Drone technology and camera technology are on converging courses. Photography and flight actually share a twin history of development dating to the turn of the twentieth century, with the Wright brothers’ first flight on the heels of the proliferation of Kodak’s “Brownie” box camera. But thanks largely to the smartphone revolution this convergence is now advancing at a remarkable rate, as core components for both drones and cameras become increasingly smaller and more powerful. It’s easier than ever—and with 3DR’s open copter platforms will soon be easier still—for drones to carry sophisticated professional-grade photography equipment, giving more and more photographers more and more options and opportunities to take to the air.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yOCTgVqmeQ
We’ve always wanted to see and document our world from above—be it sending cameras up with balloons, kites, even pigeons—and personal drones will open the aerial perspective to more people on the planet than ever before. Of course, right now only a very few people are flying their cameras, so today drones still have a gimmick’s edge to them, a way to distinguish yourself as a photographer capable of capturing the world from a new and unique viewpoint. But before we know it, our super-charged technology cycle will proliferate flying cameras, making them widespread and perhaps even commonplace.
This leaves us with a few questions. How fast is the technology advancing? Beyond a gimmick, what lasting values do drones offer photographers? How will we incorporate the technology as a tool for artistic innovation? And what will the aerial perspective mean to us in this new and fast-arriving era?
A new context
First, and probably most obviously, drones offer us incredible new ways of contextualizing our subjects. They let us see the forest, not just the trees. By pulling up and back, you can capture the entirety of something incomprehensibly large, like the first time you saw an aerial shot of the Grand Canyon. Aerial photography gives us a comprehensive, map-like sense of scale and environmental complexity, and now all of this enormity can come through a platform that weighs less than your laptop.
But even more interesting is seeing the single tree within the forest. Drones offer flexibility and range of movement that allows photographers to make interesting choices in framing our subjects, showing how they’re connected to the environment around them, how they fit into that vast fabric and exist and move within it. Aerial photography can connect us to our humanity, and can connect our humanity to something even larger, generating an empathy along the lines of what astronauts have described as the “overview effect.” Cast this way, drones easily supersede the “gimmick” tag; they’re storytelling devices that allow us to see our world anew, and to frame our subjects and their environment in interesting and compelling ways.
From a distance
We never want our subjects to be aware that we’re doing this, of course. As photographers, we’re always trying to be as unobtrusive as possible, to have our subjects forget or not even realize when we’re taking a photo so that we can capture something “real.” I remember when DSLRs first came out people always assumed you were only shooting photos, which meant that until the word got out you could take running video without your subjects really being aware of it. It was a level of abstraction, and worked metaphorically in the way a longer lens creates physical distance between photographer and subject, allowing you to get candid, spontaneous, more “real” shots. With drones we can abstract that even further and put a camera on a flying object, something that can operate at such a distance as to be almost completely inconspicuous, or on a plane that we’re not normally aware of. With a drone overhead, it’s easy to forget that the camera or the observer is present, which is what we’re always trying to get people to do anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXS-7ntYMe4
The problem today, however, is that with drones this distance is very real. We need better zoom capability, because a GoPro’s 20 mm lens is incredibly wide, especially from the air. With a 3DR IRIS+ ($750), for instance, which can carry both a GoPro and a stabilizing gimbal, you can get great map-like views as well as establishing or contextualizing shots, but it’s tough to really get tight on a subject. For that you’d need a more robust drone capable of carrying a bigger camera. In our case that would mean you’d level up to the X8+ ($1350), which has the payload capacity to carry mirrorless cameras like the Panasonic LX100, whose 24-75 mm (FFE) lens gives you options for choosing focal length. The X8+’s greater payload capacity ultimately translates into the ability to fly farther away and still get intimate shots. This is also incidentally good for safety: If you wanted to get tight with a GoPro, the props would be so close they’d blow hair around. So, beyond a Creed music video shoot, your options there are sort of limited.
How to get started
Drones offer obvious opportunities to capture shots that were previously very difficult if not impossible to get. To achieve the same effect a decade ago, you’d have to have access to a helicopter or plane, or alternatively a technocrane, mountaintop, or tall building. But those first two options are expensive and risky, and the last are all static points. 3DR drones are inexpensive and low-risk, and they offer unprecedented freedom of movement and range. You can get in the game with an IRIS+ at $750, or go professional with the robust X8+ at $1350.
