Note: The films below have a Steadicam Operator listed in the films credits

In addition, listed below are some of the Top Grossing Films of 2018 (Globally) that featured Steadicam Operators:

Emily has partnered with Captain Dave’s Dolphin & Whale Watching Safari to offer you “Droning with Whales & Dolphins”. By signing up, you’ll join an intimate group out on a boat in Dana Point, CA. – Each attendee gets the opportunity to fly and learn from one of the best drone pilots in the industry, while capturing some of the true wonders of the ocean.

Attendees will receive a lesson on why Tiffen Drone Filters are important while photographing/filming over water, with each attendee receiving a Tiffen swag bag for attending.

Learn more and sign up on Emily’s Website:

Next workshops are February 24th, 2019 & March 3rd, 2019

https://www.kaszphotocreative.com/droning-with-the-whales/

Check out Emily’s highlight video from her last workshop!

The main concept behind this production was to create an original commercial for the New York based shoe brand, GREATS. Myself, co-director Delgis Mustafa, and producer Kris Rey-Talley met with the marketing team to discuss the brand’s goals, identity, and bounce ideas around. We landed on The Great Discovery… a tongue in cheek concept about scientists who find the ingredients of the GREATS shoes and brand’s ethos.

What made you go with Tiffen Black Satin Filters?

 I’ve used the Black Satin Filters before for a film over the summer so I was already partial to the look. Our DP Christopher Ripley weighs in, “I like to use really subtle diffusion that blends with the characteristics of the lens rather than overpowering them. The Black Satin blended really nicely with the Cooke anamorphic lenses. We went a little stronger with the 1/2 satin diffusion since it was overcast so there wouldn’t be any huge halation moments from sun hits”.

Were you inspired by anything in particular when creating this production?

We were greatly inspired by each other. Delgis, Kris and I all had interesting ideas. Delgis and I would huddle, pull photos, chat ideas. We’d push and pull thoughts. So much of this was really collaborative, which was an inspiring new experience for me. We’d then pass ideas to Kris and our other producer Brian Miller and tell them “Ok this is how we want to shoot it,” or “this is the idea we have, how do we design it?” Our production team facilitated and contributed to so much of this project. Our production designer, Evan Schafer, is the real scientist here. He ran all over the tristate sourcing unique lab equipment, meticulously designing this world we imagined, and really making this film look it’s best.

What was the most challenging thing you encountered in making this commercial?

There were so many challenges on this production. I’m really fortunate to work alongside so many talented friends and colleagues. I’ve helped them out on their productions, I’ve PAed their sets, and I’ve seen them all do amazing work. For me, the most challenging thing was to take the reins and steer the ship. I have strong opinions, and I also aim to please. My most cherished pleasure is making people happy. In order to make the very best work you also have to stand firm and give your opinions even when it conflicts with another’s idea of what’s best.

The most challenging thing for me was to guide this film the way I wanted. It’s in a beautiful place cinematically, visually, musically. To get there I found I had to push more than I would in my everyday life. We picked that leather apple from the tree at least a dozen times. I didn’t like the way it looked the first handful of takes, there was a blemish on it for a few times after that. We shot the last take and that’s the one that is in the video. That happened with a couple of the other shots also, where I pushed for more and the best one is the last take. Being meticulous or accepting is really easy on my own, I’m only pleasing myself. For others however, I want to present them the absolute best. When the client is watching your every move in Video Village or talent is sweaty in a hazmat suit… you just can’t be concerned with that. Getting the best shot no matter external circumstances is my job and I’m going to be dogged about it.

Filmed on the Arri Alexa Mini, Cooke Anamorphic lenses, and Tiffen Filters.

Directed by: Ryan Struck (http://ryanstruck.com) & Delgis Mustafa
Produced by: Brian Miller & Kris Rey-Talley
Production Company: MNML (http://mnml.tv)
DP: Christopher Ripley
Steadicam Op: Yoshi
Production Design: Evan Schafer
Editors: Tom Akey & Kris Rey-Talley
Colored: Mike Howell / Color Collective

This could be propeller blades in your tracking shot… The all too dreaded “jello effect” where your footage is filled with ripples… Or you are picking up heavy reflections over the water and the sky looks washed out. These are all issues that plague first time drone operators.

