Mavic Pro is a powerful and small drone that helps you capture your ideas with creativity, ease and helps you capture beautiful aerial moments. It is very easy to use with little practice and learning on how to handle as compared to many other drones. It is the best choice to go with for the pilots. This camera of compact size can easily take shots of higher degree complexity with the help of its 24 computing cores giving high performance, 7km transmission system, 5 sensors for vision, etc. It is operated through a command of your thumb or tap of your finger.

Following is a quick guide with easy steps on how to do the initial setting of Mavic Pro and then there is a detailed discussion on the recommended best setting for your DJI Mavic Pro.

Best Recommended Settings for Professional Cinematic Mavic Pro Footage

D-Log settings

The Log video is a unique video that is shot specifically for it to be color graded someday afterward. That is why D-Log mode is mostly used for better editing results. A standard profile can also be used for starters. In Mavic Pro, the camera tries to compress many parts of the image into a specific set of the color range which retains the highlights, suitable shadows, and other colors related information.

To get the camera out of these specific settings, just open the camera settings and look for colors section. Select D-Log option from there.

White Balance settings

It is really necessary to set your camera’s white balance at the most suitable range set possible so that the image looks better. If you working in color mode, never leave the white balance option on auto, in camera settings. If you set it to auto, white balance would start changing every time you point the camera towards a bright light or a dark scene, and it would be really hard to correct it later.

Recommended White Balance value on custom is 5500 to 6000 range set.

Shutter setting

The Shutter settings are usually done through thumb rule in which the shutter is the inverse double of your frame rate. For example, if you are having a frame rate of 30fps then shutter should be of 1/60s. For more less and light exposure, it’s better to keep it much closer with 2x and moving within the range of 1/60s to 1/50s is preferable.

Make sure that you remember that shutter speed is the amount of motion blur introduced to each and every individual frame. At the most light conditions the image will be overexposed at these settings that’s why you need to use ND filters frequently.

They do not only help with the exposure but they also help with jello effect. During a dark cloudy day, you will notice that those filters are not required to achieve a nice exposure and the shutter speed of double your frame rate. The same might be the case for early morning shots. It all depends upon the amount of natural light available. If you like to learn when to use which ND Filter for professional looking footage it´s worth for you to read our ND Filter Guide.

Contrast, Saturation and Sharpness settings

There’s another section in camera named as ‘style’. From here, you can set the contrast level of an image, its saturation and sharpness as well. If you are not using D-Log then make the color lower to -1 but you can leave it to 0 as well. After this, digital sharpness can be set accordingly.

Exposure Settings

Set the exposure as desired and lock it as well because it will prevent your pictures becoming more bright or darker. On more technicalities, it’s better that you set the ISO value manually as low as possible, in order to avoid image noise.

Color settings

Firstly, you would do the color correction as desired. Then you can use any professional video or image editing software for more details like Final Cut Pro X or Adobe Premiere Pro or can use any Plug-in Color Finale for advanced color settings and grading. The preferred color mode is 1 0 1.

Don´t miss our new, well-sorted article about the Best Accessories for Mavic Pro.

Choose the right time

Choose the right time for shooting with appropriate light. Very cloudy and extra bright days are not recommended though. The recommended time for shooting is mornings at sunrise and time during and after sunset. Even though using the right ND filter can produce right effects even when you are shooting during extra sunny days, but it is better to choose the right time.

Professional settings and approaches should be taken if you want your footage to look elegant. If you are a landscape photographer, you will see the changes for yourself when shooting on sunny days and when shooting in the mornings or evenings. Lightly lit mornings and evenings produce a certain magical effect.

Adopting these settings will help you achieve good results.

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