In my tests, I have tried Neat Video, Red Giant DeNoiser II, and Borris FX BCC DeNoise. To really show the speed and capability of some of these plugins, it would be better to use footage that was improperly exposed.īe warned that if you use this plugin with other effects, your computer will most likely come to a grinding halt. In my example, I chose footage that I plan on using in the final project and as a result, I did a decent job at setting the proper exposure. If you really want to see results, use any of these de-noise plugins on shitty footage. But, if you look in the area of the river and pond, you’ll see the de-noised picture doesn’t have that grainy texture. To the untrained eye, you won’t be able to tell the difference.
When thinking of the best “de-noise” plugins, three come to mind: Neat Video, Red Giant, and Borris Complete Continuum (BCC) DeNoise. Given the options, what is the best plugin to remove noise? The fastest way to clean up noisy/grainy footage is to take advantage of third-party plugins. Here’s a look at how I treated some of the edits, from color grading, to removing noise.Īs with GoPro and most action cameras, the Phantom 4 is no different in low-light performance as it resolves a grainy picture that requires a lot of cleanup in post. In this run-down of editing 4K drone footage (mainly cleaning up video noise), I’ll be using Adobe Premiere Pro, because I’m an adult. While editing, I thought that some of the two people that read this blog might find it helpful to understand my process of editing 4K footage from the Phantom 4, as the camera is a bit different than what some are used to.īefore jumping in, take a peak at what I shot early in the first few weeks of owning the drone, mainly at dawn, sunset and dusk: Flaws in exposure will manifest via banding, grainy shadows and noisy mid tones, if you “push” your image too much. If you do not properly expose your image, you will regret it in post.
Given these specs, that isn’t to say you can’t shoot professional footage. An image in a 4:2:0 color space at a 4K resolution, with an 8-bit depth isn’t that flexible, so you really have to nail the exposure in camera (the best way is to optimize the settings and to use the right neutral density filters). In camera-nerd speak, that means your image is really compressed, because of the limited 60 mbs data rate. The Phantom 4 camera has a sensor that can resolve 12 megapixel photos and decent 4K video that records in an 8 bit color space, at data rate of 60 mbs. The Phantom 4 has a decent camera, for a drone. In the thick of editing the footage, I learned the following about DJI’s Phantom 4. In this post, I’ll cover what I’ve learned when it comes to editing as well as compare different ways to manage low-light footage with plugins to remove video noise. I decided to expeditiously produce and edit a piece that featured the best shots of the 200+ flights, but in this case, I define “expeditiously” as a couple weeks to painstakingly cleanup and edit footage. After roughly 200 flights, I have recorded around 500 gigs of footage (mostly shot in 4K) which makes finding a reliable (primarily fast) hard drive important, if you plan to keep your sanity while editing (how and why a proper external/internal hard drive setup is necessary for editing 4K footage is another topic entirely).