Life is about perspective and how you look at something… ultimately, you have to zoom out ~ Whitney Wolfe Herd
From weddings and archaeology to environmental studies and movie production – drones have revolutionized and evolved photography! It has made it easier to capture aerial photographs of some of the world’s most amazing and hard to reach places.
As a photographer, it empowers you to discover and delight the viewers with never-before-seen perspectives of places, events across the globe. If you have good post-processing skills (in Lightroom/Photoshop), it will help you get the most out of your drone photos.
Photos by Brandon Bester – Aerial Photographer. For more such amazing images, do check his Instagram profile here instagram.com/airtographyza
Composition Techniques
Go for Rule of Thirds, Leading Lines, Symmetry, Pattern & Texture.
Adding people in your shots will give the viewers a reference for scale and engage them with a visual story.
Photo by Conor – Aerial Photographer. For more such amazing images, do check his Instagram profile here instagram.com/conorcorbett
Drones with Camera
You can check out some of the best drones with camera here amazon.com/Best-DJI-Drones/s?k=Best+DJI+Drones
Use the DJI Go App
With the DJI Go App, you can connect your smartphone/tablet to a DJI Mavic Pro, DJI Phantom, or a DJI Inspire’s remote controller.
After connecting the app, you can check out your drone’s related functions on the app which includes: Scan QR Code, Academy, Flight Record, No-fly Zone, Find my drone.
The app allows you to see what your drone’s camera is seeing, adjust the camera settings, review, edit, share your photos and more.
Photo by Niek Vandenabeele – Aerial Photographer. For more such amazing images, do check his Instagram profile here instagram.com/niekvandenabeele
Recommended Camera Settings on the DJI Go App
Use Manual mode; set ISO to 100 on sunny days & 400 on cloudy days.
To freeze the action/motion, set the shutter speed above 1/125 sec.
Keep the histogram enabled/switched on, to guide you to set the correct exposure.
Go for Autofocus mode.
Image size: 4:3 (Mavic Pro), 3:2 (Phantom 4 Pro). With any other size, you may end up with a cropped image; better to crop your image later in post processing.
Image format: RAW is recommended; if you’ve been saving in JPEG – you can also go for RAW+JPEG (but remember: both types of image formats will take more space on your memory card).
Timed shot: With timed sequence of images, you can create an aerial time lapse.
HDR: You can use HDR wherein the camera takes a series of images with different exposure settings and combines them together to create a single image that captures the details in the darkest and lightest elements of the image.
Go for HDR – only if you don’t have a post-processing software (Lightroom/Photoshop) coz the results aren’t that good. AEB is a better option over HDR.
AEB: The camera will take 3 photos at different exposures (at the set exposure, an underexposed image and an overexposed image).
Later, you can combine all 3 images and create a single HDR photo in the post-processing software.
We bring you ‘Jo & His Camera’ Comic Strips wherein a Magical Camera gives DSLR photography tutorials to Jo, an aspiring photographer
Click on the below Image to see the Comic.
When you do photography: Remember the 5E’s – Explore, Experiment, Experience, Enjoy & Express to develop your own style as a photographer.
Do Share The Learning – Like It, Post It, Pin It, Tweet It!
How has your experience been with drone photography? We would love to know about it, do share them in the comment box below.
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