- In this video, we're going through 30 different mistakes
that you might make with the DJI Mini 3.
So if you're a first time flyer
or you've flown drones before,
there's a ton of information packed into this video.
And I'm not doing this alone.
I've got my buddy, Jake,
came up to Alaska to hang out and fly drones,
and we're gonna go through a bunch of different mistakes
that you're gonna wanna avoid when you're out flying.
All right, let's get into it.
(dramatic music)
(drone buzzes)
Now, before we get started,
I wanna say a special thanks to our sponsor,
which is Wirestock.
And Wirestock is a tool for you to start making money
off your photos, videos, and vector art.
So how it works is that Wirestock distributes your content
to a bunch of different stock agencies.
And so as a creator, all you have to do is worry
about creating awesome looking footage or photos
and then uploading it to the site.
Now, one of the coolest features about using Wirestock
is that they will do all the keywording
and metadata for you.
All you have to do is upload your footage and submit it,
so you can spend less time on the computer doing data entry
and more time out in the field creating.
Now personally, I've been uploading stock footage for years
and Wirestock definitely makes it easy.
You have one dashboard where you can see
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One of the other really cool things about Wirestock
is that they create a portfolio for you
so that you could use that and show your work
to potential clients or anybody
that's interested in buying your stock.
So next time you're out shooting some photos or videos,
think of some different shots that you could use
as stock footage and upload them to Wirestock.
I'll include a link down below in the description
to where you can get started right now.
So the first one we're gonna talk
about getting better looking footage,
and that is not filming jerky movements.
So when you're out flying
and you want to film videos with your drone,
well, you wanna make sure
that you're getting smooth footage.
And what that means is planning out your shots
and making smooth motions with the drone.
So not having it jerk really fast to the left or the right
or flipping the gimble up, because those kind of motions
just aren't gonna look good
when you're editing your videos together.
You want to have smooth footage,
and so really try to focus on learning how to use your drone
and learning how to use the thumb sticks
to be able to move your drone in different ways in the sky
so you can get these moves
that have a much more cinematic quality,
rather than being jerky and amateurish.
- Now, if you're a brand new drone pilot,
it's fine to use auto exposure
as you're learning to fly your drone.
But as soon as you can, it's really important
to learn to use your camera settings properly,
setting your shutter speed and your ISO
where they need to be for the exposure you want.
And a big one, it's especially important to make sure
your white balance is not set on auto white balance
because you'll see the colors shift in your image
as you go from certain situations
to other situations.
One example would be when the sun is out,
and then all of a sudden it goes behind some clouds.
That can cause your drone to do really strange things,
both with the exposure and with the white balance.
So as soon as you can, learn to set your camera settings
so that they're set and locked in
at what you want them to be.
- So one mistake that new pilots will make
is trying to shoot in heavy wind.
Now the Mini 3 can handle some pretty heavy wind.
I've taken it out in some pretty extreme conditions
and it handled just fine.
But the issue is when you're trying to get
good looking footage,
the heavy wind pushes the drone around.
And how the drones works is it uses GPS coordinates
to put itself on the earth,
and so as the wind pushes your drone left or right,
well, it's constantly trying to reorient itself
back to that point.
And so when you have heavy wind
and you have a tiny drone like the Mini 3,
well, your footage is gonna look bouncy and jerky.
And you could can from this footage right here,
it's all over the place.
It can handle the wind just fine,
but it doesn't look that good.
So if you absolutely have to shoot in heavy wind,
you can get a shot, but just know
it's not gonna look that good
and you'll wanna fly with less wind.
- A mistake a lot of us made as new drone pilots
was taking off in dusty environments,
and that's really bad for the drone.
One, all that dust gets in the motors and causes issues,
but it can also cover the camera lens,
which then really kind of ruins any footage you might get.
So an easy way around this is to get a drone landing mat.
It gives you a nice big area to land on and take off from,
but as you get more experience,
you can also do things like learn to hand launch
and hand catch your drone, but that's a little bit advanced,
so I wouldn't start with that.
I'd definitely just start with something like a drone mat
if you plan to fly from places
that have lots of dust or sand or small debris.
- So one big mistake is not updating your home point
as you're moving.
So if you're on something like a boat
and you're drifting away from where you took off from,
well, your home point is gonna be back
at that takeoff location.
How the drone works is that wherever you take off,
it's gonna set a home point on the earth.
And when you move, say you're hiking or you're in a boat
or another vehicle, well, when you use the return to home,
you're gonna want the drone to come back to you,
not to that home point that's way out over there somewhere,
especially if you're over the water.
So what you can do is go into the menu
and there is an update home point feature.
Now, this will set a new home point to wherever the drone is
or wherever the controller is,
and this is something that you can choose
when you're in your menu settings.
So make sure that if you move away
from your initial home point, you reset it in the app
before you hit return to home.
- A big mistake people make is flying sideways
and forgetting that there's no side obstacle avoidance
on this drone.
So you might be out in a place like this,
getting epic shots of yourself, but just remember,
if you're flying sideways,
it's really easy to run into an object.
- And to add onto that, one mistake that pilots will make
will be flying without any sensors.
So if you put it into sport mode,
all of your sensors are gonna turn off automatically.
