2 man flying techniques

kloner

kloner

Aerial DP
So i'm thrusting into 2 man camera ships and seeing some differences in technique and am curious how you guys do it. is it generaly easier to never yaw and just fly fore/back/ side and let the camera guy sort it out? I'm totaly used to doing everything one man style, no 360, etc. My Camera guy is pretty new and can learn however i make him, what do you guys do?
 

DucktileMedia

DucktileMedia

Drone Enthusiast
One of the hardest things to do is to let the camera guy do the yaw. In your Jet shoot, you would have just flown up and over and to the right, he would take care of the rest. Orientation can get weird at distances since the gimbal is spinning around not in your control. So what I do is added a few yellow balls that help me focus on the heli and NOT the gimbal. Do not ever look at the gimbal. Forget it's there. I tell my camera operator if I have an oh **** moment to hold or center the gimbal for landing. especially on the XY8, it is nice to have the gimbal centered forward or backward when landing and not on the side. Some locations have been on a dirt hill and not dead flat so this helps. One nice thing about the XY8 too is that there are only 4 arms which makes seeing the parallax of front to rear arms a lot easier than with an octo. Planning your shots is key. But in general, yes, the pilots job is usually to just fly straight,left,right and back. But now you can frame the shot so much better. My biggest bit of advice is "less is more." Since the camera op likes to feel like they are doing something they can tend to over do the movements. often they dont have to anything but maybe a little tilt. Make that REALLY clear or it will ruin the shot. Shooting a moving subject is where the cam op gets to show their stuff. but for static objects the cam op is just there to guide the camera. Slow their controls down to the max if you dont need fast movements. Set your D/R to go to 10% travel and 40% expo. then set the other D/R for doing more active shots. At least thats how I do it.
 

kloner

kloner

Aerial DP
I can't wait to get on some real projects with it. The way i can fly when i don't gotta worry about the cam is so much easier. This thing has this crazy battery back setup on top that you can see the wires always, i orient off the and keeps my eyes up. i remembered you telling about it. Now that it has WK and it's dialed it got really really easy to fly. Looks like a rig i built the way it's floating

Think were pretty much setup like that. Practice, Practice, Practice. Weird when your not just counting on yourself to get the shot.

Were almost ready for the show, wait till you see the places that have lined this thing up. My boss' wife has some of the craziest connections in the industry i've ever seen. She must be hot, hahaha
 



Benjamin Rowland

Benjamin Rowland

Member
kloner said:
i heard this one does, hoverfly gimbal?

Your the pilot Ben?
Click to expand...

Yup. I'm the pilot. Most of the popular systems offer the ability to keep the gimbal pointed in a direction despite the rotation of the copter (only panning when the camera operator wants it to). Hoverfly Gimbal, Radian, Skyline - I'm pretty sure all three offer it. I haven't really used that feature though, but plan to check it out more in the future. There have been a few situations where it would have nice if I could yaw and not effect the direction of the gimbal.
 


DucktileMedia

DucktileMedia

Drone Enthusiast
Actually, Ben's videos are a great example of simple is better. I showed my cam op some of his shots and how simple but smooth they are. I had a friend that wanted to do all sorts of S bends around a statue and I was just thinking this is gonna turn out like crap. Good communication is key. Some other tips are to look for objects in the foreground/background for parallax. The best shots are ones where you get really close to things and then they reveal something else after they move out of frame. I.E. you follow the side of the jet so no one knows it is in a museum until you back out and reveal those people on the walkway and the rest of the environment. But what do i know. :)
 


jfro

jfro

Aerial Fun
+1 on Irisaerial's comments about simple is better. Ben's smooth moves and framing is hard to beat IMO.
 

T

tahoelight

Member
Pilot flies to keep small smooth movements. Camera op controls all 3 axis. I have d/r turned way down and expo at like 10% as well. Even the high paced shoots like the one I am on right now can handle a slow moving gimbal. We tried flying yesterday where I was flying and responsible for panning. (Because an issue popped up on our Skyline) basically, is does not work since I was not seeing what the camera was seeing. A 3 axis mount for video makes life so much easier!
 

W

wearypanda

Member
tahoelight said:
Pilot flies to keep small smooth movements. Camera op controls all 3 axis.
Click to expand...

I am new to two man operation, so please excuse my numpty question. I do not understand why the camera operator would need to be able to all control 3 axis. Surely all they need to be able to move is tilt and yaw? Why would they ever need to control roll if the gimbal is keeping this level? I am sure I am missing something here but I would appreciate some help in understanding this.
 


kloner

kloner

Aerial DP
speaking of that, whats the best solution for focusing a 7d? this thing got some crazy servo to do it, but it went into not centered mode and is 360 degree so it's kinda weird. is there a better way?
 

A

andrewrob

Member
kloner said:
speaking of that, whats the best solution for focusing a 7d? this thing got some crazy servo to do it, but it went into not centered mode and is 360 degree so it's kinda weird. is there a better way?
Click to expand...

Have you ever looked at the cam remote 2a Pro from VP Systems? I bought one to work with my 550D for £100.
It can control ISO, shutter speed, aperture, focus, shutter release and record on/off.
You just need two spare channels to plug it in. Wouldn't use mine without it now!

Manufacturer support is fantastic too, I bought mine about a year ago and noticed that the ISO feature was labelled as "coming soon" so emailed the company to ask when they would be releasing the feature as I was really interested in having ISO control and he emailed me back at within 5 minutes (at 10pm!) to ask what kind of camera I was using. 10 minutes later he sent me through a custom firmware for it to work with my camera straight away, amazing customer service!

Let me know if you want anymore info
 

kloner

kloner

Aerial DP
we have something like that. it's red, ir light thing, but it was all over the place, working not working

This things a pain in the butt, trick crap with trick problems
 

A

andrewrob

Member
kloner said:
we have something like that. it's red, ir light thing, but it was all over the place, working not working

This things a pain in the butt, trick crap with trick problems
Click to expand...

Ah this one plugs in through the cameras mini USB port, never had a problem with it.
 



matwelli

matwelli

Member
interesting thread, one of my boys loves filming/photography (does alot of my youtube fiming now - he was given the "big balls" award on the OP forum, as he dosent flinch when i am flying nearby and he just concentrates on the shot) , an i want to photograph all of the region i live in.

thinking of one camera on the rig that points ahead, that i can tilt, and a second one, on a 3 axis that he controls, with a vid feed back.

that way i can concentrate on flying, and he can take care of the shot, plus i still get to capture any thing interesting with the fixed cam

very interested to hear how to set up the second control, and would "continuous servos" work better, rather than just removing the springs on the control stick

or do i do a two servo stabilised platform (by the FC) and then a 2 axis gimbal to that that is entirely controlled by the second transmitter, run its own battery so it can infinite 360 yaw ?
 
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