Drone portrait photography guide: How to shoot and edit portrait photos with your drone
There are challenges to be overcome, and drones are far from immune. Perhaps most challenging is that most drones can’t take portrait photos – they can only take landscape pictures. But it’s not the end of the world because our drone portrait photography guide will show you an easy way around the problem.
Even among the best drones, only three consumer drones have been made that can rotate the camera 90° to portrait (upright); the original DJI Mavic Pro (opens in new tab)the DJI Mavic Mini 3 Pro and the Autel EVO Lite (opens in new tab) the latter two models are currently available. So your drone can probably only take landscape photos.
With this general limitation, the only way to capture portrait/portrait images is to capture vertical panoramas, which consist of three to five landscape images. These are best captured in raw format, processed in Lightroom, and then merged in Photoshop to create an erect photograph of a scene. The whole process is easy to navigate, and with this guide, you’ll be sure to create this type of image in no time.
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Step by step how to take a vertical panorama with a drone
Shooting vertical panoramas can be accomplished in less than 20 seconds if you’ve shot this way a few times. You simply compose your shots, starting at the top or bottom of the scene, and take a picture before just rotating the gimbal, so the current photo overlaps half of the previous one to ensure a seamless fade during editing. The most important aspect of shooting is balancing the exposure between the darker ground and the lighter sky, so shooting with the sun behind the drone makes things a lot easier.
1. Fly into position
Check a smartphone app like Drone Assist to make sure it’s safe and legal to fly where you’ve chosen and that there are no ground obstructions like poles that could pose a risk. Keep in mind that it is important to be aware of the drone regulations in your area. Fly the drone into position and hover while adjusting the gimbal angle vertically to ensure the drone’s point of view allows you to capture the scene vertically.
2. Take the first picture
Set the camera to single frame mode and make sure the file capture is set to raw. Set ISO to 100 and if your drone has an adjustable aperture, set it to between f/2.8 – f/5.6, then set your shutter speed using the histogram as a guide. If you have a fixed aperture drone, just adjust the shutter speed. Point the gimbal at the bottom of the scene and take the first of three to five shots. Need inspiration? Then check out our Where Can I Fly My Drone? Article for some top location ideas.
3. Complete the vertical panorama
Move the gimbal up slightly and make sure the next shot contains the top half of the previous shot. Rotating the gimbal up adjusts the shutter speed to match the exposure in each shot. Take the next photo and repeat the process until you have all the required frames. Some scenes may only require three shots, while others may require four or five to capture the entire vertical scene.
Step by step how to edit a vertical panorama shot with a drone
The great thing about shooting vertical panoramas is that you end up with much more detailed, higher resolution images than your drone can capture natively. Not to mention that social media platforms often prefer portrait over landscape images. The editing process is simple and requires Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, the most commonly used photo editing software options.
1. Import and process
Import your images into Lightroom and process the first image of the set of three to five shots. For these images, contrast was added using the Tone Curve, which adjusted whites and blacks, and increased texture and clarity to bring out detail. Depending on the scene, you may also need to adjust shadows and highlights. Once the first image is processed, hold down Shift and click on the last image.
2. Sync and refine settings
Press the Sync button and when the dialog box opens, click Mark All and then Sync to apply the settings from the first image to all the others so the processing will match. Everyone’s exposure can vary slightly, so go through each image and adjust the exposure as necessary so the exposure matches. When you’re satisfied, select all the images by clicking the first one, holding down Shift and clicking the last one.
3. Export, merge and crop
In Photoshop, go to File > Automate > Photomerge and leave Layout set to Automatic. Set Use to Folder and locate your image folder before clicking OK. Once the panorama is composed, use the crop tool to crop out the blank space around the image, and then use Save As to save the new image.