How to Create a Depth Effect in an Aerial Photograph

To cap­ture a beau­ti­ful and high-qual­i­ty pic­ture from a quadro­copter on your own, you need to try very hard. Do not for­get that you need to con­vey a sense of depth for a good shot. In this arti­cle, we will tell you how to take high-qual­i­ty shots using an unmanned aer­i­al vehi­cle.

If we com­pare shoot­ing from an unmanned aer­i­al vehi­cle and using a cam­era, then the drone has a much wider view. Thus, with this device, you can get more beau­ti­ful and inter­est­ing pic­tures of the land­scape.

We rec­om­mend exper­i­ment­ing when shoot­ing from a quad­copter, chang­ing the height and angle so that you can get sev­er­al dif­fer­ent shots of the same object.

If you low­er the lens when shoot­ing a sub­ject, the pic­ture may turn out flat and bor­ing. It’s bet­ter to exper­i­ment with shoot­ing by tilt­ing the lens slight­ly at an angle. This method will help you con­vey a sense of depth in the pho­to.

6 tips for bet­ter pho­tog­ra­phy

1. Foreground and background are very important.

Expe­ri­enced pho­tog­ra­phers know that the frame space is divid­ed into three parts: the fore­ground, the back­ground, and the sub­ject.

Now let’s take a clos­er look at what this means. As you under­stand, the fore­ground is the space between the cam­era and the sub­ject. As for the back­ground, this is the space behind the object.

Both shots play an impor­tant role in shoot­ing. Thanks to them, you can make a sense of the depth of the shoot­ing, which will give the pho­to more expres­sive­ness.

There is a tricky trick: by par­tial­ly hid­ing the sub­ject behind the fore­ground, you can cre­ate a dis­tinct sense of depth.

The sec­ond inter­est­ing tech­nique is under­lin­ing the back­ground, if you want to empha­size the depth of the frame space.

2. Lines of approach.

Lines can cre­ate a sense of depth in space that will sur­prise any­one who looks at such a frame.

Lines can sig­nif­i­cant­ly increase depth. Just look at this boat in the pho­to. Indeed, it is amaz­ing!

To high­light spe­cif­ic parts of the pho­to, you can shoot elon­gat­ed objects. Shad­ows will be a great option.

3. Blur.

This only applies to shots where the objects are in front, not behind. For you to under­stand, let’s look at the exam­ple of a DSLR cam­era. To blur the back­ground, you will need to increase the aper­ture, as well as apply man­u­al focus.

It should be under­stood that when shoot­ing from the air with a quad­copter, it will be quite dif­fi­cult to achieve blur. In this sit­u­a­tion, it is rec­om­mend­ed to turn to nature.

Pay atten­tion to the fog and clouds, because they can add ele­gance and charm to the pho­to. With a lit­tle exper­i­men­ta­tion, you can achieve the most amaz­ing and delight­ful shots.

4. Contrast.

You can take pho­tos much deep­er if you use col­or con­trast. This is a great way to make your pho­to look much bet­ter.

Expe­ri­enced pho­tog­ra­phers know that warm col­ors reduce dis­tance, while cool col­ors have the oppo­site effect. Thus, you can use this knowl­edge to make the max­i­mum depth of the pho­to. Take advan­tage and you won’t regret it.

Col­ors are impor­tant in pho­tog­ra­phy. They allow you to influ­ence the human per­cep­tion of space. If we talk about light col­ors, then they allow you to make the object a lit­tle larg­er and clos­er. If we talk about dark col­ors, then every­thing hap­pens the oth­er way around.

Find the per­fect bal­ance between white and black. If you man­age to do this, then you can take pho­tos that will always have depth.

5. Vertical photo.

Try tak­ing a hor­i­zon­tal and then a ver­ti­cal pho­to of the same loca­tion. Now com­pare these two pic­tures. See? The ver­ti­cal shot is much deep­er than the hor­i­zon­tal shot.

Let’s see why this hap­pens? The fact is that a ver­ti­cal pho­to allows you to get more detailed details than a hor­i­zon­tal ver­sion.

6. Do not be afraid to create, and you will get excellent results.

The last tip, which will also allow you to cre­ate a depth effect. We are talk­ing about pho­to post-pro­cess­ing.

If you take a look at the pho­to above, you can see how the pho­tog­ra­ph­er was able to process an ordi­nary shot, giv­ing it an inter­est­ing effect that you could see in the movie Incep­tion. If you repeat this effect, you can add depth to the pho­to, and in gen­er­al, you will get an amaz­ing shot that will amaze any­one.

Now take a look at anoth­er pho­to, which is also locat­ed above. Pho­tog­ra­ph­er Pan­vel­vet was able to cap­ture this incred­i­ble shot, which looks like some­thing out of a sci­ence fic­tion movie, using a Phan­tom 4 Pro drone. By the way, this pho­tog­ra­ph­er was able to win the SkyP­ix­el com­pe­ti­tion, which was held in 2018. Prac­tice and you, too, can become a win­ner in one of these com­pe­ti­tions.

Of course, you need to try to cap­ture a high-qual­i­ty frame, but do not for­get about pho­to pro­cess­ing. With the help of pro­cess­ing, you can turn an ordi­nary pho­to­graph into some­thing tru­ly unique and delight­ful.

Now you know 6 tips that will help you take unimag­in­able pho­tos with the help of an unmanned aer­i­al vehi­cle. Take a drone and go in search of amaz­ing shots.