Drone Photography & Videography 101

Drones are a game changer. That’s a bold statement to start with. But they have democratized the entire aerial media industry. For a relatively small amount of money photo and video professionals have the possibility to capture beautiful video and photos from a bird’s eye view.
After a while considering getting a drone I finally pulled the trigger on a DJI Phantom 3 Advanced. I still consider the cheapest option, that can produce useable shots at the time of writing.
Never having flown one before I was a little cautious about making the first take-off. That was soon forgotten as I got in the air. I was blown away by how easy it was to maneuver. Having played video games as a kid the controls were very intuitive. The drone stayed fixed in position when let go of the controls.

Another thing that’s great about these systems is the portability. Being able to strap the Phantom on a backpack and head on an adventure is great. The future looks very promising with improved portability and making it possible to capture unique aerials from remote areas. The DJI Mavic and GoPro Karma are clear signs of where things are going. In the future photographers will not leave the house without a drone in the pack. 

But where is the “but”? The but comes here: But drones are not wonder machines they have their limits too.

Camera.
The dynamic range is limited on the cameras (on the "affordable" drones). Which makes it hard to get good looking footage in harsh light e.g. high noon on a sunny day, where there is strong contrast between the bright highlights and the dark shadows. To get the best looking footage utilize natural soft (diffuse) light which means: Shooting during golden hour or when it is overcast where the light is “softer” . I prefer golden hour as it creates a more “magical” feel but it of course depends on what you are shooting and what feeling you want to evoke with the shot.
Another solution to the low dynamic range is to do bracketing. Bracketing is where you shoot several photos at different exposures and blend them in post production. Basically you shoot an exposure for the shadows, the mid-tones, and the highlights and merge them. Apparently this only works for stills unless you want to do some black magic in post production with the video footage.
Too little light is also a big challenge for the camera. The tiny sensor produces a lot of noise when the ISO goes up. ISO 200 is the limit for clean footage. With that said I would rather have a noisy shot than no shot at all. I have pushed the ISO way too high just to get the shot. If the shot is spectacular most “regular people” wont notice the grain.
When shooting stills the most important thing setting-wise is to shoot in RAW, which gives you much more room to play with in post production.
But watch this space! Things are moving rapidly in the drone industry. 2013 Phantom 1 was released. With a 10 min flight time and a GoPro mounted directly on the drone. Now the flight time has close to tripled and underneath sits a gimbal stabilized 4K camera which is improving rapidly! The Phantom 4 Professional can shoot 20 megapixel RAW stills with almost 12-stops of dynamic range and 4K video at 60fps with a 100 mbit/s bitrate. To say it in non-technical terms: It's a great camera!    

A noisy shot is better than no shot. Here I'm flying under the midnight sun in Greenland.

Speed.
Another “but” is the limited speed. The Phantom 4 and the Phantom 4 Professional does approx. 70 km/h in sport mode which is fast. I have done some tracking shots of cars with the Phantom 3 and the limited speed is, well, limiting. If you need more speed the Inspire 2 can do 107 km/h according to DJI. That is fast (and possibly dangerous), and demands a very skilled pilot. But the slower drones can work just coordinate the speed with the driver or just skip the tracking shot and spend the time and battery life on some other shots.

Battery. 
Now I mentioned battery life. I can safely fly for around 15 min. on one battery depending on the conditions. That sounds like a short amount of time and it can be. So to make the most of it you have to plan ahead. Having a clear vision of what you want to create is important. Naturally this can be hard in the beginning as you don’t know what is possible but with more flight time this gets easier. A good idea is to view others work to be inspired and to see what is possible. Although batteries and efficiency is getting better which means more flight time per battery. The Phantom 4 Professional can fly 30 min. according to DJI. Subtract 5 min and you have a realistic flight time of 25 min. depending on the conditions.

The Creative
The basics of photography composition theory still apply when shooting with drones. Look for patterns and shapes around you. This is actually a little challenging as you have to envision how it will look from above. The classic drone photo perspective is the top-down shot which works really well as it is very graphic and shows a different perspective on everyday objects. 
When it comes to video the same apply but to create those gorgeous cinematic shots, motion with strong parallax works really well. Parallax is “a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight”. If you put a finger out in front of you and move your head from side to side you will experience parallax. Parallax shows the relationship between objects - it creates depth and size perception. The closer you are to things the stronger the effect - which requires a lot of pilot skills. I have had my share of close calls.

Drones are definitely a part of the future. With drones becoming very accessible from a monetary and a user friendliness standpoint it is a tool everyone should have. With that said there is still room for improvement especially regarding the quality of the cameras but things are changing rapidly so in a few years that will not be a problem. But knowing what the flaws are makes it possible to work around them and creating spectacular results. So what are you waiting for? Ready for take-off? 

Understanding Exposure: Get out of Auto

Many people look at the M on the mode dial with awe. Maybe they have tried it once and the photos ended up either underexposed (dark and blurry) or overexposed (too light). In this blog post I want to give a primer on how to take control in manual mode. I will not go too much in depth I just want to give you the basic tools to understand your camera and expand your creativity. 

Cut to the bone a camera has three settings that matters:

ISO
_Light: Adjusts the light sensitivity of the sensor. The higher the number the more sensitive to light.
_Superpower: Can lighten up dark scenes at the cost of image noise.  

Aperture
_Light: Adjusts how “open” the lens is. Think of it as an eye. Large pupil takes in more light. The lower the number the larger the pupil - more light is let in. 
_Superpower: Can blur out the out of focus parts (low number) or make everything in focus (high number).

