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Three Ways to Create Depth in Your Drone Photos
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DJI Grace
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The following tutorial is adapted from
https://djiphotoacademy.com/create-depth-in-drone-photos/
Author:  Randy Jay Braun


A good practice in photography is to incorporate a foreground, middleground, and background to create the perception of depth. One of the challenges often faced by we drone photographers is that we lose foreground elements once we are airborne with a camera. As a result, drone photos often lack depth and appear flat. Here we will discuss methods to create more depth with your aerial photos.

1.png
(Shooting between tree branches adds a sense of depth and voyeuristic intrigue for the viewer.)

The most effective method to add depth to your composition is to fly your drone lower and position it so that tree branches, or a building, or other tall object is fairly close to the camera. If you can position your subject between branches of a tree, this is a real bonus. Photographers sometimes refer to this effective style as voyeuristic framing, as it gives the viewer a sense of secretly capturing a glimpse.
2.png
(In this example, depth is created with both vignetting and leading lines.)

Another way to create depth is to slightly desaturate and/or darken the foreground of the image. This is similar to creating a standard vignette in post processing, but with additional strength of the adjustment along the bottom portion of the photo.
Finally, lens focus can be used to create additional depth in your aerial photographs. Mind you, many smaller drone cameras do not have the capability to create much boket, or shallow focus (this requires a larger lens with adjustable aperture). I do hope that we will eventually see “boket mode” built in to drone cameras, just as it was recently released on the iPhone 7. Until then, we are definitely able to create the shallow depth of field in post editing, with tilt-shift effect or painting on some gaussian blur with an adjustment brush.

3.png
(Both light and blur effects are used here to create depth in an otherwise lifeless image.)
4.png
(Try using a tilt-shift focus adjustment in post process to create depth to a flat drone photograph.)

Don’t forget the background of the image. With today’s powerful post-processing tools such as “Dehaze” slider in Adobe Lightroom, and the Accent AI filter in Macphun Luminar, we can clean the haze from the sky instantly. This is not always a wise artistic decision because an appropriate amount of haze will give the perception of distance and depth in your photograph.
Have fun practicing these methods with your drones. Thanks to products made by DJI, placing a camera effortlessly in the sky has encouraged artists and techies of all levels to become more interested in photography skills and techniques. Each day on social media we are captivated by these extraordinary new perspectives of the world around us.




Authors Randy Jay Braun & Stacy Garlington are co-founders of the DJI Aerial Photo Academy, providing live city-to-city workshops guiding attendees to create better aerial drone photographs for work and for play. A current workshop schedule can be found at www.djiphotoacademy.com and on their facebook page. Please contact randy-stacy@djiphotoacademy.com with any questions.

2017-10-17
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JustLev
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WOW thank you!
2017-10-17
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M.C. Pilot
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Good tips for sure.
2017-10-17
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CoreyB10
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Always try and shoot with eye leading shots. Keeps the image interesting. Remember, it's just like shooting with a normal camera. It can take multiple shots before you get the one that counts. I must have taken hundreds and deleted hundreds that looked good at the time but once home and editing - They were no good. Practice hard you must. Results you will get over time.
2017-10-17
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Woe
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Great tip. Thanks
2017-10-17
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Bastien Flies
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Great tips, thanks! The first picture can also be used to illustrate the best ways of crashing your drone though
2017-10-17
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J-Man
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This is great example of the rule of thirds in photography. Here is a link to add to what was said above....
http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/rule-of-thirds[/url]
2017-10-17
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travelrikk
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Great post! Love those tilt shift images.

Don't mean to be a grammar nazi but bokeh is spelt as boket
2017-10-17
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travelrikk
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What I'd also be interested in is stacking multiple photos tutorial in order to get better quality images from the mavic.
2017-10-17
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StanfordWebbie
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Very nice article.  Thanks.  I'll definitely use the "darken foreground" idea.
2017-10-17
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Matthew Chirico
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good advice, I've used foreground objects before to get a nice looking photo! works great!
2017-10-17
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Genghis9
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Thank you, appreciate the pointers
2017-10-17
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Montfrooij
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Great item!
2017-10-17
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AlanHd
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Great tips thanks for sharing.
2017-10-17
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ACW
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Great tips - thank you
2017-10-17
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Quadified
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Great tips and photos! The photo with the abandoned cars/buildings almost looks like a diorama, like looking into a box model.
2017-10-17
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HecticPancakes
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Nice ty 4 the tips
2017-10-17
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Gregbella
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Thanks for that great tips
2017-10-18
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Ken Huang
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Nice post, thank you very much, I will try it myself.
2017-10-18
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fansabfa1722
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Thanks for these tips from the future. Can you also tell us whether FW .700 is already outside? Unbenannt-1.jpg
2017-10-18
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AG0N-Gary
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travelrikk Posted at 2017-10-17 06:41
Great post! Love those tilt shift images.

