New tools for the photography toolbox

[BrianA61]

It's been quite a while since I posted anything in the forum. I have branched out in my photography to the drone world. After my trip to Vietnam 2 years ago, I decided drone photography was something I wanted to add to my photo skills. Little did I know that I have gone down a rabbit hole and also started into the video world too. After about 6 months of just practice flights, I was out doing some photo work with a friend of mine. We stumbled on this scene and I had to see if I could get some good shots. This is the first time I have taken my little drone out to actually try to capture some serious subject matter. I guess I'd rather be lucky than good. Here is a short video of what I was able capture. NONE of this was planned. It just happened. Make sure to set the res to 4k.

[mugge]

Just great! You do have to be there when something happens - like this.
Cheers Ole

[DanK]

Very interesting. I too have started fiddling with a drone, starting last summer. I haven't yet taught myself how to do video because I'm really a stills photographer and like to print, but this season I think I'll experiment with video.

I've found the transtion fairly difficult. One reason is that you have to focus a lot of your attention on flying, which distracts from thinking about composition. I find that I end up taking a lot of variations from different vantage points and sorting them out later on the computer. A second is that it's often hard for a novice to envision what will be interesting from above. I sometimes go out with a clear idea and find that it produces really boring photos, and occasionally, the reverse happens. The camera also isn't on a par with what I'm used to, and I would often prefer a longer FL than mine gives me (which I think is 24mm equivalent). Things get small very fast as you go up when you have such a short FL.

Still, it's fun to have an entirely different perspective. A couple of us plan to go soon to the coast to try some drone images of rocky shorelines.

[BrianA61]

Very interesting. I too have started fiddling with a drone, starting last summer. I haven't yet taught myself how to do video because I'm really a stills photographer and like to print, but this season I think I'll experiment with video.

I've found the transtion fairly difficult. One reason is that you have to focus a lot of your attention on flying, which distracts from thinking about composition. I find that I end up taking a lot of variations from different vantage points and sorting them out later on the computer. A second is that it's often hard for a novice to envision what will be interesting from above. I sometimes go out with a clear idea and find that it produces really boring photos, and occasionally, the reverse happens. The camera also isn't on a par with what I'm used to, and I would often prefer a longer FL than mine gives me (which I think is 24mm equivalent). Things get small very fast as you go up when you have such a short FL.

Still, it's fun to have an entirely different perspective. A couple of us plan to go soon to the coast to try some drone images of rocky shorelines.

What I have found after starting down the video rabbit hole, is that practice, practice, practice makes you better, just like still photography. BUT, to get the smooth motion and transitions is a whole different kind of composing and editing. The same techniques you mention in taking your stills also applies for aerial photography/video. Lots of angles, altitudes, gimbal rotation, etc. The lower end drones do have some limitations in their still photo ability. This particular drone and its bigger brother that I have as well both have fixed apertures of 2.8. So, you can only use shutter speed, and ISO to change exposure. This particular drone has a max still resolution of 12MP. The other one I have is a 20MP resolution. Both shoot 4k video, though. I think using an aerial viewpoint for still photos adds a huge difference to otherwise boring or run of the mill land based shots. That's what intrigued me into using drones to add to my photography toolbox. The video is just an added bonus and challenge. Here is another flight I made a few days ago. I made this same run a couple of weeks ago with the camera settings on auto for everything and had huge shifts in exposure and color. This time, I had all manual settings, an ND filter and much better camera movement. Still needs work, but, like anything, the more you do it, the better you get at it.

[DanK]

Sounds like one of yours might be the DJI Air 2S, which is what I have.

[BrianA61]

Sounds like one of yours might be the DJI Air 2S, which is what I have.

Yes it is. I got that as a retirement gift. It's pretty sweet and easy to fly so far. I also have the Mini 2 for the snow geese shots.

[DanK]

I agree; I'm a complete novice, and I didn't find it too hard to fly, other than not realizing at first how easy it is to loose sight of something gray and so small. (Why didn't they make it a bright color, like some of the competition?) It's fortunate that you can simply tell it to fly home.

I had some substantial color issues in some shots that appeared most strongly in greenery that appeared too yellow. I spend some time fiddling with the color calibration in Lightroom, but then someone who saw a few of the images said that it looked like nothing more than a poor AWB setting. I think he was right; adjusting WB seemed to take care of it. However, I need to play more with it.

[xpatUSA]

Wow, Brian!

A couple near misses at about 7 sec.

[BrianA61]

Wow, Brian!

A couple near misses at about 7 sec.

YES! I didn't notice that until I watched the video on my computer screen. I think they were further away than they appeared. It is a pretty wide angle lens. Pretty cool effect, though. I've actually seen video of some drone owners that had their aircraft attacked by a bird of prey and knocked it out of the sky. LOL!

[BrianA61]

I agree; I'm a complete novice, and I didn't find it too hard to fly, other than not realizing at first how easy it is to loose sight of something gray and so small. (Why didn't they make it a bright color, like some of the competition?) It's fortunate that you can simply tell it to fly home.

I had some substantial color issues in some shots that appeared most strongly in greenery that appeared too yellow. I spend some time fiddling with the color calibration in Lightroom, but then someone who saw a few of the images said that it looked like nothing more than a poor AWB setting. I think he was right; adjusting WB seemed to take care of it. However, I need to play more with it.

Hi Dan. Re:drone color. There are a couple of websites that make skins for these drones. I'm also thinking about getting a bright orange, yellow or green skin to better see it at a distance.

https://www.istyles.com/shop/DJI-Mini-SE/Skin

https://www.wrapgrade.jp/For-DJI-Mini-2-c65966004

[xpatUSA]

Hi Dan. Re:drone color. There are a couple of websites that make skins for these drones. I'm also thinking about getting a bright orange, yellow or green skin to better see it at a distance.

https://www.istyles.com/shop/DJI-Mini-SE/Skin

https://www.wrapgrade.jp/For-DJI-Mini-2-c65966004

A long time ago in England (70's?) vehicle visibility was a hot (!) subject. Lots of waffle in the automotive press about "See and be Seen". Back then, bright orange was the color of choice for vehicle paint visibility.

Posted FWIW

[DanK]

interesting. Thanks. I think that research has settled on bright lime yellow (https://www.apa.org/topics/safety-de...e-color-safety), and which has become the norm for cycling windbreakers in these parts. Most of the skins seem just decorative, but there is one in their catalog that looks to be fairly close to lime yellow ("venom").

[BrianA61]

interesting. Thanks. I think that research has settled on bright lime yellow (https://www.apa.org/topics/safety-de...e-color-safety), and which has become the norm for cycling windbreakers in these parts. Most of the skins seem just decorative, but there is one in their catalog that looks to be fairly close to lime yellow ("venom").

There is also one called "solid state lime" on the 2nd page. I was looking at that one also. Or something along the lines of neon orange would be good contrast against a gray sky or bright blue sky.

[xpatUSA]

There is also one called "solid state lime" on the 2nd page. I was looking at that one also. Or something along the lines of neon orange would be good contrast against a gray sky or bright blue sky.

Yes, orange being the opposite or complement of blue on the additive RGB color wheel ...

[DanK]

Ah, good point.


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[xpatUSA]

Ah, good point ...

... and since skies are usually more cyan than blue, even red should work well enough ...