how to film baloons rising during wedding

[SkySmurf]

hi folks,

i will use my new phantom 4p during a wedding of our friends.
i would like to film when all the guests let baloons with best wishes cards fly.
my idea is to start a couple meters in front and above the crowd and then ascend with the baloons that it will look like you are flying with the baloons.
i will position the p4 with the wind in the back so that the baloons will drift away from it and i can follow. active tracking is not working with baloons, or at least not with the ones i checked, standard size.

any tricks, tips how to do it best? what distance would you keep?

thanks a lot

skysmurf

 

[KevMo Photog]

Sounds like a cool shot SkySmurf! As soon as you can I would try to smoothly yaw back toward and pan down back at the couple and the crowd if possible. Maybe even orbit some if possible as you are moving out and up from the scene. Of course main thing is to not get over the crowd at all.

 

[SkySmurf]

hi kevmo
to do orbiting (ascend while looking down?) at the end could be a nice finish for the shot. it also depends if the baloons stay more like in cluster or just scatter all over the place....

skysmurf

 

[KevMo Photog]

By orbit I mean you are banking the bird left or right and yawing with rudder or left stick to keep subject in view. It's kind of like screwing around your subject. So if you bank left with the right stick, you would right yaw with the left stick. And the opposite if you were banking right with the right stick, you would yaw left with your left stick. It's great practice just to do this around some kind of object for a good while. Then you remember those stick movements when it's game time! And then you also have the ascend shot and pull back at same time so you go up at an angle. Plus you can add the slow pan up camera with your left scroll wheel to help keep subjects in shot as your out and up at an angle.

 

[SkySmurf]

ok, understood. should work if there is only little or no wind.
if there is wind i would be afraid to cause a baloon 'massacre' and or get the leftovers tied around the props of my copter....

skysmurf

 

[rebal1oo]

Here is a short video I did with balloons. I, like you, had the wind behind the drone. I should have started directly behind the balloons but I didn't want to disturb the prayer and the mood of the family and friends even though they knew what was going to happen and I had permission from them to film. This was shot by my Phantom 3 Pro.

 

[SkySmurf]

thank you for posting the video. I can fully understand that you kept the distance.
I will go for the same type of move, but can get closer as the wedding couple is excited about drone baloon thing and the buzzing noise will not be disturbing that much

thx

skysmurf