One of my favorite pics

nathan

nathan

Administrator
Staff member
Drone photography can be quite a challenge, so it's no surprise to me one of my favorite pics is from a pro.

1) you have to be able to operate drone
2) you have to be a good photographer

The difference between amateur and professional is pretty obvious. Just take a look; it's a remarkable shot by any photographer's standards, but given that it was from a drone makes it all the more special.

I'd love to know some of the details behind this picture.

notadrone.jpg

Source: notadrone (Petr Hejl)
 

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John Locke

John Locke

Member
Nathan said:
Drone photography can be quite a challenge, so it's no surprise to me one of my favorite pics is from a pro.

1) you have to be able to operate drone
2) you have to be a good photographer

The difference between amateur and professional is pretty obvious. Just take a look; it's a remarkable shot by any photographer's standards, but given that it was from a drone makes it all the more special.

I'd love to know some of the details behind this picture.

View attachment 5
Source: notadrone (Petr Hejl)
Click to expand...
That's an awesome photo. It appears to be taken with about a 2 second HDR exposure in RAW with some post editing to increase saturation on some colors and some added contrast maybe. Nice, very nice. The drone had to be very still, likely a very calm night.
 

nathan

nathan

Administrator
Staff member
I would say you're correct on the HDR and RAW. I would also suggest there was likely some post-production editing. I'm sure Petr will chime in here soon enough :)
 

Petr Hejl

Petr Hejl

Staff Member
Moderator
Thank you Nathan, this is also my favorite shot:) I love long exposure night shots- until now, this technique has been only limited to cameras on tripods. The long shutter speeds (2 or more seconds) require the camera to be perfectly steady, so only the lights on moving objects create light trails. These light trails a huge part of the long exposure photo appeal. I am still amazed by the fact that drones and gimbals have advanced to the point where it's actually possible to get fairly blur-free long exposure shots. Even then, you really need to take multiple shots, as even the slightest drift in camera or gust of wind is guaranteed to blur the image out.
This long exposure Manhattan skyline picture is taken with DJI Inspire 1 and X3 camera, and it was a little gusty, so I was left with 6 decent blur-free shots out of about 100 (lots of patience required). It is captured in RAW (.DNG), the shutter speed for this shot was actually 4 seconds (got lucky for that long), ISO 100, white balance set manually to 2900K.
I love the ability to shoot RAW, it leaves a lot of detail in the image to work with in post, which is a big part of our art.
The picture was edited in Adobe Lightroom - color grading is a huge part of making a picture into a piece of art. Just to show you how much difference did the grading make in this case, here is a low res version of the original photo:
Manhattan non-graded-3.jpg
 

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Petr Hejl

Petr Hejl

Staff Member
Moderator
Me and Erick just recorded a segment about long exposure night photography for the next Drone Vibes Podcast, where I reveal all my secrets behind my long exposure night shots and give a few valuable tips, so stay tuned! Also, guys, I'd love to see some of your night pics, so, please, post them in here.
I'll be also happy to answer any of your questions about the editing process here!
 


T

Talon Six

Member
Here's a night long exposure of my landlord's house (photographed at his request). I wish I had known Petr's "secret sauce" of night photography from the podcast when I took this several months ago; I think it could have turned out a lot better if I had cranked the white balance down.

Taken with an Inspire 1 and the X3 camera.
Barrel Factory Night.jpg
 

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Petr Hejl

Petr Hejl

Staff Member
Moderator
Talon Six said:
Here's a night long exposure of my landlord's house (photographed at his request). I wish I had known Petr's "secret sauce" of night photography from the podcast when I took this several months ago; I think it could have turned out a lot better if I had cranked the white balance down.

Taken with an Inspire 1 and the X3 camera.
View attachment 10
Click to expand...
Great shot, you can actually adjust the white balance in post (in Lightroom, etc.). I prefer to set it to 2000-3000k as a great starting point, ant take it from there in post. Also, I am posting a long-exposure photography how-to article and tutorial video tonight, tons of "Peter's secret sauce stuff there". Color grading is a huge part of long exposure photography. Once it's up, I'd love to know if you find the tutorial helpful, please, share your photos as you experiment. Cheers!
 


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