One of the
biggest question new drone owners always asked is, “Why do I need a neutral
density filter (ND filter) for my drone?”
Here is
the short answer, you need it to take nicer looking photographs and video.
Continue reading to learn more.
If you
just recently bought a drone and took your first flight or a few, then you may
have realized that the beautiful footage that you were seeing on your mobile
phone screen or tablet while in flight suddenly looks a little different on
your computer screen.
Some of you highlights may look blown out your shadows
look a little washed out and the worst part of all your colors may not look as
vibrant as they should.
You
probably heard someone suggest while you were buying you drone, that you should
also get yourself some Neutral Density Filter for your drone. (Basically sun
glasses for your drone) here are a few important things you need to know.
What Does a Neutral Density Filter
Do?
A Neutral
Density filter allows you to control the exposure in an image very easily. The
filter stops light reaching the camera sensor, therefore allowing you to leave
the camera with a higher aperture for a longer amount of time and get better
cleaner images.
The
aperture on most drones are fixed meaning you don’t have much flexibility in
making adjustments, this includes the GoPro’s Karma and all of DJI’s drone
cameras. With the exception of the DJI’s Zenmuse X series cameras.
Why you need a lower shutter speed
while shooting.
To capture
a balanced exposure, most cameras need to use a combination of ISO, shutter
speed, and aperture, but with a fixed aperture, the only variables left for
achieving the correct exposures are ISO and shutter speed.
When
filming in bright sunny conditions the camera has no other option than to
increase shutter speed to properly expose a scene, which results in choppy (shaky
looking) footage, or the jello effect, but when you reduce the shutter speed
relative to your frame rate, you can control the appearance of motion blur.
Adding a
neutral density filter will reduce the amount of light that reaches your
camera’s sensor, allowing you to manipulate the shutter speed by using
different strengths, or stops, of neutral density filters.
Here is an
example, on a bright sunny day your camera may just be naturally firing near
1/1600th, at 24 fps. Now if you don’t have the ability to control your
aperture, the only way to get your camera to 1/50th is to use at least a 5-stop
ND filter.
So when the filter reduce at lease 5-stops of
light from reaching the cameras sensor, you force the camera to drop the
shutter speed to 1/50th which is the closest shutter speed you can possibly get
to 1/48th of a second and this allows you to create the smoothest composition
possible with your drone.
Now you
don’t have to worry, ND filters do not affect the color in the photo in any
negative way. What you see is what you get.
Here are a few things a ND
filters help you with.
- Reduce the
amount of light entering the sensor, without changing the original colors.
- Effectively
control the exposure in shooting.
- Create
dynamic photographs/video when shooting landscapes, waterfalls, streams, waves
etc.
- Reducing
the depth of field in bright sunlight.
- Smooth
motion blur to moving objects.
Convinced
you of how important it is yet?
So now you
know when you can’t change the aperture to reduce the amount of light in the
image, you can simply add on a ND filter, then adjust the exposure to the
amount you want, so that you can create some really stunning images.
We have compile
a list of some of the best Filter Kit for DJI and other drone manufactures.
DJI
Inspire 2 Zenmuse X7 / X5S / X5 Filter Kit Amazon HERE
DJI
Inspire 1 / OSMO Filter Kit Amazon HERE
DJI
Phantom 4 Pro Cinema Series Filter Kit Amazon HERE
DJI
Phantom 4 Filter kits Amazon HERE
DJI Mavic
pro Filter kit Amazon HERE
DJI Spark
Filter Kit Amazon HERE
GoPro
Hero6 / Hero5 Filters Kit Amazon HERE
