Artistic use of drones in photography

[Ed Beck]

I think that the bottom has dropped out of the market, and to be honest I'm seriously thinking of packing it in and getting back to artistic work. I've been talking with another photographer about the applications of a drone with artistic photography. I keep getting hung up on the fact that I'd be lifting a crappy little GoPro. I'd love to lift my DSLR but then I'd need to get a much larger drone and I'd be lifting $5k with another $5k or so.

I have seen some photographers use a drone with a super bright light to light up landscapes at night, and then use their DSLR's to capture the moment. It looks awesome.

I've seen that. It looks interesting. My first reaction was that I could do pretty much the same thing using a daylight photo and vignette in PS. Still, I like the way the photographer used his drone in a different way.

 

[Ed Beck]

I'm looking to start a discussion on how to use drones to produce artistic photographs.

 

[pyrate]

Ed I think the fad is about to pass.
I agree, but I am more of a video guy.
Was just thinking last night how Drones have disrupted my ground game. I was getting pretty good on the ground, and had planned to move from a Panasonic GH3 as my camera to a 4 when solo came along.
With my DIY almost done and two solos in the barn have been thinking about going back to what got me here.
Now I have aerial tools in my kit, I need to put my focus on project work and get back to growing my shooting, editing skills

 

[Ed Beck]

Ed I think the fad is about to pass.
I agree, but I am more of a video guy.
Was just thinking last night how Drones have disrupted my ground game. I was getting pretty good on the ground, and had planned to move from a Panasonic GH3 as my camera to a 4 when solo came along.
With my DIY almost done and two solos in the barn have been thinking about going back to what got me here.
Now I have aerial tools in my kit, I need to put my focus on project work and get back to growing my shooting, editing skills

Along those lines, I was thinking that honing my artistic skills and getting into some galleries would also help me to charge premium rates for aerial. I'm talking about honing my ground game.

I know you understand it, but the key to producing good work is more in knowing where to put the camera than the mere fact that you're able to.

For example, I was hired by a company that makes retainer wall material. They have a project where they provided the material to build huge mound of dirt that's stabilizing land for a highway off ramp. It's an impressive mound of dirt and they wanted it on a calendar.

So there were two parts to this, first finding a way to make it look massive, and second to pull the viewer to the ad copy. Took about an hour but I finally found the angle I wanted. I've got the mound in perspective by having a couple of cranes in the background. I frame it with a utility pole on the right. I used the lighter material to pull the viewer to the ad copy.



This is the fun part of the job, how to make a mound of dirt pull the viewer in, keep them and direct them to what I want them to see.

 

[pyrate]

that is where wider angle lenses would come in
But I love my Peau.
Guess you could do some creative cropping

 

[Ed Beck]

Yeah, I use the Peau 3.97 f/2.8, love it.

I didn't use my dirt photo as an artistic shot, more of one saying knowing what you want and how to get it is the most important thing.