- Hey guys, what is going on?
In this video we're talking
the best setting to get cinematic footage
out of the DJI Spark.
It's Christmas Eve.
So, you know what that means.
It's time for another Spark tutorial.
(upbeat music)
- I just realized that I didn't take the tags off
new stuff, ya know, looks fresh.
Actually, this company Hippy Tree
sent me a few things,
like this buffalo hat, and this cool sweatshirt.
I really like their products.
They have a really cool design.
It's like rock surf, good stuff.
I don't know, Hippy Tree, check them out.
But, in this tutorial we're talking about
the best settings for the DJI Spark.
So, that you can get cinematic footage.
I've done tutorials on how you get cinematic footage
out of drones, but this tutorial is specific to
the DJI Spark, and the settings in the menus
that you should set up before you start flying.
So, these are things you need to think about
on the front end, before you go out there and fly.
If you don't have these things set up
and you're going out there getting some cool shots,
you're not necessarily gonna be set up right
so you can get the best shots out of your flight.
Alright, so to do this I'm gonna do a screen recording
on my phone and I'm just gonna show you step by step
all of the different settings
that you need to take note of,
and you need to change to get the best cinematic footage.
Alright, so let's turn on the Spark
and let's get these settings figured out.
I've got my dinosaur and my gumby here to help out.
Give you all something visually interesting to look at.
Okay, so the first thing first.
When we connect our drone, we're ready to go,
we're ready to fly.
Obviously, it says cannot take off here
because I'm sitting inside
and I'm in a class B air space
when I'm outside of this area.
When you go up to the top right corner of the three dots
that's gonna bring up your menu settings.
We first need to fix some of the settings in the menu.
We're basically gonna set up the Spark
so that it is in the best position
to ge awesome cinematic footage.
In the first menu you're gonna wanna go down
and you're gonna wanna set your home point.
Just so that if you end up losing a connection,
which it does happen with the Spark,
that the spark will return home.
So, on the screen you have two settings
to set this home point manually.
The first one is basically where ever the drone
is when the GPS connects.
Then it will automatically set the home point right there.
If you want to manually set the home point
some where different than where that is,
then you use the second button.
It records the home point to where you are at
with the controller.
Now with this, if you are on a moving object like say a boat
it doesn't continually track you
and go back to where you're at.
So, there's no fail safe when you're on a moving object
because your Spark might go back
to where the home point was recorded in the water.
So, if you're flying some where like a boat,
it's always a good idea to fly from the shore
versus on the boat it self,
because you may lose your drone.
Alright, then also set your return to home
at current altitude
or return to home at a specific altitude.
So, I found that 30 works great for me.
That's kind of the default.
I haven't had an issue with that.
Basically, what that does is if you lose connection
it's gonna fly up to 30 meters
and then fly back at that hight.
Depending on where you're flying
you might want to adjust this
or it will return home at current altitude.
That means where ever it's at
it's just gonna turn around and go back.
You've gotta pick depending on what your situation is.
I know the settings aren't for cinematic footage
but those are very important
and something that you need to set
before you start flying every time.
Individual navigation settings
you want to enable backward flying.
Because, to get cinematic footage you want to fly backwards.
I enable obstacle avoidance just because
if it is gonna hit an object
you don't want to lose your Spark
by crashing into something.
There's only some situations where I'll turn this off.
Usually to get cinematic footage you can leave this on.
Unless, you're flying really close to objects.
Then you might want to turn it off.
Just keep that in mind.
Alright, so now let's go to our customization buttons.
You're gonna wanna do your top button
as the camera forward down.
That's important because of our gimbal settings
that we're gonna set in one second.
Make sure that's set up because you wanna be able
to flip From straight on to straight down
with a flick of a button.
You don't wanna have to wait for the gimbal to go
because we're gonna slow down the speed of the gimbal.
Then, on my other customizable I usually
just toggle the map in live view.
Just so I can have that quick and accessible.
The last setting in this menu setup is the gimbal.
Your gimbal is gonna be set at a much faster speed.
So, what that means is when you push the gimbal wheel
it's gonna move at the speed that you set here.
So at about a 46 you see how fast that's going.
Versus one, it goes really slow like butter.
You can see Gumby in the background moving very slowly.
You're gonna wanna set this at a speed
where you can use it to get some awesome cinematic footage.
But also, not too slow.
So, personally I keep it around ten, eleven.
That's pretty fast,
but the beauty is this wheel is pressure sensitive.
So, if you only do the wheel at half
it's gonna go half the speed of eleven.
Because of that, I think that's a great speed.
If I need to go faster I can get there
without having to wait forever.
Now that you have set up customizable button
on your controller,
you can hit it and it will just flip the camera down,
and back up.
So, that you can easily go straight down
or straight up,
so that it's quicker to get to the shot that you want to get
instead of waiting for the gimbal to get there.
Awesome stuff right?
So, that's all those camera settings.
