Drone/Aerial Photography is the capturing of still images & video by remotely – operated or autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) also known as unmanned aircraft system (UAS) or more commonly, as a drone. It is real fun. Drone comes in wide variety of sizes; it can be launched by hand. It has two parts; the drone & the control unit
- Learn the Drone Rules & Regulations before flying your drone. Follow the laws & regulations of the land
- Phantom 4 drone is the right choice & recommended for the beginners. However there are so many other models available with Advanced versions
- You must know how to fly drone. Mastering controls of your drone will ensure safety of drone & to mitigate situations of crash/damag
- Use the open space. Be mindful of People/Wildlife to avoid any attack. Keep it under 400 feet while flying under line of sight
- Fly your drone even when you don’t think there is any point as you may not visualize subject from the ground
- Calibrate the Drone Compass especially for using the first time or at new location. Check the Sensor Index. Prefer to keep it between 1400 to 1600 range for better results
- Check the Drone Propeller Balancing & Vibration Dampening to avoid wobble or Jello effect It can solve shaky problem as well
- Learn to fly in A Mode – ATTI (Attitude) Mode, it helps drone to hold the flight & take away route to avoid crashes. You can land it safely to ground
- Hover drone for few seconds instead of flying straight up from the ground once the propellers are on. It helps to know the malfunction, if any
- Know the maximum flight time/ altitude for flying drone. Don’t go beyond permissible limits especially in high security zone
- Pay attention to weather forecast for heavy rains/ storms
- Use the right photography equipment. You can use wide angle/prime shorter lens or use Go Pro series for drone photography, as it’s quite light in weight & effective. Maintain your photo equipment’s in high order
- Plan the flight course, time & location for shooting & the Story you want to convey, the emotions & feelings etc. Visualize the shots you wish to capture.
- Go slow with yours and drone movements… don’t rush with it
- Consider lighting, depth & shadows while drone photography. Do the setting as per light available
- Use bracketing that is take 2-3 pic for better choice
- Use the lowest ISO during Aerial/Drone Photography, prefer to keep it at 100, for low light you can go up to 800
- Drone shakes/ shooting at night due to low wind conditions, the higher you go the windier it gets – Set the right shutter speed. Shoot at a shutter speed range of 3-8 seconds. Faster shutter speed is better
- Be Creative; know your photography technique that is Oblique, Vertical, Wide Shot, Panorama, Close up & Long Exposure shots. Keep experimenting till you get the best. Practice, Practice & Practice
- Best way to shoot is the RAW format. It is the key as the capacity of Drone camera resolution is limited
- Prefer Auto mode as compare to Manual mode. Use techniques like Fly by, Reveal, Chase, High PAN & Explorer shots
- Make use of polarized ND (Natural Density) filters
- Use Gimbal to help image stabilization & smooth finish of shots
- Know your flight patterns such as flying in a square, straight line, circle, figure 8 or in orbit around a certain point
- Download your data after every drone flying event
- The Battery maintains for Drone & cameras are very important as it works as basic fuel. You must use the right & quality battery, charge them to full, store them at a dry place & discard/dispose the old batteries as per requirements
- Must carry extra parts such as propeller/battery & other components as spares
- Make best use of post processing with Adobe Photoshop/Light room. Correct distortion, Add motion blur, Colour Grade, Shadows
- Give more to get more in return. Share your work with people, let people appreciate it
- Drone/Aerial Photography is most impressive & breathtaking artistic work you can ever witness/imagine. Capture mountains, rivers stunning landscape shots. Now get out there, have fun & fly your camera in the air.
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