Shutterspeed
_Light: Adjusts for how long time the sensor will be exposed to light. Too slow shutter speed makes for blurry photos.  A general rule of thumb is: the shutter speed should be at least the same as the focal length i.e. 50 mm focal length = 1/50th, 200 mm = 1/200th and so on. 
_Superpower: can freeze high speed action or make some artistic slow shutter speed photos with e.g. light trails. 

This holy trinity all affect the final exposure.  Adjust one and it is necessary to adjust at least one more to get a correct exposure. 

These three settings are often referred to as the exposure triangle. Let’s say to have a perfect exposure this triangle has to be perfectly equilateral (all sides are equally long).  

I’ll make an example:

First I have perfect exposure.

But there is too much noise in the image. So, I lower the ISO. 

Now the photo is underexposed. So I have to adjust at least one setting to get the correct exposure again (equilateral triangle). I need to freeze the action, so I want to maintain the shutter speed. 

So I adjust the aperture to get more light through the lens (open the pupil - lower f number). And now we have a equilateral triangle again - a perfect exposure.  

Hope this gives an insight on how your camera works and gives you the tools and confidence to start expanding your photographic knowledge. When you master these settings a world of photographic opportunities will wait for you. So get out and experiment. 
See you out there!  

How photography can grow your business

There has generally been consensus that photography is just something that businesses will do themselves with a point and shoot camera or is bought off of some online photo licensing service cheaply. This will ultimately not help the business but rather damage the business. Customers will think it looks unprofessional and cheap. It will deplete the brand. Here are three reasons why photography is important for businesses: 

Professionalism. Want to look professional? You better get a professional to shoot your photos. Most people will notice if the photos are shot by a professional photographer. I’ve seen a ton of businesses which have bought a DSLR to shoot photos for the business. What they forget is that just because you have a DSLR camera you don’t shoot good photos. Pop-up flash, mixed color temperatures, bad lighting and no thought what so ever to composition is common.
Another thing is the amount of time (and money) that is used only to get sub par results. It would most likely take a good chunk of time (and money) to achieve results that are somewhat close to be on par with a professional photographer.  
 

Stand-out. Many businesses struggle to stand out from the competition. The most important impression is the first impression. Today the first impression is often online. A wall of text doesn’t make a business website stand out - it makes people leave. Compelling photographs will make the site stand out and the visitor will remember it as the-page-with-the-nice-images. Furthermore photography is a point many businesses skimp on so it is an easy area to stand out from the competition. 
 

Branding. Want a strong brand? Use strong photography. The biggest businesses in the world has a very clear brand. Their visual profile is clear. Do you know it is an Apple commercial before you see the logo? Probably. Their visual profile is consistent. This consistency can be hard to achieve. A professional photographer will know how to create this consistency. 

To look professional you got to have photographs that look professional as well. You can do this yourself but often it will be faster and cheaper to get a professional photographer to do this. This will help the business to stand out from the competition. In the end strong photography will help build a strong and easily recognizable brand. 

How to: Star photography

Stars are amazing. Beautiful light sparkles across the dark sky. Chances are that you have seen some stunning star photos. Camera sensors can pick up a lot of light when set to shoot a long exposure. This means more stars. It is one of the few things where the camera is superior to the human eye. But how do you capture the magnificent night sky? Here is my process. 

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1. Preparation
Before heading out in the night it can be a good idea to prepare from home. I use a few apps and websites which helps me know where and when the stars are at their best.
First step is of course to check the weather. A little small clouds is fine - especially when just training.
Next step is to check the moon phase I use this website. No moon is preferable. The problem is that it only happens once a month and that should line up with the weather as well. So the chances are small. So check out when the moon rises and shoot before that. To check that I use this web app. Last thing to check before heading into the night is where the stars are. The most magnificent sight is definitely the milky way. A little light pollution can make it invisible to the naked eye. To find the less light polluted spots I use this site. To find out where the milky way will be the Stellarium app comes in handy. It is free and does the job nicely.
In the end you can also just go out and hope some magic will happen - you will never come home disappointed, I promise.   

2. Gear
To make a great star shot a little gear is necessary. You will need: 

• A camera that you can set manually.

• A tripod.

• A headlamp (nice to have).

That is all. 

3. Shoot
Your camera settings are important. Different cameras and focal lengths will need different settings due to the rule of 500 (or or whatever number you stick to). Stars are a moving subject so if the shutter speed is too slow you will get light trails which will make the stars look blurry. PetaPixel wrote a good article covering this so I wont get too much into this. Generally rule the rule is: 500 / focal length = max shutter speed. It will usually end up around 15-25 seconds. Your ISO should be as high as possible before your photos turn into a grainy madness. Around 1600-3200 is pretty standard. Aperture should be wide open. When pressing the shutter the next 20 seconds will fell like an eternity. When it is done it is like opening a present. You will be starstruck (ok, that was cheesy).  

4. The creative side of things
Now you know the technical - but no one teaches the creative.
What I like to do is to shoot up a steep slope and silhouette whatever is on the “ridgeline”. This gives perspective. Furthermore a person can make the photo more relatable as the viewer can relate to how it must be to stand there watching the beautiful sky. This evokes a feeling rather than just a pretty photo to look at. If you add a real living person make sure they stand dead still or else they will just be a blurry mess due to the long exposure.  

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Now get out and get creative. Good gear is cheap these days and you dont need a lot to get started. So pack your bag and head out in the night and get your stargazing on. I will do a separate post on how to edit star photos - so follow along.
​See you out there!