I know it can be exciting to get your drone up in the air. However, it can be even more exciting to get that perfect photo or crisp 4K video footage.

This past week, Tiffen launched Drone Filters for the DJI Mavic 2 Pro, DJI Mavic 2 Zoom, DJI Mavic Air & DJI Inspire 2. While we are excited to get these filters in the hands of aerial imagemakers, we wanted to give you a quick breakdown on some of our Frequently Asked Questions.

Why use an ND Filter on a Drone?

On certain drones such as the DJI Mavic Air or DJI Mavic 2 Zoom, the Aperture of the camera is locked at F2.8, meaning the only way successfully maintain proper exposure is to increase your shutter speed. This increase in shutter speed will often time result in what is known as the “jello effect”, or to simply put it, shaky footage. Depending on the angle you are filming at your camera may even pick up the edge of your propeller blades, leaving you with an obstructed view and choppy footage. This footage can be incredibly difficult to edit, even considered unusable.

Newer, Professional level drones, such as the DJI Inspire 2 or DJI Mavic 2 Pro give operators the ability to manually adjust aperture settings, allowing you to achieve cinematic shutter speeds, as well as a more professional look. While these exciting new opportunities for filming at a slower shutter speed broaden one’s potential for image capture, they can also present the challenge of maintaining proper light balance. In order to help combat this potential overexposure of light, a Neutral Density filter can now be placed and regularly used on one’s drone camera.

By using a Neutral Density Filter, a certain amount of light will be blocked from reaching your sensor. By limiting the amount of light that comes in contact with the sensor, you will be able to film at slower shutter speeds, while keeping a lower aperture, helping you to successfully achieve a cinematic look.

What is the recommended shutter speed for filming on a drone?

In cinema, the standard frame rate is 24 frames per second (FPS). The best way to determine your shutter speed is to double your FPS. Most of the new drones on the market give you the ability to film at 24FPS

24FPS – Recommended Shutter Speed 1/50^th of a second

30FPS – Recommended Shutter Speed 1/60^th of a second

60FPS – Recommended Shutter Speed 1/120^th of a second

120FPS – Recommended Shutter Speed 1/240^th of a second

Should I worry about Shutter Speed if I’m primarily capturing Still Images?

Slowing down your shutter speed will allow you to blur movement in the scene, just like landscape photographers do with long exposures. Some drones give you the ability to use “tripod mode”, which hovers the aircraft pretty still. So having a shutter speed of 1/30^th or below can yield some interesting results.

Example of a Long Exposure from a Drone. Image by Tiffen Flight Team member Tony Gardiner

What ND Filter should I use?

When you set your desired frame rate (FPS), you should then try to reach the appropriate recommended shutter speed listed above.

Example.) It is a bright sunny day with only a few clouds in the sky. You would like to film at 24FPS. Your drone’s sensor determined that your recommended shutter speed is 1/1000^th of a second. This shutter speed is too high for cinematic results.

To achieve the cinematic look, you are going to want to add an ND Filter to your drone’s camera lens.

To get down to the recommended shutter speed of 1/50^th of a second, you would want to add a 4 Stop (ND 16) Filter. This will cut the amount of light by 4 stops before reaching the camera’s sensor, allowing you to achieve cinematic settings.

Why use a Polarizer on a drone?

Think of a polarizer as sunglasses for your drone. Polarizing filters provide color and contrast enhancement. Often times, reflected light shows up as whitish glare that washes out the color in an image. A polarizing filter corrects this problem by producing deep, dramatically blue skies, making clouds pop off the background. This filter will also remove glare from non-metallic surfaces, such as windows and water. Color saturation in general, especially outdoors, can also be significantly improved by using polarizing filters.

An ND/PL Combo is the best of both worlds. It allows you to cut the glare and reflections off of water and metallic surfaces, as well as giving you the ability to lower your shutter speed for cinematic results

Photo by Tiffen Flight Team member, Lei Deng

When the shutter speed isn’t an issue you should use a polarizer for more dramatic results.

Tip: Don’t use a Polarizer when flying directly into the direction of the sun, as it will have little effect on contrast enhancement. Polarizers perform best when the sun it is 90 degrees to the side of the lens.

