Thought I'd better give this drone video malarky a go, instead of just contributing the odd post or two on the forum.

The 12 Pines Island is in Derryclare Lough, part of the Connemara National Park.  Situated in the mid west of Ireland in County Galway.

There is certainly more than 12 pines on the island today, and I can only guess that there was only 12 pines on the island back in the 1820's when the nearby town of Clifden was established.


Video is shot using my Phantom 4 Pro - 4K@48fps, with a polarising filter from PhantomFilters.com.

Video was edited in iMovie.  Constructive criticism more than welcome.  I'd like to get better at this.Not sure what was happening with the colour correction between scenes.  Advice would be welcome!



Music was from the YouTube channel - Audio Library - No Copyright Music.

Easier to Fade (feat. Madi Larson) by A Himitsu [color=var(--yt-endpoint-color)]https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fa-himitsu&redir_token=z3Lw2mBSojLHbCvYA6Bne2C8sXR8MTUxMDI3NjM1NkAxNTEwMTg5OTU2&v=d432TRZEeYw&event=video_description Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0  [color=var(--yt-endpoint-color)]https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=http%3A%2F%2Fcreativecommons.org%2Flicenses%2Fby%2F3.0%2F&redir_token=z3Lw2mBSojLHbCvYA6Bne2C8sXR8MTUxMDI3NjM1NkAxNTEwMTg5OTU2&v=d432TRZEeYw&event=video_description Music promoted by Audio Library [color=var(--yt-endpoint-color)]
[media=x,3840,2160]%5Bmedia=x,1920,1080%5D[/media]

Nice colors! I like the sound track as well. Thanks for sharing!

Nice video Good job!

Beautiful location and great light
Some moves might have been a bit slower.

Aloha Rigger,

     You have a really good eye.  I really liked the opening scenes.  Your Point of Interest around the island could have been done with the POI Intelligent Flight Mode so you could concentrate more on the camera work.  Those flight modes can really help.

     I think the color issue you are referring to is the exposure setting change between straight down and a horizontal camera angle.  The camera angle toward or away from the sun and moving the camera slowly in the tilt can allow more time for the automatic adjustment to take place.

     With videography, slow movements make for smoother video results, especially as you go up to the higher resolutions.  But, hard to get away from that great eye for the shot you have.  As you get better in your camera operator skills, that eye of yours is really going to get you some great shots.

     Looking forward to more!

Aloha and Drone On!

Cetacean Posted at 2017-11-9 01:30
Aloha Rigger,

     You have a really good eye.  I really liked the opening scenes.  Your Point of Interest around the island could have been done with the POI Intelligent Flight Mode so you could concentrate more on the camera work.  Those flight modes can really help.

Thank you Cetacean,

I've tried the POI circles before (on a smaller radius) - and to be honest - I wasn't happy with the results, and felt I got a smoother image by hand.  Saying that - this one was a large radius - and maybe the GPS + computers in the drone could have done better on a radius of this size.  Some wind meant that I was blown off course slightly to the north.

I fly around subsea assets when at work - more so oil platform subsea structures, but those are close in inspections.



Points noted about colour correction, and slow movements.  Hopefully I can improve the next one.

I had to speed some clips up, and slow others down  - simply because I felt the viewer wouldn't want to spend 5 minutes watching the drone circle an islet, and matching some of the music to the scene changes.

Thanks for the positive criticism though (to yourself and others) - I'll put up an HDR photo soon, I took from the ground before using the P4P.

As promised - HDR image of the 12 Pines with the 12 Bens behind.

Edited using Affinity Photo on iMac.

Rigger73 Posted at 2017-11-9 04:23
[view_image]

As promised - HDR image of the 12 Pines with the 12 Bens behind.

Great still. Thanks for posting.

m1shootr Posted at 2017-11-9 06:04
Great still. Thanks for posting.

excellent video Rigger73 that place minds
me of a spot close to Glencoe

Toorboy Posted at 2017-11-9 08:32
excellent video Rigger73 that place minds
me of a spot close to Glencoe

Thanks Toor.  After seeing some of your work - I'll take that as high praise.

I know the place in Glencoe, you are on about I think.

The two islets on Loch Leven, near Ballichulish - at the west end of Glencoe?



Really itching to get the P4P up to those places, next year, that I used to take landscape photos of, including Glens; Coe, Etive, Oichy, Livet, Affric - to name but only a few.

Also looking forward to places like Elgol, Bealach Na Ba, Sligichan, Stac Pollaidh, Canisp, Mull, Ardnamurchan peninsula, Ullapool, Corrieshalloch Gorge, Kylesku, Ledmore Junction, and Ardvreck Castle ruins.

That reminds me - there are even places on the east coast - Findlater Castle and Slains Castle ruins.

Part of me wishes I still lived in Scotland, but there is still plenty to film here in Northern and the Rep of Ireland.

Nice video, and beautiful place to fly and shoot with the drone, thanks for sharing

Gracias Viking.

I'm trying to get more acquainted with iMovie, so I can improve my editing.

Very good job!

Thanks Alabama!

Rigger73 Posted at 2017-11-9 02:38
Thank you Cetacean,

I've tried the POI circles before (on a smaller radius) - and to be honest - I wasn't happy with the results, and felt I got a smoother image by hand.  Saying that - this one was a large radius - and maybe the GPS + computers in the drone could have done better on a radius of this size.  Some wind meant that I was blown off course slightly to the north.

Aloha Rigger,

     A small radius with a POI used as a PAN will be problematic because of the speed of the orbit.  I put my radius to at least 50 feet - 20 meters or so, then I can set the speed at the default of 2.2 mph and get a nice smooth PAN.  

     The best way to check your quality of a PAN orbit is in the Path tracing.  If you are not getting a perfect circle, and I mean a PERFECT circle, then there is something wrong.  I think my P4 had problems with the POI / PAN circle but that may have changed with the updates.  My P4 Pro gives perfect circles and amazing PANS.  No shame, it is my favorite Intelligent Flight Mode.

     Another tool I use for smooth PANs and broad turns is a PAN stick.  If you are interested, I will post a shot of one mounted on a Remote Controller

     So, is that a drone you fly around subsea assets, or are you using a ROV?  Either way it sounds like fun job.

Aloha and Drone On!

Thanks for the tips Cetacean,
I'll try using the orbit mode a bit more in the future.

Flying free-hand obviously lets me pan away when I want to - on a tangent so to speak.


Subsea asset - including pipelines and large hydraulic manifolds - can be located anything  from -20 metres to -3000 metres deep - and our newer vehicles can reach depths of 4000m - so nearly 2 1/2 miles down!

So definitely ROV's (Remotely Operated Vehicles) we use for work - which are tethered, with telemetry being fed to the sub via fibre-optics.

The technology doesn't exist yet for transmitting video and control signals through water yet.

Untethered underwater vehicles are called UAVs - Underwater Autonomous Vehicles.

The difference with these are that they can't do close in inspection like the smaller 'eyeball' ROVS - or carry out work overs on manifolds with Titanium manipulators (Titan T4 = industry standard almost), or visual and pipe-tracker surveys, like the 'work-class ROVs' can.

They can however survey large areas of seabed relatively quickly - One example being looking for the downed Malaysian airliner off the west coast of Australia.

Just a heads up, I should have my next vid - Trim Castle - up by the morning.

Again - comments welcome.