Don't mean to be a grammar nazi but bokeh is spelt as boket

In all my years on photo forums, it has always been BOKEH.
2017-10-18
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DJI Susan
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fansabfa1722 Posted at 2017-10-18 06:57
Thanks for these tips from the future. Can you also tell us whether FW .700 is already outside? [view_image]

Do you refer the firmware of Spark? I'm not sure as we have not got any official update of this. We will release on our website as soon as it is ready. Please keep an eye of our official website.
2017-10-18
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Jenee 2
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DJI Susan Posted at 2017-10-18 18:53
Do you refer the firmware of Spark? I'm not sure as we have not got any official update of this. We will release on our website as soon as it is ready. Please keep an eye of our official website.

I know my PC is on the correct date but your response to this post is next year???

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2017-10-18
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DJI Susan
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Jenee 2 Posted at 2017-10-18 20:33
I know my PC is on the correct date but your response to this post is next year???

Jenee, we have been aware of this and will fix it soon. Appreciate your attention.
2017-10-18
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Fruxen
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Nice post!

Also remember that vignette doesn't always have to be heavy for that dreamlike and arty photo effect. Sometimes you want that look, sometimes you just want a photo to look nice but normal. Just a little bit of  vignette can add some depth to a flat photo without being noticable.
2017-10-18
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fansabfa1722
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DJI Susan Posted at 2017-10-18 18:53
Do you refer the firmware of Spark? I'm not sure as we have not got any official update of this. We will release on our website as soon as it is ready. Please keep an eye of our official website.

No, just a joke ... I am wondering about the posting-date. Signs from the universe?
2017-10-18
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qishang_163
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Very beautiful !
2017-10-18
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DJI Susan
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fansabfa1722 Posted at 2017-10-18 23:24
No, just a joke ... I am wondering about the posting-date. Signs from the universe?

Ha ha, I'm aware of this as well. It has been fixed, please check later.
2017-10-19
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Brum Ken
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nice bud thanks for the post
2017-10-19
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fans0f9fe6af
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Good short article. I always have to remind myself that this is just a flying camera and I was a photographer first.
2017-10-19
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DocAraxá
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Great tip! Specially for me that prefer photos than videos.
2017-10-20
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drone flyer 955
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Amazing photos and great tips! Thank you!
2017-10-20
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CraigR
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Excellent. But don't forget an almost empty frame to create depth. E.g. an isolated polar bear on a seemingly endless field of ice can create a great sense of depth even though there is no depth there at all.

Edit: isolated polar bear taken from height... e.g. drone or airplane ;)
2017-10-21
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larrymull
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Very good article, well done
2017-10-22
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larrymull
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Also good subject and light definitely help any quality image.
2017-10-22
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Kenneth R.
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travelrikk Posted at 2017-10-17 06:41
Great post! Love those tilt shift images.

Don't mean to be a grammar nazi but bokeh is spelt as boket

But Your right, it is and has always been BOKEH https://www.google.bg/search?q=b ... prtWePlGI3IXvCznLgE
2017-10-22
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travelrikk
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AG0N-Gary Posted at 2017-10-18 10:35
In all my years on photo forums, it has always been BOKEH.

I know, that how I've always known it. I was just pointing out to DJI Grace as in the article it is written as 'boket'
2017-10-23
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travelrikk
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Kenneth R. Posted at 2017-10-22 23:32
But Your right, it is and has always been BOKEH https://www.google.bg/search?q=bokeh&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=9prtWePlGI3IXvCznLgE

Check my reply above^^
2017-10-23
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harne89
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Thanks admin, that was really nice tips and i would definitely use them in order to get better quality images from the mavic.
2017-10-24
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harne89
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One more thing i want to say that i am following a resource http://www.fitdrones.com/ which is helping my assignment and i want more suggestions from the people who are busy in any drone assigments. Also please let me know that drone cameras are variable to zoom in?
2017-10-24
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