experiment more with getting good exposure and that cinematic effect going full manual with filters. However, as I stated, the time of peak colors is very fleeting. I went out today to get some more footage, but shot nothing. It's basically over with most of the reds gone, bare trees and leaves on the ground...and it started to snow.

I think it's still a pretty good effort without that blur and in some cases I prefer the sharpness. Certainly it is far from perfect and I still have a long way to go before I am really satisfied with my results. All basically a matter of personal preference. Call me a non-conformist.

bill@northwoods Posted at 2015-10-17 20:17
Very nice job!  I always enjoy videos such as yours.  Vermont is a very pretty state!

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

aopisa Posted at 2015-10-18 04:35
Thank you. And Thank you for your comment.

Why is it too bad? Just because some say that a blur ef ...

I used the AE many times, problem is the light metering is measured in the center and that could create a problem when paning between light and dark areas since the lag in the function. On the other hand going all manual is also difficult when you need to adjust exposure when flying into the sun or away from it. Creates more work but in the end I think it's wort it. Whan kind of ND did you use, and what was the shutter speeds roughly if I may ask?

Swedrone Posted at 2015-10-18 05:05
I used the AE many times, problem is the light metering is measured in the center and that could c ...

I agree with the trade off between AE and Manual. And yes, it is probably worth it in the long run. I am a professional photographer so I have a very good understanding of all of this. However, I am new to piloting an RC aircraft. There is still enough of a learning curve for me keeping track of the aircraft and the various readouts, battery level, satellites, compass MOD, speed, distance, altitude, camera angle, etc.. That keeps me busy enough. It's a miracle I can get any decent footage to piece together a video like this.

Since I find the camera to be fairly capable of giving relatively good exposure on its own, it's one less thing to worry about.

I do want to get better at using ND filters for their intended purposes and will continue to do so in the future. It was just that the timing was critical with the trees and I did not want to return with too much unusable video due to not having enough experience with ND filters on this platform. Today many of the trees and mountains seen in video are already bare.

I used an ND 8 since it seemed sort of middle ground for the lighting. While I was not constantly watching shutter speed, I usually check it once I get up in the air. I recall that it was at around 1/120-1/60 at ISO 100. I was just trying to keep the AE from using a super high shutter speed.

This is all just generally speaking since this video was made over two days in about 5 locations from early morning to just before sundown.

aopisa Posted at 2015-10-18 21:20
I agree with the trade off between AE and Manual. And yes, it is probably worth it in the long run ...

Ok you flew in the "golden hour" thats the best time. I think you did great, don't take my input as critisism. Sure it's a capable camera. I come from a 5D3 with all L primes background and comparing to that quality is almost rediculous. But the drone costs less then one of my lenses...so quiet impressed by the value for money.

Lovely footage and colour exposure! It's great when solid photographic experience is applied to video capture! Well done!

Thanks for sharing...very nicely done!

Phuglie Posted at 2015-10-19 14:06
Lovely footage and colour exposure! It's great when solid photographic experience is applied to vide ...

That's exactly the point for me! I may not always achieve it, but that is the goal. Thnk you for the kind words.

Jay_Bit Posted at 2015-10-19 19:44
Thanks for sharing...very nicely done!

Thanks for watching!

Great looking video and a gorgeous area.  May I ask what the settings were as far as sharpness/contrast and what your color profile is?  I'm in the learning phase as I've just received my p3

Nature wonder... beautiful.....

Jogle Posted at 2015-10-19 21:59
Great looking video and a gorgeous area.  May I ask what the settings were as far as sharpness/contr ...

Thank you.

Here are my settings as far as I can recall:

ND 8 filter
Auto Exposure
16:9
1080p 30fps
Custom white balance set to 5400k
Color profile LOG
Sharpness, contrast, saturation set to -1

I edited the footage in FCPX. I only brought the blacks down and did some very minor exposure corrections where needed.

nabesarawak Posted at 2015-10-19 21:59
Nature wonder... beautiful.....

Thank you.

3:18 is my favorite shot,

great flying!

ksunsingh Posted at 2015-10-22 12:50
3:18 is my favorite shot,

great flying!

Thank you. I am still learning. That is one of my favorite scenes too. I think my favorite is the little lone tree at 1:50.