A long essay on my lessons learned with aerial drone photography
I don’t know your experience with photo drones–this is a basic write-up for general interest and posterity.
Weight is the enemy of anything that flies. This is why birds have lots of hollow spaces in their feathers and bones, and why the history of aircraft involves ever lighter construction and stronger materials. The skin of the U2 spy plane was so thin that one could dent it by hand. Drone photography involves a thousand compromises to (1) actually fly a significant time/distance, and (2) deliver quality images and videos.
Drone Weight and Size:
As with cars, weight affects the entire experience.
- Small racing drones are fast, have poor video, and basically update the RC sport. They are flying sports cars.
- Consumer portable camera drones represent a trade off in size versus quality, as few want to lug around a huge product. As with a car, the larger the more stable the flight and the less affected by wind, and the better able to carry a heavy camera and lens. The older DJI Phantom series are much larger than many people want.
- Professional drones often have 6 motors/propellers and can easily carry a full sized DSLR or pro video camera. They also fill a suitcase, cost many thousands of dollars, and can require a separate pilot and photographer.
Subject Matter and Content:
Interesting drone photo shoots involve a lot of time and a literal flight plan. One cannot fly in National Parks, over crowds/public events, near airports, or too close to sensitive government and military facilities. Given the number of nervous citizens and ill-informed law enforcement officers, flying a drone can lead to conflict and confrontation. So, an effective drone shoot can require hours of planning, research, and phone calls.
Site Planning:
- Research a region to find interesting-but-legal locations. This can be a rural or suburban park, a National Forest, or an abandoned (no people present) industrial area near a city.
- Create a field kit with the drone, spare batteries, many spare propellers, memory cards, a landing pad, a car charger, cables, clean towels, camera maintenance gear (e.g., lens wipes), often a linked cell phone, etc.
- Find a launch location that’s discreet but affords long (legal) line-of-sight flying.
- For the best privacy and options, arrive at a target location early in the morning on a dry, sunny day.
Flight Planning:
- A location that looks good on a map or overhead photo may be totally different in real life. For this reason my first flight is usually very simple: go straight up 200 to 400 feet (the legal maximum) and rotate the camera 360 degrees. Scout out objects of interest, note any dangers or no-go areas. Don’t scout below 150-200 feet, or risk encounters with birds and trees.
- Plan a target shoot based on the range of your drone. A 20 minute battery allows 5 minutes flying out, 10 minutes of shooting, and 5 minutes flying back. A 30 minute battery doubles the radius to 10 minutes out and back and quadruples the area of coverage.
- When at the target object, execute the flight moves necessary to get good stills and cinematic shots (e.g., a “dronie” is when the drone faces you and flies up and backward.) Swooping panoramas are fun, rising over a tree, hill, or building to reveal the background is fun, etc. Watch any reality nature show to see loads of drone aerial shots (e.g., Survivor, various Alaska shows, Naked and Afraid, etc.)
- Drones offer many automated photo modes, such as “follow me,” “circle object,” and hover-in-place time lapse. Practice these in a safe area with recovery potential (e.g., a grassy park), or risk losing your drone.
- Use the object avoidance sensors whenever possible. Save “sport mode” for wide open grassy fields, lakes, and deserts. I first tried sport mode next to a stand of trees–stopping took forever and that was my first crash.
Camera Considerations:
- A stabilized, 3-axis camera gimbal increases sharpness and makes video worthwhile. Cheap drones don’t have these.
- Bright sunlight is the most common shooting condition, so lens filters are common and often necessary for decent images.
- Drone cameras have to be light on smaller drones, as they’d throw of the balance and limit the flight time and range.
Considering all of the above, the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom (1/2.3" sensor) seems to be the current consumer sweet spot. The Mavic 2 Pro (1" sensor) has received mixed reviews and shows little difference in side-by-side comparisons. [Again, most shooting occurs in bright sunlight rather than dark conditions.] Both the Mavic 2s greatly outclass the Mavic Pro (1st generation). If buying today, I’d perhaps get the $1,650 combo of Mavic 2 Zoom and the new controller with integrated display. The old cell phone attachment system is a major pain. With an unlimited budget I’d choose the Mavic 2 Enterprise with its additional thermal camera–just because it would be interesting (e.g., can you spot wildlife with it?).
I’d personally avoid anything will less than ~30 minutes of flight time, as so much time is wasted in scene positioning and travel to targets. Then, one has to hover until the clouds pass or the target gets into position. So, no Mavic Air (21 minutes) for me. It’s an open question whether battery, sensor, lens, and stability technology will improve, or whether the physical limits are close.
Comparison images and video:
DJI site: https://www.dji.com/mavic-2