How to Shoot Motion Blur on Moving Vehicles: Drones + DJI Mavic Mini
Written and Photographed by Nick van Dokkumburg
Artist
I will teach you how to create motion-blurred images from your drones! These motion-blurred images happen when you see the movement of the object with a blurry background, in this case, often a vehicle; car, motorbike, tractor or even a boot! If you’d like to see more of my work, please visit my YouTube!
Gear and Process
To take such a photo you need a slow your shutter speed. If you use a slow shutter speed during the day, the photo will be overexposed so you’ll need an ND filter for to compensate for the light. These filters block light and ensure that you can use a slow shutter speed during broad daylight. The higher the number after the ND designation, the more light it blocks. Use an ND32 in cloudy weather and an ND64 filter in sunny weather to achieve the desired motion blur in your drone pictures. I used my DJI Mavic Mini and SkyReal ND Filters.
Drone Settings
Set the camera to Manual and select the slowest possible shutter speed, so that the image is not overexposed. Use a shutterspeed between 1/8 and 1/2sec. If possible, shoot in RAW photo format, so you have the most editing options in post-process. The longer the shutter speed and the closer you fly to your subject, the more movement the picture will have. The longer the shutter speed, the longer you have to keep the object exactly in the same position/frame, otherwise, the photo won’t be sharp. If the photos don’t look great, you can set a faster shutter speed and fly further away from the object to get used to the process!
Taking the Picture
Explore the flight path in advance to avoid obstacles, traffic signs, trees etc.
Point the drone in the direction facing your subject, and once positioned set your shutterspeed so the exposure is just right and set the ISO to 100.
Start flying along just before the vehicle comes into view so that the vehicle slowly appears on the screen and try to follow at the same speed of the vehicle.
Make sure the vehicle is in the corner of the image and you can see the road where the vehicle is going. Do this as close as possible for more background movement.
The vehicle does not have to drive fast for blurry background, from 15mph and 1/6 shutter speed this already works!
For the perfectly sharp photo, the object must remain in exactly the same position during the shutter, so the drone and vehicle must go exactly the same speed, this is quite difficult and requires a lot of practice.
If you want to take the picture of a specific vehicle, it can work well for a pilot to sit in the passenger seat in the vehicle on a long, empty and straight road on the cruise control, so you have plenty of time and rest for the shots. Here’s an example!
You can take side, front and rear shots of your subject. Taking side and front shots requires extra attention because you cannot see where you are flying! So always fly in Line of Sight.
Tutorial Video
The photos were taken with the DJI Mavic Mini drone, speed ~25mph, Skyreal ND64 filter, 1/6 shutterspeed (0.16sec). Check out this video for a more detailed walkthrough!
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