so do you really need nd filters for your drone or can you get away with not using them sometimes
and maybe using them other times that's what i want to help you find out today
and learn when you need nd filters and when you don't because there are times you don't
and there are times you definitely will want them
hey if you don't know me my name is jake and i create content here to help solo creators
on the go so i test and review lots of drones cameras lenses places like this give you tips
and tutorials on how to use them so if that's something interests you consider subscribing
today i want to show you when you do need nd filters and when you don't full disclosure free
will did send these filters to me but they're not paying for this video they're not sponsoring this
video in any other way and they get no input into this video before slash in fact they don't even
know i'm making this video but i got to say i've always been a big fan of free well filters i've
purchased a lot of them myself and they make a good quality product at a reasonable price
first we need to talk about why we talk about nd filters so much and the big thing is that you want
to have a natural amount of motion blur in your shots now there are times where you can break
this rule but for the most part to mimic what our eye sees when you see something in fast motion
like if i'm shaking my hand like this you want it to have a certain amount of blur so if you hold
your hand out and you shake it like this you'll see your fingers sort of blur together as it's
moving really fast we want to emulate that with film and with video the way we do that is whatever
frame rate you shoot at so if you're shooting at 24 frames a second or 30 frames a second or
60 frames a second you want to double that and make that your shutter speed so if you shoot
at 24 you'd want one over 48 or you know one over 50 is where most cameras end up
or if you're shooting at 30 frames a second you want to shoot at one over 60 for a shutter speed
and if you shoot at 60 frames a second you want it at 1 over 120. and doing that
doubling the frame rate that you shoot out with your shutter speed gives you the right amount
of motion blur for what our eyes and what our brains are used to seeing that was settled on
a standard a very long time ago because they realized that that's kind of where our brains
end up and what looks natural to us not to say that you can't get away without it but if you do
it looks odd everything looks a little stuttery and a little jittery and just a little bit strange
because we're used to seeing that motion blur so we're trying to do is emulate what our eyes see
how our brain interpret motion how our brains interpret motion as we're seeing things in fast
motion to mimic that natural amount of motion blur that's where nd filters come in because
most drones even the mavic 3 has a limited amount of aperture and even a good camera has a limited
amount of aperture that you can close down and lessen the amount of light coming into the sensor
so the way we do that especially on drones and especially on drones without an aperture
is to use an nd filter because an nd filter acts like sunglasses because holy crap is it bright out
here with the sun out and without sunglasses on but basically if you can see this here
it darkens everything around it it's not that you can't see through it you can but it definitely
darkens it and so we want an nd filter to be able to lower our shutter speed and to keep our shutter
speed where we need to be at two times whatever our frame rate is that's where nd filters come
in and that's why i love variable nd filters because it gives you a fair amount of leeway
without having to change any uh filters out quite a bit but like this set from freewell comes with
an nd4 and e8 and d16 and d32 nd 64 and then some massive like indy 1000 nd 2000 for long exposure
photography and stuff um that between an nd4 and an nd32 is kind of the minimum of what you want
an nd 64 is really nice if you're in places like this where the sun is insanely bright and you've
got white snow everywhere and all that light is bouncing back into the filter or into the sensor
and d64 is is good but for today we're we've been using mostly an nd32 to get away with
what we need to but there are times when you can get away without it first this is when you cannot
you really need to follow the 180 degree shutter rule when you're filming anything in fast motion
as you can see here these shots as i'm you know chasing myself or tracking myself or my my dad uh
on the snow machine we're moving along pretty fast we're moving at a good clip about 20 miles an hour
and you want everything to look natural in motion blur it does a couple of different things one it
makes things look natural to your eye and it also helps to separate your subject from the
surrounding area because everything moving has a little bit of blur to it and your subject remains
nice and sharp as you can see here in this frame when i pause it so when you're filming
anything that has fast motion fast action cars people running anything like that it's really
important to have the proper amount of shutter speed for the frame rate you're shooting because
it gives it what looks like a natural look to our eyes and to our brains as i explained earlier
but there are times when you can break this rule and that's what i want to show you next
so one of the times that you can break the 180 degree shutter rule where there's a couple of
different times one is if you're moving really slow and the stuff that you're filming doesn't
have a lot of fast action to it so for example me setting up out here in the middle of nowhere
and i've got just a really nice orbit going on with the drone at a really slow speed here you're
not really going to notice a difference if it has proper shutter speed or not proper shutter speed
because the motion the movement of the drone is so slow and everything around it is moving so slow
it's not as critical to to make sure you're hitting that 180 degree shutter rule but here
as you can see as we pick up the speed it is it becomes more and more important the faster you go
to have that proper shutter shutter speed compared to the frame rate you're filming so like this
proper shutter speed pause it here you can see that everything looks blurry oh you know
everything that's moving fast looks blurry whereas this improper shutter speed as soon as we pause it
here everything looks sharp and like individual pictures and that's what gives you that jittery
sort of odd feeling because your brain is trying to go well there should be motion blur everything
should look a little blurry as it's moving around but it doesn't so something looks off
but there are other times when you can you know record without worrying about shutter speed and
the biggest time is like if you're just going out to have fun film stuff film your friends
and family out on the beach or maybe in the frozen wilderness uh then and all you're going to do is
post that on social media you want to share that adventure with friends and family don't worry
about the shutter speed just put the drone in auto and film capture the moment that's really what's
important at that time but if you're going to do work for clients people who are paying you to
do work people who demand a certain level of work like tv shows or anything like that it's much more
important that you pay close attention to that shutter speed the 180 degree rule because they
will notice when it's not right now there are some other times where you can break that rule a little
bit and that's when you're going to do some motion tracking or you're going to do some post work with
like vfx then they typically actually want you to shoot at a much higher shutter angle like a
90 degree shutter rule or higher because they want to be able to track everything in there and the
more blurry stuff gets the harder it is for them to track so when you're involved with filming a
shop for vfx or filming a shop for motion tracking something later into that particular location it's
really important that you know that ahead of time so communication is great so that you can
set your shutter speed accordingly and typically when i'm doing that like if i'm filming say at 30
frames a second i'll set my shutter speed at maybe one over 120 or maybe one over 180 or something
like that to make sure i get just a little bit sharper frame every frame looks a little sharper
in the computer software for tracking for the vfx whatever they're going to be doing has a
much easier time and then they can add motion blur after they're done putting in the visual effects
that they want to put in but that's the only other time when you're doing professional work
that you may want to break the 180 degree shutter rule now if you want to learn other ways you can
improve your drone videography and photography click or tap right there i put together a small
playlist i'll see one of those videos as always if you have questions ask me in the comments below
or join my live stream wednesday nights at 4 pm alaska time 8 pm eastern when i'm generally not
out in a location like this freezing my butt off so i'll see you guys soon in the next video cheers