Examples of a Polarizer in use. You can see that the polarizer is able to cut through the glare off the surface of the water, allowing you to see further below the surface.

Aerial views provide a unique perspective on landscapes and cities. With the proliferation of drones there are more opportunities than ever to get out and take photos from above ground. While the image quality from drones has increased, most of the popular drones such as the DJI Mavic Pro 2 and Phantom 4 series, still don’t measure up to what you get from your DSLR. As such, it is important to take a few steps to take better photos. Let’s talk about some tips on how to take and edit drone photos.

Taking Drone Photos:

There are a number of ways to improve the quality of the images that you take with your drone. Some of these are settings within the camera and others are external factors. Here are my top 5 tips to improve how to take drone photos.

• Shoot in RAW. RAW is the uncompressed and unprocessed version of a photograph. A JPEG is a processed and compressed image. You will want that RAW file for when it comes time to edit as it gives greater freedom when post-processing. For DJI drones, head to your “Settings”, click the “Camera Icon”, then “Image Format”, and “RAW”.

• Bracket Photos. Also referred to as AEB (Automatic Exposure Bracketing). The more AEB images you capture in RAW the more varied exposure you can capture without adjusting any other settings of your photos. A 5 Bracket AEB (recommended for drone photography) will take 1 photo at the settings you select and 2 different under exposed images and 2 over exposed images. Note that using the HDR shot function in DJI GO 4 will create a JPEG and thus is not a recommended option as you won’t have the ability to bring out detail in the shadows or highlights like with RAW photos. For DJI drones, head to your “Settings”, click the “Camera Icon”, then “Photos”, “AEB”, and lastly “5”.

• Image Size. 4:3 is the preferred ratio that I use when shooting with my drone as it is a more natural ratio for landscape photographs than 16:9. 4:3 is the native aspect ratio and will allow you to make the most of the photographs that you take. For DJI drones, head to your “Settings”, click the “Camera Icon”, then “Image Size”, then “4:3”.

• Shoot in Manual. Manual mode gives you the most control over your drone and the photos you take. New drones like the DJI Mavic Pro 2 give you the option to control your aperture. My go to starting point for daytime shots is f/8.0, ISO 100, and then adjust the shutter speed accordingly. All of these settings will vary depending on the light and subject that I am shooting.

• Use Filters. Just like when taking photos with your DSLR on the ground, it is imperative to use filters. ND (Neutral Density) and Polarizing filters are critically to controlling the light and glare that exists in a scene. Using filters allow a photographer greater control over their aperture and shutter speed among other things. Lastly, don’t go cheap on your glass! High quality glass and filters will make a difference in your images. I recommend filters by the Tiffen Company – check out their new filters for the DJI Mavic Pro 2 here.

Photo courtesy of Lei Deng (@rockydeng)

Bonus Tip – Photograph early in the morning or late in the day. The light is much softer and you’ll get better results whether the sun is behind you, off to the side, or if you are shooting straight into it.

Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch captured in early morning light.

Editing Drone Photos:

Ok, so you captured that epic shot using the 5 tips above. Now what? Here are my 5 top tips for editing your drone photos.

• Merge Bracketed Photos. For each shot that you took, you have a 5 bracketed exposure thanks to AEB. Merge these together using programs like Lightroom, LR Enfuse, or Aurora HDR. Each program provides a different look and gives you different editing opportunities so it may take some practice to learn which one works best for your style. No matter which program you use, you’ll get a .TIF file that should provide a balanced photograph that you can edit into the image you want to create. Here we have an original single photo along with the bracketed and merged photo.

• Global Adjustments. Adjust your exposure first as necessary. Then lower your highlights and increase your shadows as you see fit. Lastly, hold “option” (Mac) or “alt” (PC) while moving the white and black sliders so you can see where you will begin to lose shadow detail or blow out your highlights. This now should provide you a more property exposed image as well as an image with good contrast. On the left is the original photo and the right is the final edited version (sky and light beam added in Photoshop).

• Sharpen. Sharpening your images is critical to make those edges stand out as you don’t want your image looking soft. Programs like Lightroom have the sharpening tool under the “Detail” tab. Remember, a little goes a long way and you don’t want to over-do it. Zoom in to about 400% and start at about 20. For a quick and easy way to sharpen your images, watch this YouTube Tutorial.

