Photographer uses drone mounted strobes to put light in impossible places
Jun 6, 2017
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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Sometimes, it’s just impossible to set down a light stand, especially on location. Your stands might not be tall enough to get the light where you want. Perhaps the ground is just completely uneven. There may not even be any ground there at all. These days, though, we have other options.
For Chinese photographer Fuyan Liu, that option was to mount Godox AD200 flashes to DJI Inspire 2 drones. We’ve seen similar before, from both Nikon and Canon. And even Elinchrom. But it’s still been a little out of reach for most photographers. With today’s more capable drones, and powerful lights decreasing in weight, it’s starting to become more of a reality.
Mounting a flash to a drone has its obvious advantages. You can use flash in places that might otherwise be impossible. The light can also be at any position pointing at any angle you wish. It also looks pretty damn cool!
Of course, it does have its drawbacks. Drones, especially something like the Inspire 2 is vastly more expensive than a light stand. They also have limited flight time, which is cut even shorter with the added weight of a flash.
You’d also need an assistant to control the drone. More if you use multiple drones. And, depending on where you live, that assistant may need to have certain licenses and insurance for commercial use. This is going to drive that cost up even more.
I shoot a lot in locations where it’s difficult or impossible to put down light stands. Flying a flash was the original reason I picked up a DJI F550 last year. It’s not exactly the most technically advanced UAV, but it’s powerful enough to lift a speedlight or two (or an AD200). Ultimately, though, I still haven’t used it for this purpose.
I can’t fly it myself while shooting, and I don’t know anybody locally that I’d trust enough to be able to fly it safely for me. I also just prefer soft light on location too much. And that’s the big drawback with something like this. Even if you had a quadcopter or hexacopter big enough to handle the weight of even a small softbox, the wind would still win.
If you’re a fan of hard light, though, or just want to add a nice rim light to help augment a sunset, it can work. A bare AD200 or speedlight weighs relatively little. It’s enough that I wouldn’t want to take my chances with something like a Mavic. But something like an F550 or Inspire could handle it quite comfortably. As you can see.
I think I might have to start looking a little harder for somebody to fly my F550 for me.
How do you put flashes in hard-to-reach places?
[via WeTalkUAV]
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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13 responses to “Photographer uses drone mounted strobes to put light in impossible places”
So if one or all of those drones malfunction and fall to the ground, and god forbid crash into people… is that really a good idea? Those drones weren’t made to fly with devices it wasn’t made or approved for.
If you mount a camera on a car, and it falls off or the car crashes and kills someone, is that really a good idea? Those cars weren’t made to drive “with devices it (sic) wasn’t made or approved for.”
Drones were made to lift weights similar to those of speedlights. Fly them safely and they’re not notably dangerous. Even if you were to be stupid and crash one, they’re significantly less dangerous than many other things that photographers use all the time. (And no, I don’t fly speedlights with drones.)
I’m about tired of Chicken Little-ing about drones.
Let’s put this in better perspective: Though there are plenty of bad drivers, but everyone has a has to be tested and licensed in order to drive a car, and they drive on a daily basis every day.
Let’s put this into a more personal perspective- would you want your wife and children on the sidewalk directly below these three modified chinese drones purchased off the internet, while some person, maybe 15 years old, maybe 30, maybe checking his phone or taking his eyes off everything to talk to his buddy about last night’s basketball game? If you say you’re ok with that, then i’ll respectfully not believe you for one second. For fun, google ‘drone accidents’, or the even more disturbing, ‘freak drone accidents’. Here’s the link to that, you’ll find it hilarious, in a chicken little kind of way. http://www.oddee.com/item_99669.aspx
And just a side note: a 7.25 lb (8.45lbs with the Godox) mechanical device dropping from the top of a skyscraper onto someone is more than enough height to make it fatal for whoever it hits. Physics!
That stuff happens everyday with a young car driver taking his eyes off the road and killing people, but you still have your kids in a car don’t you, how many chinese drones purchased of the internet have killed someone by falling out of the sky? Put that into perspective! And just a side note, there are plenty of drivers that either have there license suspended or don’t have one, caught all the time on the roads!!
Please read my original response regarding googling drone accidents. You’ll find that a good amount were mechanical, with the rest being operator error. Mind you, these are things suspended very high up in the air- a car can swerve, but it’s still anchored to the ground by gravity, and the operator can steer away or hit the brakes. A drone on the other hand, could fail and drop straight down to earth right on top of your head or take your eye out by the operator who wasn’t competent enough to fly is correctly, as was the case of the drone operator in the UK who lost control of his drone and took the eye out of a little baby. (You can google that, and i promise, no car ever took out the eye of a baby). Don’t mind me though, if you hit someone, your insurance will cover it. You injure someone with your drone and prepare to get sued if and when your insurance says drones aren’t covered under your accident policy. :)
Please READ MY original response, not one person has been killed by a drone falling from the sky, you are trying to make a reach thats just not there! Cars KILL people everyday from distracted, drunk, unlicensed and uninsured drivers EVERY DAY! No drone has taken an eye of a little baby either, but car accidents have, stop trying to make hysteria where there is none! BTW, drones are insured, I have insurance, but again people kill people and at the least get into accidents that cause property and human damage and DONT have insurance, yet you will still drive and put your family in a car that has a better chance of being hurt no matter what you do than a drone falling out of the sky and poking a babies eye out…classic chicken little here.
Read about the guy who blinded a baby with his drone: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3336366/Horrific-picture-shows-toddler-left-blind-one-eye-drone-propeller-sliced-eyeball-half.html
Also, read what happens when you have problems controlling your drone and crash it into someone, resulting in jail time for the operator:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/27/14755116/jail-sentence-drone-crash-30-days-seattle
I won’t visit you in jail, but i’ll send you a get out of prison soon card with a cute chicken on the front of it. (Btw, if a 7.25 pound object drops from the rooftop height of a skyscraper and lands on someone, i can promise you, nobody is going to walk away from it and live to tell the story) ;)
Family and BABY killed in car crash…let me know if you can find someone killed by a drone falling out of the sky…your argument isn’t holding up!
http://nypost.com/2017/04/30/family-mourns-3-year-old-killed-in-car-crash/
Please be nice instead of obtuse and hopelessly uneducated, thx
Im a drone pilot and a car driver, your sensationalism and misguided attempts to act as if there is some serious and unique issues with a drone flying around doesn’t merit any more concern than other vehicles in society (you must be a reporter trying to drum up fake news!). Your argument has no facts and you seem to be the uneducated one, since you CAN get insurance for drones. When a drone falls out of the sky and kills someone, Im sure you will be the first to let us know, until then..good day!
I can only think of some very fringe scenarios, where this would be a better alternative over a long boom. The thing is, in most of these scenarios you’d also need a lot of light power. So a larger drone carrying an ELB 1200 for example. But then there is also the matter of soft lighting… large softboxes… wind…
This post is worthless without the actual RESULTS, and not just a behind the scenes look at people flying drones with speedlights attached. .
This. How is there not a single result image in this post?