This document provides tips for capturing your first aerial photos using a drone. It recommends choosing a drone with GPS and gimbal camera stabilization. The best times and locations depend on the season and time of day to avoid glare. While sunny days provide the brightest photos, cloudy conditions can also work well by balancing light. The document describes different types of aerial photo angles including oblique, vertical, wide shot, and panoramas. Links are provided for additional learning resources on aerial photography techniques.

1. Capture Your First
Aerial Photo
by Ardimiharjo
ardimiharjo@yahoo.com

2. 1. Choose Your Aerial Gears
There are so many ways to take photo from above.
The most common and practical ways to do it nowadays is using DRONE
or Quadcopter.
We recommend you to choose drones which has GPS features and also
equipped with camera GIMBAL to ensure you have stabilized image

3. 2. Define Your Objects
Is it scenery, area mapping, or maybe just peeping on neighbors ?
We recommend you to choose drones which has GPS features and also
equipped with camera GIMBAL to ensure you have stabilized image.

4. 3. Seize Your Location
The landscape can look completely different depending on the season. Spring and autumn
usually offer the most colorful pictures. They are the perfect time to capture fields in flower or
orange-colored forests...
Winter is interesting if you have the chance to fly around a mountainous area. However, any
plain under snow can look even more flat and monotonous.
It is also important to choose the right time of the day and, more specifically, to check the
position of the sun in the sky. Because of the altitude, the risk of dazzle increases in late
afternoon when the sun is low in the horizon. The sunset can offer spectacular views but with
extreme contrasts between the sky and the land making it very difficult to capture. If you're
flying when the sun is low, if possible choose the seat opposite to the sun.

5. 4. Is It Sunny Out There?
Unless the pilot is a very good friend of yours, you probably
won't have the opportunity to postpone the date of your flight
and wait for the perfect weather. Do not be too disappointed if
you are not flying in a perfect blue sky, you can always take
advantage of a cloudy sky.
Of course, sunny days provide in most cases the brightest
pictures and accentuate the details of the ground. However,
even when the weather on the ground is perfectly clear, you
can encounter haze with altitude, significantly reducing your
visibility and misting over your pictures.
I find the best conditions come with a fairly cloudy day. Clouds
have the advantage to naturally balance the light, and can also
be a good shooting subject. Look out for funny shapes!
An overcast sky inevitably reduces the light on the ground,
tarnishing the pictures, but can also provide the right
conditions for dramatic photos.

6. 5. An Angel’s Angle is…
OBLIQUE - The most common type of aerial photograph. It is shot
looking down at an angle to the ground
HIGH OBLIQUES
include the horizon
LOW OBLIQUES
doesn’t include the horizon
(NEAR) VERTICAL - A photograph taken
(almost) vertically above the subject,
which are needed for scaling and
mapping purposes or various occasion
WIDE SHOT - A photograph taken usually
to show the subject in context with its
immediate surroundings
PANORAMA - A loose term, usually referring to an exceptionally 'wide'
shot, which includes a large area of the horizontal view

7. Check da List
http://photo.net/learn/aerial/primer
http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/aerial-photography-tips-for-your-first-flying-
experience--photo-5071
http://findaerialphotography.com/photograph_types.php
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/87186942760483935/
Personal documentation of Branch Bengkulu

8. ardimiharjo@yahoo.com
Thank You