Sharpened Image

• Remove Chromatic Aberrations. Chromatic aberration (CA) occurs in photos and gives you that color fringing around edges in photographs. Lightroom has a checkbox under “Lens Corrections” tab. Don’t finish editing your photographs without checking this box. It may not solve all your CA issues, but it is a good start. If additional CA removal is needed, head into Photoshop for that.

• Cropping/Vignette. While these are two very different features, I am bundling them together here as they can be used to highlight an area of your image. You can crop in to really bring the viewer into your scene. You can also use the vignette tools in Lightroom (“Effects” Tab) to bring the viewers eyes to the middle, or a radial filter to draw create a custom vignette that highlights where you want the viewer to go.

For more photography and editing tips from Adam, head over to his blog or click on over to his YouTube for in-depth tutorials.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I was born and raised in San Diego. I have a video production background and have been a video producer for the past 10 years. I started with teaching video production to middle and high school students, starting with girl scouts and then I was a high school teacher.

I then started working for a TV company producing shows, which led me to jumping over to social media and been in the media space since creating viral videos and social media videos for media companies. Now it’s going on two years since I discovered drones. It wasn’t something I initially picked up until I wanted to hike the Great Wall of China which is when I bought my first drone.

Pictures courtesy of Elena Buenrostro

That brings me to my next question, what got you into drones?

It really started with me trying to find a new perspective with my videos as a video producer. I was always making videos, but it wasn’t until I wanted to hike the Great Wall of China, where I knew I was going to make a video and document my experience, that I started to do some research on how to make this video unique. I did the research and came across a ton of drone footage. I went on YouTube and searched Great Wall of China videos and saw people taking shots in the air and thought “wow I need to do this, and I need to get a drone.”

I immediately started to look into drones I wanted to buy. I bought the Mavic Pro and put that up for a couple of flights and then a week later I was on my way to my trip to the Great Wall. My third or fourth flight ever was actually at the Great Wall of China. From there, I became hooked on what I could capture in the sky. I discovered this new perspective that I wasn’t used to… I was always shooting on the ground and this completely changed everything for me. From there I continued my trip to Thailand and got some great footage in Chiang Mai and some of the Island.

Every time I would go back and review my footage, I just became more and more ecstatic about flying my drone. That caused me to travel a lot more. I came back to the states and did the drive on the California 1 (CA-1) highway, went to Hawaii, and I got the travel bug as a result from buying a drone. It wasn’t until a couple of months after flying my drone and posting on Instagram that I saw an increase in my following.

With that, I had a lot of people reaching out to me on how I got started and what I was flying and if I had any advice. That’s kind of what started me talking to more women and giving them more advice on flying. I saw this huge gap of communication of women in the drone industry after talking with more women.

How did you first start Women Who Drone?

After I went to the Great Wall a lot of women were reaching out to me, mostly photographers and videographers who already followed me or saw the hashtags I was putting up. They were asking me what I was flying, how I got started, and if I had any advice in terms of how they can get started.

From there, someone reached out to me from the Washington Post and she asked if she can feature some of my aerial images on an article she was writing. I like to ask people who reach out to me how they found me, and she said she couldn’t find many women who were flying drones on Instagram.

While that was going on, I was also chatting with a friend of mine in New York and I was telling her about these stories… We both said well there isn’t much of a community for women to meet each other, connect, and talk about drones. I then started doing research on how many women were certified Drone Pilot, and there wasn’t many. I was telling my friend these stories and we thought we should just start a community! So funny enough we were on our way to fly our drones at a roof top BBQ in Brooklyn and we decided that day we were going to start some type of community. We were throwing out names and one of the names we came up with is Women Who Drone, and in the car on the way to the BBQ we looked up the domain and just purchased it.

What was your main driving force to start Women Who Drone? What do you want this evolve into?

Initially we both sort of saw it as an opportunity to create this space where we can connect with other women drone pilots.

It was a very visual world for me flying my drone and capturing these unique images. So, it just started out with an Instagram and using a hashtag that women can relate to. Last year when we started Women Who Drone, 0 people used the hashtag “#womenwhodrone” … Now we have over 11,000 posts tied to that tag!

