What am I doing wrong with my drone for Shutterstock?

[Droning in AR]

Hey all, I have a P3S and a Mavic pro, and I'm trying to upload video clips to Shutterstock, and ALL OF THEM have been rejected. We upload through Filezilla which they recommend.

I have read in detail all of the reasons for our being rejected, which is either:


#1. Noise / Artifacts / Pixelation: Clip contains excessive noise, compression artifacts, pixelation and/or banding.

- or -

#2. Frame Rate / Shutter Speed: Clip exhibits issues related to frame rate or shutter speed.


I have done everything they have suggested. I have not submitted 4k video yet, as they do accept 720 and 1080 in HD, as well as 2.7k.

I have done the suggested frame rate of 23.98, and also 30 and 60, but still no good. They said turn the ISO down, which I did. It's almost rock bottom. They prefer quicktime.mov or MP4, which I have sent in. All video is in NTSC. All video clips are 10-20 seconds, which they prefer.

I sent them raw drone video in both .mov and MP4 as suggested as well. No good.

When I render, I am using Sony Movie Studio Platinum 13 and 15, and I have a LOT of experience with 13. No matter how good I try to make them or what codec I render to (while following their requirements) - EVERYTHING is constantly rejected for the two reasons listed above. And it's not just drone videos being rejected, but good video from Canon cameras is rejected as well.

All of the video on my large PC screen looks flawless, and all the other PCs I've seen it on as well. I don't get it. Everything is to their specs and still not one video approved.
However, photos go through and are accepted with no major problems.

Can anyone tell me what their Phantom settings are, to best upload to Shutterstock? Thanks so much.

 

[Weston Ney]

Hey all, I have a P3S and a Mavic pro, and I'm trying to upload video clips to Shutterstock, and ALL OF THEM have been rejected. We upload through Filezilla which they recommend.

I have read in detail all of the reasons for our being rejected, which is either:


#1. Noise / Artifacts / Pixelation: Clip contains excessive noise, compression artifacts, pixelation and/or banding.

- or -

#2. Frame Rate / Shutter Speed: Clip exhibits issues related to frame rate or shutter speed.


I have done everything they have suggested. I have not submitted 4k video yet, as they do accept 720 and 1080 in HD, as well as 2.7k.

I have done the suggested frame rate of 23.98, and also 30 and 60, but still no good. They said turn the ISO down, which I did. It's almost rock bottom. They prefer quicktime.mov or MP4, which I have sent in. All video is in NTSC. All video clips are 10-20 seconds, which they prefer.

I sent them raw drone video in both .mov and MP4 as suggested as well. No good.

When I render, I am using Sony Movie Studio Platinum 13 and 15, and I have a LOT of experience with 13. No matter how good I try to make them or what codec I render to (while following their requirements) - EVERYTHING is constantly rejected for the two reasons listed above. And it's not just drone videos being rejected, but good video from Canon cameras is rejected as well.

All of the video on my large PC screen looks flawless, and all the other PCs I've seen it on as well. I don't get it. Everything is to their specs and still not one video approved.
However, photos go through and are accepted with no major problems.

Can anyone tell me what their Phantom settings are, to best upload to Shutterstock? Thanks so much.

Send us a video example so we can see it.

If you have any herky jerky movements in your video it will be rejected. Video file needs to be edited down to just the very best part video, and it needs to be flawless. No quick pans.

 

[Weston Ney]

If you post a video up here for us, we can give you some constructive criticism, because after all you said it really seems like it might be your video skills that are holding you back. We can help you out.

 

[Droning in AR]

Let me clarify something. Videos (as with photos) can be of anything. Sometimes the more obscure - the better. Photos can't be enlarged, out of focus, or contain "artifacts" either. But other than that, they don't care.

So it has nothing do do with artistic ability of flying a drone. Seriously. you could film a kid picking his nose while hovering with your drone and they would take it. So it has no bearing on video skills. I have seen some of these drone videos done by others and some are great, and others are pretty lame. Yet they were approved.

My videos are not jerky, no quick pans. Nice and smooth, beautiful scenery. Edited down to usually 15 seconds, which is preferred.

 

[dirkclod]

If you do not give an example of what you are sending no one is going to be able and answer what you have for the title of this thread .

 

[Droning in AR]

If you do not give an example of what you are sending no one is going to be able and answer what you have for the title of this thread .

Oh I am absolutely going to upload a couple of videos, as soon as I am able later this evening.

 

[dirkclod]

Oh I am absolutely going to upload a couple of videos, as soon as I am able later this evening.

Oh well good, maybe someone will be able to help you .

 

[Weston Ney]

Let me clarify something. Videos (as with photos) can be of anything. Sometimes the more obscure - the better. Photos can't be enlarged, out of focus, or contain "artifacts" either. But other than that, they don't care.

So it has nothing do do with artistic ability of flying a drone. Seriously. you could film a kid picking his nose while hovering with your drone and they would take it. So it has no bearing on video skills. I have seen some of these drone videos done by others and some are great, and others are pretty lame. Yet they were approved.

My videos are not jerky, no quick pans. Nice and smooth, beautiful scenery. Edited down to usually 15 seconds, which is preferred.

