What are the latest drone photography trends and how can you stay ahead?

Capturing breathtaking aerial panoramas has become a top-notch trend in drone photography. These images provide a mesmerizing, wide-angle view of landscapes or cityscapes from above, offering a unique sense of depth and perspective. To create these stunning visuals, multiple photos taken at various angles are stitched together, or specialized software can generate them from a single shot.

Some fundamental tips to enhance your panoramic photography with your newest DJI mini drone: Use 4:3 aspect ratio for utilizing your 12MP sensor's full potential. Choose J+RAW for flexibility. Use built-in wide-angle panorama feature. Maintain low ISO in bright light and use second base ISO 800 in extreme low light conditions; adjust shutter speed for exposure. Start panoramas centered on the main point of interest or in the center of the frame. Manually set white balance for consistency. Utilize Adobe Lightroom for stitching RAW images into panoramas, enhancing overall image quality. Take advantage of Lightroom's AI noise reduction technology for optimal results, particularly with RAW images. Edit and export your images

Creating hyperlapse videos has become a rising trend in drone photography, offering a captivating way to showcase the dynamic transformation of a scene over time. These videos are achieved by capturing a sequence of photos at consistent intervals or by leveraging software to stabilize and enhance the footage. Hyperlapse videos provide a unique perspective, infusing energy and drama into the presentation of a location.

As of 2024, many new DJI and other manufacturer's drones now have the ability to automatically capture and/or stitch 360 images within the drone's native flying app. If you're looking for the highest resolution 360 images, you'll have to use dedicated software (like PTGui) to stitch the raw 360 images. Taking more than 18 images in a spherical pattern will result in less chances there will be "holes" in the 360, but again, most drones in the $500-$3000 range now can capture the images automatically. For 360 videos, you will need to use an external camera mounted to the drone. These can range in quality & price from $500-$15,000. Typically, you want to capture at least 4K resolution for 360 video to ensure a decent level of visual quality.

Infrared photography can be broken out into two different intents & purposes. Artistic infrared photography includes the use of physical lens filters, special sensors and/or post-processing techniques to create visually surreal visible light imagery. This type of imagery has an artistic purpose, making landscapes and scenes look significantly different than a normal, standard RGB image. Thermal photography is a form of infrared photography that has more of a commercial/inspection purpose, helping identify actual variations in temperature. A radiometric thermal camera provides exact temperature values for each pixel, whereas a non-radiometric sensor only offers a visual representation of heat difference without additional data.

Engaging in drone light painting introduces a playful and inventive dimension to your photography endeavors. This technique involves attaching a light source, like an LED or flashlight, to a drone, enabling the creation of captivating patterns and shapes in the darkness. You can control the drone manually or utilize software to pre-program the flight path and speed.