What really inspired me to grow this and build it as a place to get educated and connect other women was, one: it just did not exist so there was nothing like it and two: I’ve always been an advocate for women. I was part of the ‘Vagina Monologues” when I was in college, I was President of a community-based sorority and I was always in this world of building up women and it was something that was combining my passions. I somehow saw all of these things coming together in Women Who Drone.

Tell us more about your crowdfunding campaign? What is the goal?

We’ve been around for a year and have done quite a bit since we started our partnership with Getty Images where we have created the Women Who Drone collection. It was super exciting because it gives women around the world an opportunity to monetize their aerial content.

We have 50 ambassadors that are contributors to the Women Who Drone Collection and aside from that we also have our ambassadors around the world who you can connect with. So if you are visiting another city, you can learn where you can and cannot fly or just meet up with other women to fly.

Elena (Pictured Left) instructing at one of her workshops

We started our education in January with our one-on-one lessons in Brooklyn, and we decided in March we wanted to take it to another level. We started workshops and those became popular. We did workshops for a dance school in NYC and then we did workshops for women who just wanted to add droning as another skill set. We then noticed other women were reaching out to us asking when we were going to have workshops in other cities. We were then trying to figure out how we can expand these workshops and how we can bring them to other cities and we realized we needed a bit of help of getting the correct drone insurance, marketing these workshops, and training more instructors. Right now, they are traveling workshops, so I’m going myself to the west coast to teach a workshop. We have about 30 women in the US who are becoming teachers for Women Who Drone and they have workshops in their own city that they’ll teach using our curriculum.

This is where we decided we should start a Crowdfunding campaign and expand our education but also create online courses. Whether that’s how to do 3D mapping or how to come up with more creative shots, we wanted to give options. That’s why we launched the campaign and now we’re mid-way through it. We’re getting a lot of support in many different ways not just monetary. Other organizations are reaching out seeing how they can help us and partner and contribute rewards and even providing drones for our workshops. It’s been really great so far and the support we’ve been getting from people all over the world is extraordinary. We have people reaching out to us from the UK offering their certification courses as rewards so it’s really exciting!

So what’s next for you and Women Who Drone?

Expanding education and reaching girls and children at a younger age! We’re actually in the process of working with high schools in New York City. We’re becoming a vendor for the New York City High School district so we can start implementing our curriculum into high schools so that’s really a big stepping stone for us. Another is creating grants and scholarships for women to become more encouraged to apply and take their Part 107 certification test. We have scholarships that go towards their ground school and towards the actual test. This is really the next two big things, homing in on education and at a younger age.

You can check out Elena’s work on her Instagram at @elenabuenrostro as well as follow Women Who Drone @womenwhodrone

You can also check out their story and crowd funding campaign at iFundwomen.com

Phil Moore

Dylan Patrick

Matthew Sowa

Osie Greenway

Mike Kelley

Cheese N Click

You can check out the full article at Shotkit.com

I was really excited to get my hands on the Lowel Go Lite. It’s a really affordable, portable and easy to use, accessory light. While it’s not powerful enough to light an entire landscape, it does work well as an accent light in low light situations.

Scenario 1:  In February, I went out west on a photo trip with a friend to Arizona and Utah. I knew I was going to do be doing a lot of hiking and with a bag already laden down with lots of camera gear, and I definitely didn’t want to bring any extra weight with me. The Go Lite was the easy to carry solution!

without Lowel Go Lite

For this initial image of False Kiva, in Canyonlands National Park, I only used ambient light. While the sky was cloudy all day, our hopes were still high that we might get some magic light once the sun hit the horizon. Thankfully luck was with us! In the below image, you can see that not only has the sky gotten some nice pink color, but the stone circle and roof of the alcove has been lit using a single, remotely positioned Go Lite with it’s tungsten attachment on.

with Lowel Go Lite

Scenario 2: Every year I teach a photo workshop at the Crocodile Bay Resort in Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. We do a lot of macro photography work, both during the day and at night. The rainforest is a great low level lighting situation, where the Go Lite can again come in very handy. I made this first image of a helmet iguana during our initial scouting trip down in November 2017, I didn’t have a Go Lite with me, so I photographed it using just the ambient light. It’s not a bad photograph but there’s nothing that strikes me as very unique about it.

