Drones For Dummies

Chapter 13

Working with Shaky Footage

In This Chapter

Learning camera tricks to minimize shake

Stabilizing your camera with gimbals

Cleaning up your footage with software

One of the hardest parts about watching home videos, aside from reliving childhood memories that are neatly tucked away into the nether regions of your long-term memory, is sitting through the motion-sickness inducing camera work. Maybe you dislike other aspects of home videos, but I’ve always been the first to get nauseated by fast, jerky camera movements. Chances are good that your family didn’t intend to make movies that looked liked they were shot during the “big one” in southern California. It was probably a combination of a lack of technology, know-how, and experience.

When shooting with a drone, you don’t have the benefit of stable ground to keep your video footage from shaking. Drones are flying aircraft that have nothing but aerodynamics to rely on for aerial stability. A soft breeze can make your footage feel like it was shot on the open seas during a hurricane. Even on the stillest of days, the vibration from your drone’s motors can create enough motion to make your video blurry or, in some cases, unwatchable. ...