How to Shoot a Drone Hyperlapse

-- We took a quick trip up HWY 1 in California to show you how to take an awesome hyperlapse with your drone. Join us on location in the following video --

Location Scouting

One of the most important elements in creating a dynamic hyperlapse is finding a subject that has a lot of movement, so we chose our first location because of the nice wave movement and their interaction with the nearby rocks. The same can be said for our second stop at the harbor with movement in the boats and water. Lastly, we stopped at Pleasure Point near Santa Cruz for some shots of surfers, cars and some pedestrians.

Camera Settings

To capture your ideal hyperlapse, you will need to lock in your specific camera settings. Several variables can go into this phase but here is how we set up for our first hyperlapse on the Mavic Air:

• Timed Shot with a 2-second interval
• JPEG image format
• A 16:9 aspect ratio
• Locked white balance at 5500
• Shutter Speed at 1/60th, which required an ND32 filter due to the lighting conditions
• Tap-To-Fly Flight Mode with a speed setting of 2m/h

The set-up for our hyperlapse on the Phantom 4 Pro was:

• Timed Shot with a 5-second interval
• RAW image format
• A 16:9 aspect ratio
• Locked White balance at 5500
• Shutter Speed at 1/60th, which required an ND32 filter due to the lighting conditions
• Waypoint mode with a speed setting of 2m/h

Other key points to consider when setting up for a drone hyperlapse:

• The wind speed at your location, the calmer the better.
• The speed of your subject(s) vs. the speed of your drone. Make sure you are moving at a speed that will allow you to keep your subject(s) in your desired framing
• Your drone's capabilities. During this shoot, we used a DJI Mavic Air and DJI Phantom 4 Pro but the same theory can be applied to other drones.

If you have any specific questions make sure to leave them in the comment section of our YouTube video so we can get those answered.

We will see you on the next adventure!