Drone photography & videography 101

GET TO GRIPS WITH THE (HOVER) CRAFT OF AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY.

WE’RE ALWAYS BANGING on about the importance of finding an interesting angle for a photograph, and drones offer a literal way to do just that. The chance to take your photography to new heights, some might say.

Drones have never been more easy to use or, with the shift to 4K camera resolution, more capable of capturing high-quality images. Although built primarily with video recording in mind, a drone’s ability to hover in one place and counteract the effects of vibration with a gimbal-mounted camera means that it has plenty to offer the photographer who’s seeking to give their pictures a breath of fresh air. (Sorry.) You can, of course, pull acceptable JPEG stills from 4K video, but the slower shutter speeds that make for smoother, less choppy video footage can result in increased motion blur in a video frame that hasn’t been shot with stills in mind. You’ll inevitably get a technically better image if you shoot a ‘proper’ photograph, and the option to save an image as a raw file, if available on the drone camera, will give you more options when it comes to editing the image later.

While you shouldn’t expect the full suite of manual controls that you get with a regular camera — you don’t need added complications when you’re piloting a drone — some drone cameras do enable you to set a manual exposure, change the burst shooting speed, apply a custom white balance and more. But there are some limitations that you’ll need to be aware of when it comes to shooting from the skies.

For a start, drone camera sensors are smaller than full-frame and APS-C sensors, so image quality at higher ISO settings is a potential issue. The majority of drones also have lenses with fixed apertures, so to make adjustments to the exposure you need to

change the shutter speed or the ISO — or both. The lenses are fixed, wide-angle jobs, too. For instance, the DJI Mavic Pro Platinum pictured above has a 28mm equivalent lens, while the CGO3 camera mounted on the Yuneec Q500 Typhoon 4K Quadcopter offers an equivalent field of view closer to that of a 14mm lens.

The wider the lens, the closer you’ll need to be to a subject for it to be a decent size in the final shot. But flying a drone close to other people or yourself poses plenty of risks. In fact, there are all sorts of regulations that you’ll need to adhere to when it comes to piloting a drone, including not flying within 30 metres of any person not ‘under the control’ of the drone pilot, and avoiding no-fly ‘sensitive’ areas altogether. Governments around the world have introduced new regulations, such as bringing forward and expanding the use of geo-fencing, which uses GPS to automatically prevent a drone from entering restricted or sensitive zones, such as prisons or airports. The Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority allows for commercial drone use of craft under 2kg without a license, but you will need an Aviation Reference Number (see www.casa.gov.au) and to adhere to all flight saftey rules.

ALTHOUGH BUILT PRIMARILY WITH VIDEO RECORDING IN MIND, A DRONE’S ABILITY TO HOVER IN ONE PLACE AND COUNTERACT THE EFFECTS OF VIBRATION WITH A GIMBALMOUNTED CAMERA MEANS THAT IT HAS PLENTY TO OFFER THE PHOTOGRAPHER WHO’S SEEKING TO GIVE THEIR PICTURES A BREATH OF FRESH AIR.