This next image was created 5 months later, during our April photo workshop. In this instance, I held a single GoLite, just above the iguana’s head. Thankfully it was an accommodating and very patient subject! Obviously, it was a different iguana in a different tree but more or less the same ambient lighting situation. You can see how the Go Lite, held overhead, adds a bit of drama to the subject. One of things I like about the Go Lite vs. a standard flash, is that the Go Lite is a continuous light source, which means I can see exactly what I’m effecting as I move my light around the subject.

Here are a few other examples of how we used the Go Lite during our night photo walks in the jungle

Want to learn firsthand how I use the Tiffen and Lowel products in the field? Please join me on one of my upcoming Costa Rica wildlife photo workshops in either April or November 2019.

Click Here to learn more about the Lowel Go Lite

Tell us a little about the concept of this piece… What was the look you were going for?

First of all, this was a very limited film in terms of budget, crew, time and equipment.

It was done by me and the director (Renato Cabral). We rented a car and traveled from LA to Las Vegas to shoot in 6 days.

The first 3 days were used for tech scout which was crucial since the locations were very far from one another and we needed to calculate the logistics, especially to be able to get the best light.

The look the Director and I had spoken about was to have an organic feel to the images; making the most out of the natural light and the locations.

Were you inspired by anything in particular to create this look?

We had a lot of different references that we shared between myself and the director during the preparation process. It wasn’t really one image in particular… but more like mixes of different references to make up our look.

What the references had in common was the organic and natural feel that we wanted for the film.

What was “Dust” Filmed on?

The camera was a RED EPIC DRAGON. We used ATLAS ORION Anamorphic Lenses  as well as a set of COOKE Panchro vintage lenses.

How did you use Tiffen Filters to enhance your vision? 

Having very limited crew, I had to decide on using a really light set. I decide to go with a light Mattebox from Bright Tangerine having only 2 trays for the filters.

I went with using a set of Glimmerglass to break the digital feeling of the images and also to bring it some extra texture. I blended the Glimmerglass filters together with a set of the new Tiffen NATural ND filters to control the bright light.

In addition, I also used some closeup filters for the very tight macro shots. When paired with Anamorphic lenses, the closeup filters allow you to get closer to the subject by increasing the minimum focal distance.

“Dust”

Written and directed by – Renato Cabral
Director of photography – Leo Kawabe
Cast – Zen and Brooke Pascoe 
Soundtrack – Pedro Jaguaribe e Zé Godoy – Carbono Sound Lab 
Color grading – Serginho Pasqualino Jr – Bleach Post
Post production – Rafael Hernandes, Ailton Piuí, Edson Costa, Herique Freitas, Danilo Lirav,
Design – Rafael Monzillo

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Have you produced a shoot with Tiffen Filters? Want to be featured? Email us your story at media@tiffen.com for a chance to be featured!

When I first got into photography, one of the most exciting moments I can remember was being at the top of Haleakala on Maui. It was just around freezing temperatures when we arrived at about 3am. After setting up my camera on a tripod and waiting for a 30 second exposure, the image review popped up. I saw my first shot of the Milky Way on the rear display of my 5D mark III and I was hooked.

Since then I have been in love with astrophotography. So much so that I have a couple of lenses that I really only use to shoot the stars. If I’m home on Oahu and it’s a clear night between March and October, theres a big chance I’m out shooting.

Over the years, I’ve gotten a lot of question about how I edit my Milky Way photos. In this video, I’ll show you step by step how I approach editing these types of shots.

For raw processing, I use either Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom to make the major adjustments. Then I use Adobe Photoshop to add a “look” or “Color Grade” to the shot. My workflow is constantly changing as I learn and pick up different tricks from other photographers, but hopefully you guys can find some value in seeing how I currently do things.

If you want to follow along, you can download the example image HERE.

Here are the plug-ins I use in Photoshop.

– Nik Collection – Free

– Lumenzia – $40

Tiffen Tip! You can use a Tiffen Fog or Double Fog Filter to glow the milky way even more!