DJI Mini 4 Pro and Air 3 Waypoint Hyperlapse at Night

The Mini 4 Pro and the Air 3 are excellent drones for time lapses and hyperlapses, thanks to the superb hyperlapse Waypoint mode and the long battery life, especially on the Air 3

Shooting hyperlapses at night is not easy, but it is great fun and can produce astonishing results if done correctly. I will show you how to get the best results

Other related articles you may find interesting:

Mini 4 Pro Waypoint Hyperlapse

You can check here the prices for the different configurations of the DJI Mini 4 Pro and DJI Air 3. It is an affiliate link, so I get a small commission in case of purchase

If you prefer to watch this as a video, you will find my YouTube version at the end

Choosing the scene

In hyperlapses, it is crucial to have elements in motion, which are usually vehicles, people walking or clouds. The aircraft’s movement will be an extra dynamic element

For night hyperlapses, the most exciting results are obtained when shooting at dusk, during the blue hour after sunset, with a mixture of natural and artificial light, as the transition of the light adds extra interest

I will use Waypoint Hyperlapse with just two points to simplify the process. The idea is to start with a view of this village at the foothill of Mount Etna in Sicily to get some car traffic and artificial lights

The camera faces the direction of the setting sun. To avoid overexposure I will set the first point with the camera facing down toward the center of the village. For the second point, I will frame Mount Etna

The software will handle the smooth transition between the two points. I hope to get some nice clouds above the mountain and maybe some volcanic action if we are lucky

A great feature of Waypoint Hyperlapse is that it stores each mission in memory. This allows us to perform the same mission at different times or modify the settings to get the best results. It simplifies the setup, thus saving precious battery life

You will find more info about Waypoint Hyperlapse in my specific article

Settings

I will use the Mini 4 Pro, but the technique is identical for both models

The Air 3 has a battery life of 46 minutes versus 34 for the Mini 4 Pro, a big advantage for hyperlapses. There is a special battery for the Mini 4 Pro with the same flying time as the Air 3, but it is sadly unavailable in Europe. I suggest getting one if you are interested in hyperlapses

After setting the two points we must choose the interval in seconds between each photo and the length of the resulting short movie

Interval and Length

The Interval determines the speed of the elements in motion. When the movement comes from people walking or cars I suggest an Interval of two or three seconds. At three seconds the movement will be faster, I will show you the results with both values

Regarding Length, I prefer a final movie of 12 seconds or more. We need at least 300 shots, as the automatic hyperlapse generated by the app has a frequency of 25 fps

300 frames divided by 25 frames per second equals 12 seconds

With an interval of two the shooting process for 300 frames takes 10 minutes, as

300 frames by 2 seconds equals 600 seconds (10 minutes)

With an interval of three seconds, it will take 15 minutes, which is the limit of what we can get with the regular battery of the Mini 4 Pro, considering the time for setting up the shot and returning home

Motion Blur

Another crucial value is the Shutter Speed, to get the correct amount of motion blur. To simplify I suggest setting a shutter speed of 1” for drone hyperlapses, although we can use a slightly shorter shutter speed if needed, up to ¼ second

With such a long shutter speed in most cases, we need a set of ND filters, although in low light conditions, we can do without them

The ISO value can be kept at the minimum value of 100, but we can raise it to 400 if needed without a noticeable loss of quality. We have a bit of room for maneuver

To know more about the importance of motion blur and shutter speed, I suggest watching my specific article about about Time lapses and Hyperlapses

Luminar Neo

For best results, I generally process the individual photos with Luminar Neo, my favorite photo editing program, I then export them to a video editor. But in this video, I will use the movie automatically generated by the app to simplify

Here you find info about Luminar Neo prices with a discount coupon (Vicvideopic). It is an affiliate link, so I get a small commission in case of purchase.

You can watch my specific article about Luminar Neo here

Timing

The transition from sunset to night takes less than an hour here in Sicily, as we are relatively close to the equator. During the 15 minutes of the shooting process, the luminosity decay is massive

In Northern Europe or Canada, the transition takes well over two hours, so the shooting process is much simpler

We must aim for a bright exposure in the first frames, to get enough light toward the end. Choosing the exact moment to start the hyperlapse is crucial for the correct luminosity, starting ten minutes too early or too late can be fatal

The best moment to start is approximately 15 minutes after sunset, right after the street lights are turned on

Since each mission is stored in memory, it is easy to reshoot the same hyperlapse the next day a few minutes earlier or later if needed

Action

Sunset with Interval of Three Seconds

We are ready for action. For this first one, I am shooting at sunset. The sun will be in front of me. This makes things harder, as the decay in luminosity will be higher

I set the first waypoint looking down to the center of the village to avoid the luminosity from the area around the sun. I move backward to the left, lower the elevation, and turn the camera to frame Mount Etna to set the second point

I set the Interval at three seconds and the length at 14 seconds, although I will probably have to stop the shooting a bit earlier as I am wasting some time setting up the shot, while in the next ones, I will be able to use the saved mission

I set the shutter speed at 1” and ISO to 100. From the view on the screen I can see that the first part of the movie might be a touch overexposed, but let’s see what happens

Sunset time is at 16:46 and I press the red starter at 17:05 to start the shooting process. I have to stop after 270 photos for a safe return home, so the movie will be shorter than planned, but it will be easier next time as the mission is now stored in memory

The result is acceptable, but the first part with the street lights is a touch overexposed as expected

I have two options for next time:

I can start a few minutes later

Or start at the same time and use a slightly faster shutter speed to reduce the luminosity

I like the motion blur on the cars, due to the correct shutter speed of 1”, so I will opt for a later starting time

Sunset with Interval of Two Seconds

The next day I chose an Interval of 2” between each photo. With this interval, it is possible to take 450 photos in 15 minutes for a longer movie of 18 seconds. The downside is that cars and clouds will move at a slower speed

At this interval we cannot select a shutter speed of 1” as the program needs some time to buffer each shot. I opt for 1/4 “ which implies slightly less motion blur

The resulting movie is much longer now, so I often use this method with the Mini 4 Pro and the standard battery

The car movement and the motion blur are acceptable, although I prefer the results obtained with the interval of three seconds and shutter speed of one second, so with the Air 3 or the special battery for the Mini 4 Pro I opt for the traditional settings, as I am not limited in the length of the movie

Sunrise

The next morning I decided to try the same thing at sunrise. A sunrise is basically a sunset upside down, so the process is the same, but the luminosity will increase during the shooting instead of decreasing

The sun is now behind the camera. These are more friendly light conditions with less dynamic range so finding the correct starting time should be easier

I keep the same settings as the previous one:

Interval	3″
Length	14″
Shutter Speed	1″
ISO	100

This time I got 330 photos, so the resulting movie will be longer, good!

Something unusual happened, as the drone was drifting unusually during the shooting process, so there is some visible warping even after stabilizing. This is unexpected, as I have done the same hyperlapse several times in the past with the Mini 4 Pro and it never happened

Apart from that I am happy with the result