Digital SLR Photography

Tips for Amazing Aerial Images

By Caroline Schmidt. Posted

Drones open a world of opportunity for photographers; offering a multitude of viewpoints and angles when you consider the altitudes you can fly at and the number of degrees of camera/gimbal tilt available. So, once you’re comfortable with flying a drone and operating the camera, it’s time to move onto the main reason you bought a drone – to photograph aerial images.

For landscape aerial photography, control over the aperture is essential for achieving a large depth-of-field. With both smaller mobile phone-size sensors and larger 1in sensors found in some drones, f/5.6 will provide a close equivalent to f/11 – the 'sweet spot' of many lenses that provides a large depth-of-field coupled with the best image quality the lens is able to resolve. Once you master your exposure and depth-of-field, however, viewpoint and composition are perhaps your most essential elements to get right.

Viewpoint 1 - Low

Viewpoint 3 - High Angle

VIEWPOINT

Viewpoint, or altitude, with drone photography, provides a much greater variety of options than when you’re shooting landscapes with your camera attached to even the tallest tripod. With options ranging from 1m to 120m, there are essentially 120 viewpoints you can choose from and that’s even before you consider the camera angle as controlled by the gimbal.

The great thing about this is that you can shoot scenes where you might not be able to access on foot from either a standard height, which makes it impossible to tell if the image was taken with a drone, all the way up to the maximum altitude with a top-down viewpoint.

When you first get a drone, though, the temptation is to take it up to the maximum altitude of 120m/400ft and take images from a bird’s-eye view as you’ve never been able to before. We’ve all done it, and it’s part of the excitement of getting a drone, but you soon realise that higher doesn’t necessarily mean better. Sometimes, being only a few metres above the ground gives you the best viewpoint. Conversely, top-down shots taken from a high altitude with the camera facing straight down look fantastic with subjects that feature a large footprint.

While you can get away with less rigid compositions thanks to elevated viewpoints that can make the mundane look magnificent, incorporating one or more of the three main compositional devices will provide visually balanced images that are, as a result, more impactful than those without.
There are, of course, some differences in how these devices can be implemented because you’re typically further away from elements of the landscape than you would be when shooting on the ground. But, this challenge is arguably part of the fun of aerial photography and allows you to take a less conventional approach to foreground interest and lead-in lines, for instance.

RULE-OF-THIRDS

The rule-of-thirds is the most basic compositional device and forms the basis of compositions with other devices used alongside it. To use it imagine that the frame is split into nine equal parts, separated by two horizontal and two vertical lines. For visual balance, the focal point and important elements of the scene are best positioned at one of the four points where these lines intersect. When including the sky in images, the horizon should generally sit along the top horizontal line whether the camera is set to landscape or portrait orientation.
Most drones can show a rule-of-thirds grid via the app, and this is recommended because it makes composing quicker and easier than without. There’s also the ability to turn on diagonal lines too, which can also be useful for positioning elements in the scene.

Composition - Rule-of-thirds

FOREGROUND INTEREST

Foreground interest is an element of the scene, such as a rock or another prominent object, that’s positioned in the bottom of the frame, usually according to the rule-of-thirds, to avoid empty space. This is the most basic explanation of the device, but at a more profound level, foreground interest provides a visual stepping stone into the image – one that can be balanced with a focal point in the distance. With drones, foreground interest doesn’t always work in quite the same way as ground-based photography because the drone is often further away from the foreground so, when this is the case, look for larger elements such as large rock formations, buildings or trees to successfully act as foreground interest. When shooting from low altitudes, you can take a more traditional approach.

Composition - Foreground Interest

LEADING LINES

Lead-in lines are linear elements within the scene such as roads, walls, rivers and streams, that can be used to draw the eye into the image, often to the focal point or another area of interest. The best positioning is for the lead-in line to begin in the bottom third of the frame and lead up into the image; a line that cuts across the frame should be avoided, however, because it creates a visual barrier.
With drone photography, after the rule-of-thirds, lead-in lines are the next easiest device to implement. They can be highly effective because the elevated viewpoint can accentuate the length and shape of roads, walls and rivers much more effectively than when shooting at ground level, and in such a way that they draw the eye much further through the scene.

Composition - Lead-in line

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