5 Must-Watch YouTube Drone Tutorials

Drone tutorial videos are a must, even for the pros. How do you think they keep their skills so sharp?! Watch these great YouTube videos and learn 5 top tips even if you've been working with drones and video for years. You'd be surprised what you might learn, even if it sounds obvious!

1. Get great using the tools

Level up your reality-distorting hyperlapses with the guys from Mango Street. Here they've posted an advanced tutorial on how to pick a subject, film and edit it in post-production using Lightroom and After Effects. Editing topics covered include stabilisation, frame smoothing using motion blurs and also how to do a controversial JJ Abrams lens-flare to keep the scene looking interesting.

2. Go back-to-basics

Sometimes it's easy to forget that great aerial footage isn't just about that gimmick shot. Long gone are the days where just filming anything high from the air was impressive! Instead, going back to cinematography basics can really give your footage a professional feel. Bart Johnson really seems to know his stuff covering basics such as rule of thirds, light sources, camera angles and shutter speeds. Make sure you give this video a watch.

3. Location, location, location!

This is another Mango Street video but this time about finding and capturing great locations. Some handy tips including using Google Earth to prototype composition before a shoot and taking advantage of the golden hour to get some great shots that are covered in visually-luscious shadows.

4. Camera Control

This video has some great tips on actual drone camera control which is worth watching, especially if you're keen to make something with an epic "Game of Thrones" ice battle scene feel to it.

5. Tell great stories

This video has some good tips on planning your shots ahead of time to get the best out of your drone batteries. Other tips include making sure you have a subject in your landscape shots as this can really enhance the scale and using ND filters on your drone, not just your high-end cameras. Peter also talks about how getting a different angle - such as a critical follow shot can really give your footage power to tell a great story, not to mention a fresh look.

In summary, it's hard to distill everything down to just 5 tips and videos but these are just a handful of the drone tutorial videos on YouTube that are being produced by amazingly-talented people out there. If you know of any that we should be checking out or should feature, please tweet them to us at @windsockapp.

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