I beg to differ, I have uploaded lots of stock video to video sites, (no drone videos because I don't have a part 107 yet,) but they reject a lot of the videos I send, but I have a lot accepted as well. They are reviewed by a real person, and they must have seen something they don't like, it is a tricky process figuring out how to work with them. I have done videography and cinematography for 10 years now, and I do a lot of professional video shoots and edits. When I tried to upload to one of the stock video sites a couple years back I was rejected many times, and was very frustrated, until I kept practicing and figured out how to get better videos, then I started uploading. also if you are trying to upload just one video and it keeps getting rejected, try uploading a couple more videos, sometimes if I upload a batch of 50 videos 20 of them will be rejected. That's just how it goes.

Once you upload a video for us to look at then we can try to let you know if we see anything that needs fixed.

 

[Weston Ney]

Also I just noticed, you said that you are only uploading in less than 4K right now. If you are uploading any 720p or 1080p from your drones, that may be why you are being rejected. 1080p video from pretty much every single DJI drone I have used looks terrible. I only use the highest possible quality, IE 2.7 k or 4K, then downscale to 1080p if I need it to be downscaled. so definitely don't shoot natively at 1080P or 720p on the drone. The quality is so bad from those settings that there is high chances they will reject any footage you upload that is shot in 1080p on a DJI drone.

 

[JeffreyS]

You're sending raw unedited video to the internet? Wrong.

 

[Droning in AR]

Also I just noticed, you said that you are only uploading in less than 4K right now. If you are uploading any 720p or 1080p from your drones, that may be why you are being rejected. 1080p video from pretty much every single DJI drone I have used looks terrible. I only use the highest possible quality, IE 2.7 k or 4K, then downscale to 1080p if I need it to be downscaled. so definitely don't shoot natively at 1080P or 720p on the drone. The quality is so bad from those settings that there is high chances they will reject any footage you upload that is shot in 1080p on a DJI drone.

Thanks for this. This what I suspected, and why I tried 2.7K. Still no dice.

What codec do you have your videos rendered in? And do you use Shutterstock?

 

[Droning in AR]

You're sending raw unedited video to the internet? Wrong.

I only tried that as it was a suggestion. Didn't work.

 

[Weston Ney]

Thanks for this. This what I suspected, and why I tried 2.7K. Still no dice.

What codec do you have your videos rendered in? And do you use Shutterstock?

I use Videoblocks as my main site, although Iam going to sign up with black box which is a distributor that distributes to Shutterstock as one of their clients. (some sites don't allow me to sign up because of my age.) For most videos rendering at h.264 mov is a good one, but Apple Prores 422 HQ is a better codec that I use for professional work.

 

[Droning in AR]

Here's an earlier video that was rejected.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="

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" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Droning in AR]

And another one.

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" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Capt KO]

Weston,
Appreciate the wonderful camera information that you give. You must’ve been a photo prodigy starting at seven years of age. Thanks

 

[Weston Ney]

Weston,
Appreciate the wonderful camera information that you give. You must’ve been a photo prodigy starting at seven years of age. Thanks

That I was. My dad made a film when I was very young and I have grown up with cameras. I was probably sucking on a camera lens rather than a pacifier when I was a baby. I technically could say I have been using cameras for 16 years, since I have pictures of myself playing with our home video camera ever since being a baby.

 

[Capt KO]

That I was. My dad made a film when I was very young and I have grown up with cameras. I was probably sucking on a camera lens rather than a pacifier when I was a baby. I technically could say I have been using cameras for 16 years, since I have pictures of myself playing with our home video camera ever since being a baby.

As a parent, I knew yours would be proud. Thanks for your knowledge and sharing here. I have a funny feeling, you will never be broke in your life. Educated guess. Take care

 

[Weston Ney]

And another one.

Those videos were both good, your piloting skills and content probably aren't the problem. I can't tell after video compression on YouTube, but either there is something wrong with your codec, or there is something wrong with the video quality. I got rejected many times when I started, it almost seems like they reject more footage from you when you are new. I would suggest shoot all your video on your mavic pro in 4k, and upload in 4k, and keep trying. I'm sure you will get some footage accepted soon. yes Shutterstock and many other sites still accept 1080p video, but with how things are going in the video industry they probably will readily accept 4K video over 720p or 1080p video because 4K video is much more popular right now. And in a few years everyone's going to be doing 8K video. I'm running out of hard drive space LOL.

 

[Droning in AR]

Those videos were both good, your piloting skills and content probably aren't the problem. I can't tell after video compression on YouTube, but either there is something wrong with your codec, or there is something wrong with the video quality. I got rejected many times when I started, it almost seems like they reject more footage from you when you are new. I would suggest shoot all your video on your mavic pro in 4k, and upload in 4k, and keep trying. I'm sure you will get some footage accepted soon. yes Shutterstock and many other sites still accept 1080p video, but with how things are going in the video industry they probably will readily accept 4K video over 720p or 1080p video because 4K video is much more popular right now. And in a few years everyone's going to be doing 8K video. I'm running out of hard drive space LOL.

Thank you so much. The Mavic and 4K it is.