on location Light a scene with a drone
How to get set up for shooting twilight scenes using the light of a quadcopter
01 Location
A lone tree makes for a strong, stark shape against the twilight sky. Flying a drone in low light means that avoiding obstacles might be more difficult. So it’s best to use an open spot where there’s less chance of clipping a tree branch or overhead wires.
02 Drone
We’re using a DJI Mavic Pro quadcopter to light our scene, which is one of the best consumer drones available. Most importantly for the success of our project, it’s capable of carrying our two Lume Cube LED lights with ease.
03 Lights
Our light source is two Lume Cube LEDS. You could use any LED (or a lightweight speedlight) but the Lumes are a good choice as they’re very bright, they can be controlled via an app and there are dedicated mounts for popular drones.
04 angles
We have the freedom to light our scene from any angle, but we’re restricted in that we can’t pull the lights too far away from the scene or they’ll be too weak. A top-down angle to the light gives our landscape scene an otherworldly feel.
05 tripod
Shooting in low light means it’s essential to use a tripod. With an exposure time of 10 seconds here, we can fly the drone around the scene to paint with light. We can also shoot several frames in alignment and then piece them together later.
06 twilight
After the sun has dipped below the horizon the sky can often display intense colours, so we chose a westward camera angle to capture them. The light fades quickly so we need to shoot quickly – especially if you intend to blend several frames.