Alrighty guys!
That video you just saw was shot with the Sandmarc ND polarizer filters on the Mavic
2 Pro.
We're going to talk about why these filters are important and then how to use them in
the video coming up.
Now in this video I use the Sandmarc pro plus filters.
It's a six pack, which is great because it has a polarizer which you can just put on
in normal conditions when you're not gonna want to make the image any darker.
If you're just shooting normal, the polarizer will really make the colors pop out as I'll
explain in this video.
And then you have the ND 4 polarizer all the way up to ND 64 polarizer.
So it gives you those increments 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64.
And it's an ND filter and a polarizer combined in all of those.
So five of these filters are ND filters with a polarizer combined and then you can see
an upper right hand corner there.
That one is just a polarizer.
And they're pretty easy to attach.
I use the Mavic 2 Pro, so I just took off the front end, filter my Mavic 2 Pro.
Then just attach the Sandmarc.
Just put it in the way you would the Mavic 2 Pro if you haven't done it before, you just
got to kind of press in and then turn and it'll come off and vice versa.
The reason I use these filters was because I'm in Vermont, it's the fall foliage is really
coming out and all the leaves are changing.
And I really want to emphasize that.
Normally I like that de-saturated cinematic look.
However, because it's the fall season and all the trees are changing colors?
I really wanted to bring out the colors in the trees.
So give me your focus here.
You're in for a treat because I went to a lot of scenic, just amazingly beautiful locations.
All right, so this first one was on this little farm right here and as you can see I just
put the drone up in the air.
It didn't put on any filter, just the normal Mavic 2 Pro right out of the box the way it
is.
All right, so when I first started shooting, I just go negative to my contrast.
Just something I like to do and it kind of has that de-saturated look and I'm just shooting
normal.
So as you can see, none of the colors are really popping out and it hasn't rained that
much in Vermont this year.
So that's why the colors are a little bit dull for the fall season.
They're not really popping out.
So these polarizer filters are really going to help out a lot with that.
So just shooting normal, you can see it looks good, it looks nice, but it's not really the
look we're going for.
So we're going to have to land the drone and the sun is also going down, so it's going
to be a little more cinematic.
But we're going to add that filter on.
If you want the colors to really pop out, there are really three ways you can do that,
which I'm going to show you in this video.
This is the middle icon, the little circle with a line through it.
That's your contrast.
Raise that up to zero plus one maybe.
Plus two if you really want to pull it up.
To me it looks a little artificial.
And then on the right side, that little square with the shade, that's your saturation, so
you can bump that up as well.
So first let's add a filter and then let's bump up our saturation and see how that looks.
So what I did was I raised my contrast from negative to how I normally shoot all the way
up to zero.
Now as you raise your contrast, the saturation is going to increase as well.
So the more contrast you have, the more saturation, the more vivid tones, and the more the leaves
are going to pop out.
All right, so the colors are going to be a lot more vivid.
As you can see, just shooting zero, zero, zero four my sharpness, my contrast and my
saturation.
So it looks nice, but this isn't the final image.
So we're just making these little adjustments before we get into using all these filters
and why I chose a polarizer.
First one I mentioned that an ND filter alone by itself, which most of these filters are
ND filters, we get the one that's a polarizer.
But the ND filters, the ND part of it really allows you, it makes the image darker, it
doesn't change the color tone.
And it allows you to give you that really smooth footage.
So if I shoot at 24 frames per second, I can use one 50th of a second shutter speed to
give me that nice Hollywood smooth cinematic look.
If I didn't use the ND filter, I'd have to use a higher shutter speed, a faster shutter
speed, and that would make my image look a little choppier or not as smooth, especially
with clouds with water and things like this.
All right, so what I did was I attach an ND polarizer and I put this on.
And as you can see, everything's popping out more, still have the settings the same, but
the image just looks a lot better.
It just everything pops out.
And to me it really fits the scene that I'm shooting.
If it didn't have all these colors, maybe it wouldn't fit quite right.
But with these colors, it really makes it pop out.
And that's the look that I'm going for.
Now the next step is to bring my saturation up.
So I've brought my saturation up two plus two and it looks almost, you know, a little
fake.
You could tell something's going on, but now it looks like the fall colors are really popping
out.
And it's an excellent fall season and looks totally different from the initial shot.
So you can see the two shots, how we started with no filter on.
And you can see with the filter, the ND polarizer filter, the polarizer really makes things
pop out.
And you see the huge difference from just shooting normal.
You may be asking yourself, okay, Brett, why don't you do this in post-production?
Well, one, it saves you a lot of time.
I don't have to do any work.
Now in post-production, it's good, right out of camera.
And number two, drones have small sensors.
It's not like a normal DSLR full frame or crop sensor.
Now if you're using inspired to, it might be a little different, but with anything from
the Mavic two on down or the fandom four on down, you're not going to be able to really
manipulate those colors in post because it's going to degrade the image.
So you're going to get some artifacting and we don't really want to degrade the image.
We want to get the optimized resolution sharpness without any degradation to the image.
When you work in posts, a lot of times you're gonna just degrade the image.
Now if you are shooting at a flat profile, you could do that.
