Master your first drone: 6 essential activities for amazing results

Hello, perfect stranger, and welcome to the club of the first-timers! In this article we will Review 6 amazing (and totally new for you) activities that will leave you, if not shocked, at least, pretty satisfied. And you can bet that most of the results will finish on your Facebook and instagram accounts. So, please, fasten your seatbelt, charge your batteries and follow me!

But before going straight to the meaty part of the article, I will first remind you that this is pure magic. I don’t know if you are well versed in the arcane arts of the photography but after you grab your first drone, you want to just learn and learn more and more…

And then you start buying courses, lessons, batteries, more drones, learn how to colorize, then buy ND Filters for long exposure photography and videos according to the 180 degrees rule and suddenly, you have a room just full of your toys. And their accessories.

So, listen well. Don’t go with the G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) flows and before you start using all your credit, remember that most of these activities can be made with just your drone. Enjoy every part of the process as you are just enjoying this whole trip.

1. Using your patience to make art: capture your first Timelapse
Difficulty level: Medium

The first time I used my drone to make a Timelapse, the result was good for my eyes, but after comparing it with people who knew their craft I noticed that my Timelapses lack something really important: they were just like every other Timelapse on the interwebs.

And what was that? Personalization.

If you just grab the drone, put the Timelapse mode and let it fly, you will get what everyone gets: a Timelapse.

But what about if you start tweaking the settings? They’re unlocked for a reason. To experiment. So, go ahead and instead of letting your drone take the pics every 2 seconds, choose 3 or 4 seconds. And make it move fast, 2 meters per second, instead of the 0,5 m/s standard-turtle-paced.

Other VERY important thing to get great Timelapse’s are one part of them. Time. If you choose the right time, like 20/30 minutes before sunrise on a clear morning you will get a really nice touch of the blue hour and if your  drone can stand in the air at least 35 minutes, you will get real good footage.

As a last tip for your first Timelapse, you should also turn off the auto settings of the camera, for example if you fly at night try to set your shutter at 1”-2” long exposure shots and 4 seconds between every shot. Then, stop over a street corner with cars moving. You can thank me later.

 2. Make your first orbit shot (or how Hollywood love to show circular reveals)
Difficulty level: Medium

On the old drones, to make a nice orbit shot (that one where you fly around an object looking at it during your whole flight) we had to make a really smooth movement with both sticks at the same time. And it took hours, if not days practicing to get a nice one. Now you can just select “point of interest” and just move the drone to the sides to get it. You can combine with ascending or descending the drone to get an even more dynamic shot.

Remember that most of the accidents occur when you are flying your drone sideways. So be sure to inspect the area surrounding the object you plan to shoot.

3. Feel great helping a Local Business
Difficulty level: Easy

You want to know what feels good? Seeing the face of a person all excited because now they have a really nice Drone Video of their business. And for free. As a gift. Because you are a newbie and want to help other people. Also, will help you create a portfolio for when you are ready to start working on this as a profession. Just be careful with the electricity poles. Remember what they say: “light poles and trees are drones number one predators”

4. Abuse of the incredible cenital view
Difficulty level: Easy

When you start flying your drone the first pic or video you’ll make will be one of your house, you can bet on that. Like the first time you entered google maps.” Look I can see my house from here”, and from then, you fly forward to whatever place you are trying to show, or watch from the air. But what about the straight down angle? If you are a fanatic of the straight lines, and the composition, you are going to be delighted flying looking down. Just be sure you don’t have a building in front of you if you are flying forward and looking down. P.S.: It works even better on video.

5. Ever tried long exposure photography? Now you’ll love it even more
Difficulty level: Medium

Go full manual mode on your drone. In the beginning the long exposure photography will be easier to make during the night, but after you dominate it, you can buy a few ND filters and go “All-in”during the day. To get good manual exposures, fly at night until you find a spot with movement of people, cars, lights. A county fair is perfect. If you don’t have one close to you, you can try with a busy street, stand in one place, check that there is not a lot of wind and turn down the ISO to the lowest value (usually 100), then the shutter speed to half a second, one or two seconds of exposure. And from there on is just practice and more practice. If you get good, you can even try to make sweeps with long exposure where you move the drone in the same direction of the object you are trying to follow… It’s WAY harder, but the results are truly remakable!

6. Don’t crash it.
Difficulty level: Hard

As one wise man said “There are only two types of drone pilots: the ones that crashed and the ones that haven’t crashed… yet”

If you wish a long life for your drone, you have to start practicing the common and boring tasks for when those skills are needed.

You can even install on your phone drone simulators, or on your computer if you want. Of course, you will probably need a different controller, and most drone simulators are for First Person View or FPV Drones, but still, you can give them a shot. For now, I think the most incredible thing you can do with your drone is taking care of him so you can use a lot to create the best of the memories.

What else did you do that was memorable with your first drone that you won’t forget? Let me know in the comments.