Drone technology itself is also getting less and less exclusive by the day. With 3DR drones, which are fully automated and offer tablet-based control, flying a mission is easy. You no longer need to know how to fly a drone in order to fly a drone—just break out your tablet. If you can draw it, your 3DR drone can fly it. Pair this with our other advancements in autonomy—such as Region of Interest, which keeps the camera focused on a single still point in flight; or 3PV™ Follow Me, which enables the drone to follow and film a subject carrying a GPS-enabled Android device—and the possibilities of going hands-free begin to open up. “Dronie” has a snarky ring to it today, but given time to mature such a feature could reframe the way we approach portraiture.
Autonomy and ease of use bleeds into other realms of professional photography, as well. For instance, you can repeat any flight path exactly and at any time, a function that has a lot of value in real estate, inspection, agriculture and mapmaking. 3DR offers mapping platforms with a fully automated workflow: from flight planning, to the flight itself, taking all the right photos, and automated image processing to stitch all those raw images together into a hi-resolution map. In the new aerial age, given this level of exactitude and resolution, we might see a resurgence of maps as works of art in themselves.
Looking even further ahead, as a natural extension of autonomy we’re probably going to start seeing a reversal where cameras control the drones. After all, you don’t want autonomy—you want pictures. You’ll tell the camera which shots you want, from which angles and when, and the autopilot will adjust to the camera’s needs for focus, timing, angle, and distance. With innovations like this, 3DR will enable artists, and art, through technology.
Looking up
I believe one of the most interesting outcomes of the aerial age will be how this perspective comes back around; that is, how it will influence or alter our vision from the ground, traditional camera in hand. This hearkens back to the overview effect, but it could have even more potential than that. Larry Bird said his whole world changed when one day, as a high school player, he could in his mind suddenly and clearly see the whole court and all the players moving on it as if he were looking down from above. He could see where he was, and where everyone else wasn’t, and the game opened itself to him in a whole new way. Drones may open our terrestrial life to us in the same way, when we all have easier access to that new mental space that the aerial perspective will unlock. How would it feel to look out at your world and directly down at it at the same time? What would you see?
Hi Roger,
I am a full scale pilot as well as a photographer. I also fly radio controlled sailplanes. Viewers should be aware that there are safety issues involved with the operation of drones. The FAA, Federal Aviation Administration, states that they have full legal authority to regulate these devices.
Just this week an NTSB appeals court ruled against a photographer. The court ruled in favor of the FAA by upholding the FAA's $10,000 fine against the photographer. The FAA stated that the photographer busted a FAR, Federal Regulation, by flying to close to people on the ground.
Currently the FAA doesn't allow any commercial drone operations. Citizens can apply for a waiver. Currently some production companies in Hollywood have waivers to use drones on closed movie sets.
Thanks for the note, Bob! You raise a valid point. There’s a lot of uncertainty about whether this technology is even legal, for sure. Hope I can clear that up a little.
First, this article is a future cast, intended to educate and introduce some interesting possibilities that this emerging technology holds for aerial photography. The FAA has a mandate to implement regulations by next year, so commercial drone use will very soon be a reality -- let’s get a jump on understanding the potential for this technology so we can be ready!
As for the recent court decision you’re referencing, while major media coverage around the NTSB’s ruling in the FAA v. Pirker case has claimed that the decision means “the FAA can outlaw all U.S. drone flights,” “NTSB overturns Pirker case,” “FAA regulations are enforceable against drone and model aircraft operators” and “drones are aircraft subject to [FAA] rules,” these headlines don’t fully and accurately represent the decision. Brendan Schulman, counsel for Pirker’s defense, says that “the court’s ruling today means the FAA’s regulations are narrowly limited to whether unmanned aircraft systems are subject to an aviation safety regulation specifically concerning reckless operation.” Obviously this article isn’t advocating for anything like that, but merely raising some possibilities I find compelling, and even touts some advancements in technology that allow for longer focal lengths so you can get great shots at a safe distance. Also, the court’s narrow ruling doesn’t explicitly overturn the NTSB’s earlier decision in March, but instead sends the case back to the original NTSB judge to decide whether Pirker’s operations were in fact reckless -- and reckless operation is an issue that the NTSB has previously said requires further factual investigation before any penalty is imposed. “Furthermore,” Schulman adds, “the more significant question of whether the safe operation of drones for business purposes is prohibited by any law was not addressed in the decision, and is currently pending before the D.C. Circuit in other cases.”
Hope this addresses some of your concerns. The technology is already here. Let’s learn it, so we can be responsible and have foresight when it comes time for us to apply it.
I dont know much about the world of photo drones but man, the ability to click/tap way points and draw the tracking line for the camera to follow is pretty cool.
This is awesome!