But you could also turn off your sensors
in the other modes as well, and you might wanna do this
if you're trying to get a shot
where you're flying super close to an object,
because if you're right near an object,
your sensors might stop you from flying by.
So if you're doing like a crazy pass by shot,
which, be cautious, especially if you're a new pilot,
but if you're doing one of these shots,
you'll have to turn off your sensors.
And if you forget to turn them back on,
well, you might run into something.
So just know the limitations of your drone
and know the limitations of your sensors,
and when they're on and when they're off.
Okay, so I'm getting eaten alive by mosquitoes where I'm at.
We're gonna move location.
Jake, we gotta go.
We gotta go.
I'm getting eaten alive. (Jake laughs)
- The next mistake is thinking that the drone is just a toy.
They're really not,
and they can actually do quite a bit of damage.
So especially when you're close to yourself
or close to people you're flying with,
you gotta be careful because those propellers
can do a lot of damage, but it can also do a lot of damage
if there happen to be small aircraft
or helicopters flying by.
It doesn't take much to do a fair amount
of damage on an aircraft, and so you really gotta remember
that when you're flying a drone,
you're not just putting a toy in the air.
You're putting something up there
that can do damage if it goes badly,
and that's just one more reason
why you really need to learn to fly your drone well.
- The next big mistake is flying out of line of sight.
So when you're flying your drone,
you wanna be able to see it up in the sky,
and there's a few reasons.
One, if you're here in the US,
it's actually illegal to fly out of line of sight.
But two, if you're flying so far
that you can't see your drone,
well, there's a chance that you might hit something.
And also, if you're flying too far
with a really low battery, there's a good chance
that the drone's not gonna make it back.
- A mistake that I have made more times
than I care to admit and a lot of other people make
is going out without charging your batteries first.
A lot of times people will charge the batteries
and think that they stay charged,
but most drones actually discharge batteries
after a couple of days.
And that's because it helps the batteries last longer
and make sure that they don't burn themselves out
too soon or prematurely.
And so anytime before you're going out,
like the day before or the night before,
or if you have time in the morning, the morning before,
make sure that your batteries are charged
before you leave to go to a place like this.
Otherwise you might get here and realize
that all your batteries only have 50% charge
and you really can't do as much flying as you're hoping to.
- The next big mistake is flying indoors,
and this is a mistake because a lot of new pilots
will get a drone and they'll be excited.
They wanna take it off, whether it's dark outside
or just bad weather or for some other reason
you can't go outside and fly.
And then when you fly indoors,
well, you're not gonna have as much control.
I mean, for one thing, your GPS is not gonna lock on,
and so the drone, it's gonna drift.
And you have to have GPS locked on
for the drone to be able to stay in place.
And also, you're not gonna know how to use the thumbs sticks
and you're not gonna know how sensitive the controller is,
and so if you're flying indoors right away,
there's a good chance that you're gonna fly it
right into something and destroy the drone.
- I think one of the biggest mistakes that beginners make
and I definitely made is not finding a big open space
that's obstacle-free to fly your first few flights
with the drone.
It's really important to go out
and find a big open field where there's no obstacles,
no power lines, nothing you can run into,
and just get comfortable with flying the drone
doing some really slow, really small
and really basic movements.
- Another big mistake is not understanding your drone
before you take it off and go fly.
You'll wanna know how the controller works,
you'll wanna know what everything is on the drone itself,
and most importantly,
you'll wanna know what to do in the app.
When you first look at the app screen,
there is a ton of information,
and so you'll wanna understand what all of that means
so that when your drone's up in the sky,
you'll know what all the numbers are.
and you'll also wanna know how you change all the settings
to be able to fly it
and to be able to shoot photos and videos.
So if you wanna learn more
about how to use the DJI Mini 3,
well, I have a beginner's guide
that goes through everything,
controller, drone, and everything in the app,
and I'll link to that down below in the description
if that's something that you need
before you take off and start flying.
- Another really big mistake a lot of beginners make
is flying too far away and not realizing
that the wind is blowing against the drone
when it's time to bring it back,
and then running outta battery power
and the drone never makes it back.
So when you take off and when you fly away,
it's really important to know which direction
the wind is blowing so that if you fly a little way away
and you know that you have to come back
against the headwind, you give yourself
a little bit of extra battery.
You gotta remember that it's gonna take
a lot more battery power for that drone to come back
if there's a 10 or 15 or 20 mile an hour wind
that's trying to blow the drone away from you,
that you need to give yourself extra battery
to be able to make sure you can get all the way back.
Otherwise, the drone might end up in a lake or in the forest
or somewhere where you can't get it back.
- Another mistake that new pilots make
is not getting a variety of shots
when you're trying to film footage with your drone.
So what I've seen pilots do is take the drone up,
take it way up in the sky,
and just shoot big landscape shots.
And they're kind of boring.
You don't see a lot of movement.
It's just kind of a drone up in the sky.
It's not that interesting.
When you wanna get better footage with your drone,
you want to think variety.
You want to think different angles
and different perspectives
and use the gimble in different ways.
So get low to the ground or get high and look straight down,
or do an orbit and just think how you can you combine
different movements and how can you use
what's in your landscape to change it up
and get five shots that look completely different,
versus just five big, wide landscape shots
with the drone as high as you can possibly go.
For the next 15 mistakes, head to this guy's channel.
The video's linked right here.
We'll see you over there.