Now let's go to the actual camera settings menu,
which is the three lines with the dots.
First things first,
you're always gonna want to shoot manual
to get cinematic footage.
So, manual base clear allows you
to set your eyes on your shutter.
Before we start setting this
what you're gonna wanna pull up on screen
go to the gear, turn on your histogram,
and put it some where you can see it.
Your histogram is all your light values
from zero to one hundred.
So, zero is black, one hundred is over exposed.
So, you're gonna use a mix of your ISO
and your shutter speed
to get that curve to sit some where in the middle.
Because, that's gonna be the prettiest footage
when you get ready to edit.
The Spark has a baked in look,
so you can't shoot super fly it.
You're gonna wanna get this spot on.
You're not gonna wanna over expose like this
and not be able to recover the highlights.
On the flip side you're not gonna wanna
let it get so dark that you can't bring it up
and get a really noisy image.
So, the key is finding the happy medium
where the curve is some where in the middle.
You're gonna be adjusting this as you fly
in different lighting scenarios.
When you have it on manual it's not gonna be flickering
and going all over the place
because of different light that hit the sensor.
So, you're gonna learn to shoot manually.
That is the best way to get cinematic footage
and get stuff that looks really awesome.
So, we're in the gear icon.
You've got your histogram is already on.
We already set that.
The next thing you wanna do is go to your white balance.
Make sure you select the white balance
that makes sense for where you're shooting.
So, you can do sunny if it's a bright sunny day.
Cloudy, if it's cloudy,
or you go into custom and dial it in
based on what looks best.
So, you just kind of play with this
and find the settings that work best for you.
Play with the sunny, cloudy,
most of the time you're probably gonna be shooting
in sunny or cloudy on all your work.
The reason you don't wanna use auto,
with drones you're flying through the air
and you're seeing different things in your scene.
Your sensors are gonna react differently.
Your footage is gonna be going from orange to blue
and you'll see the shift when you start editing.
It looks horrible.
So, to get cinematic footage you have to dial in
your white balance.
So, you have to keep it just like
the manual settings for your exposure.
You wanna do manual for white balance.
I plan to do sunny day and I'm gonna turn on sunny,
and that will be great.
Last thing I do in here is turn on my grid lines.
Why do you do that?
So, you can use the rule of thirds when you fly.
You're gonna wanna have your horizon at the bottom third,
the upper third,
or like a subject in one of the four intersections
of the thirds.
So, just like Gumby right here,
he is now at a third.
Bye Mr. Dinosaur.
So, now your composition has more visual interest
because you're playing in the thirds,
versus putting Gumby right in the middle.
That's not as interesting
if you're trying to get cinematic footage.
The grid allows you to see the thirds.
It just makes it very easy to put the horizon
and different objects in the frame,
on those dissecting lines,
so that you can always get awesome cinematic footage.
Okay, now that your drone is set up
you go out, you start flying,
you get some awesome cinematic footage.
I've got another video on ten tips for cinematic footage
out of the DJI Spark.
I've also got a ton of other,
just cinematic footage related tutorials on our channels.
So, I'll link those in the description
so you can check' em out.
Guys if you're interested in any other topics
about the Spark,
please let me know.
You're now set up with the best settings possible
to go out there and get the best cinematic looking footage
you can out of the Spark.
The Spark is very limited compared to other drones.
You only have one color profile.
You don't have a lot of extra settings in the menu.
However, the quality of the footage you're getting
out of the spark is pretty awesome.
I mean, it's an awesome package
that you can get this quality of footage
out of this little, tiny drone.
So, don't worry that you don't have log.
Don't worry that you don't have some of these extra features
that bigger drones have.
Because, at the end of the day,
it doesn't matter the camera that you're shooting on,
it's the way in which you shoot the camera
to get the best cinematic footage.
I guarantee you that if you take someone
and give them a Spark,
and have them fly it, and they're very talented,
and they're very good at getting cinematic footage ...
Then you give like a newbie a Phantom Four,
the Spark footage is gonna look way better.
Even though the Phantom Four can shoot better
resolution and a better codex,
so you can really colorgate it.
If you don't know what you're doing with the drone.
If you don't know how to fly to get the cinematic shots
then the footage is gonna look like crap anyways.
The quality, and the resolution, and all of those things,
the log, the raw, all of that doesn't matter.
Unless, you can actually shoot in a cinematic style.
So, really honing your craft, really work on
getting those fluid shots, not being jerky,
finding new ways to tell your story,
because that's what cinematic footage is all about.
Alright, you guys if you like this video
please hit that subscribe button.
If you're celebrating Christmas, Merry Christmas.
If you're not celebrating Christmas,
then happy holidays.
Guys we've got a lot of awesome content
coming out on this channel.
If you haven't already,
go on over to Instagram
check us out @wonderworks.
And guys have fun, be safe flying your Spark.
It is a lot of fun
and you can get some awesome awesome footage.
Guys, I will see you on the next one.
I should probably go cut this off now.