However, it's really hard to get the colors really accurate in the way you want.
So I find these polarized filters after shooting with them for a few days, work really well,
especially with these fall colors.
And I imagine any vibrant color, they're really gonna make stuff pop out.
So this is the kind of look you want.
Then I would highly recommend these filters because it is going to save you a ton of time
so you won't have to do any work in post-production.
And you're going to be able to get the look you want without degrading the image.
I went to a second location where I got to shoot this beautiful lake, a little different
look.
And as you can see all those pine trees, the houses, everything is popping out.
And the lake doesn't kind of look like a lake.
It looks more like an ocean because the polarizer really changes those colors.
And I got there really early and you can see the sun hasn't risen yet, but even in condition
like this where it's really low light, you get that little extra color and the clouds
and it makes all the difference in the image.
It adds a nice little accent to the image with the trees to the right.
It's a really nice look.
The polarizer will give you that.
If I didn't have the polarizer on it would be nice.
But as you can see in the mountains and you can see those fall colors with the sun rising,
the clouds, and it's very subtle.
But it's really nice.
By the way, hope you enjoy this video.
It was below freezing was 28 degrees when I first arrived at this location and this
lake.
Anything to get the shot, but it was definitely worth it.
And also happy to say that my Mavic 2 Pro had no problem in the cold weather.
One small tip, I know I'm not talking about shooting in the cold weather for this video,
but I will add a little professional tip.
If you do shoot in cold weather, make sure you heat the battery.
What I did was I brought some hand warmers to heat my batteries so I wouldn't have any
problem with my drone.
You don't want to fly your drone with cold batteries.
It could damage the battery or it could malfunction and your drone could crash.
So make sure you hit your batteries before taking off in freezing conditions.
Although you really gotta be careful because it is risky flying conditions like this.
But it was worth it to make this video.
Now, one thing that really affects which filter you're going to use is the time of day that
you shoot.
So if you shoot more during the middle of the day, you're going to want to use a higher
ND number.
So an ND 32 or an ND 64.
In the farm shot, I just use the polarizer.
Same thing with that Lake.
I just use a polarizer.
However, this next location I went to the state Capitol in Vermont and as you can see
it looks really great, but it wasn't during sunrise or sunset, it is closer.
I don't know, it was about two or three o'clock in the afternoon.
So what I did was I put an ND 16 and that really made the image made a darker but also
made those leaves pop out.
So I definitely needed that ND 16 polarizers.
So I get that nice smooth footage and could shoot wide open.
Wide open means something like F 2.8 or F 4.0 so you get that nice little shallow depth
of field.
My focus was on the dome.
You can see that gold dome right there.
I really wanted that in focus and everything else seemed to be in focus obviously cause
it's a wide shot.
But as a closer I got everything in the background, got a little more blurry.
You've got some really cool shots with it.
So I think it looked good.
And as you can see that mountain right there, Campbell's hump looks great and the distance
behind all these beautiful colored trees.
And that's because the polarizer really makes the colors pop out.
So that's really nice.
And this last location, I went to this small little Lake here and I drove by and I saw
this little Island and I really liked it.
And as you can see going around, it just really looks nice, especially with the Hills and
the all the different colors.
So I wanted it to go high enough so I could just isolate that Island.
So one shooting tip I like to do.
If you're shooting, I try to think what the money shot is or what's the main thing I'm
trying to focus on.
So for me it was this Island.
Okay.
It wasn't just all the trees and the colors.
Those are nice.
It's a nice background, but it was really the Island.
So I shot with a shallow depth of field f/2.8 to f/4.0.
So I had to use an ND 16 or even an ND 32 to get this really nice shot.
Even though the sun was going down, I wanted to shoot with a low f-stop number.
So this is the image I got.
And here is one last tip.
If you're in the ocean or a lake where the water's moving but you want it to be smoother
and glass, like you have to use an ND, I would say you know, at least 16 but probably a 32
or 64.
And then lower your shutter down to at least one second.
I would say in two seconds to four seconds.
However, if you go to four seconds, like this day, I couldn't go to four seconds because
when I put the shutter at four seconds, the image was blurry because there was too much
wind.
So if there's no wind, you can shoot with the Mavic 2 Pro, I think up to about four
seconds.
I know it goes a little more than that, but I found two to four seconds, maybe five seconds
max.
Anything longer than that, I get a little bit of blurriness in my shot.
So that's just my personal experience using it.
And then the ocean or the Lake or the water, whatever you're shooting will be nice and
smooth and glass like so.
That's one little tip I have.
So make sure you use that.
ND filter comes in real handy and put your aperture down to f/2.8 to f/4 around there
and you'll really isolate that image.
Get that nice smooth look around it.
And it's really something that looks great, I think.
So in this image, all the things are coming together.
You get that the leaves and the colors popping out.
You get the shallow depth of field, the isolation of that Island.
So you get that cinematic look and then the water is nice, silky, and smooth.
All right guys, I hope you enjoyed that video.
If you did, give it thumbs up, and if you know someone that might enjoy or benefit from
it, please share it with them.
And if you want more drone tutorials like this, subscribe to my channel.
I'm Brett Garamella with brettgaramella.com and I'll see you in the next video.