Lighting the night with a drone - landscape photography after dark

For a number of years I've managed to shoot with someone who has a drone with lights aboard. There is nothing special about the drone other than the skill of the operator or should that be bravery of the pilot!

I'm ashamed to say I haven't yet bought a drone. I've easily been able to afford a £1000 drone all the while but never been quite so brave as to put my money where my mouth is. I will buy one eventually! Maybe when I've taken leave of my senses and possibly consumed alcohol and give in to the temptation of the Buy It Now button!

So luckily for me, I've had a few occasions where I've been lucky enough to accompany a friend with a drone. This is a post of night landscape photos where a drone has featured in the shots.

Locking a Drone Donut over Flamborough

I have never heard anyone describe this as a drone donut but that's what this looks like to me.

On the DJI drones there is a feature where you can select a central point to fly around but is generally intended for loops in daylight. My friend here did experience a little trouble getting the drone to lock on to the lighthouse roof in the dark. The camera on the drone has a small sensor meaning it's not that great at seeing in the dark.

The Sir Tatton Sykes Memorial

We had intended to return to this 120 foot memorial in the dark fully expecting the sky to be clear for a star trail shot. Instead as we approached, it became obvious the fog wasn't going anywhere.

So undaunted, and we'd travelled many miles to get here, we improvised.

I got my friendly drone operator to position the drone behind the tip of the memorial and hold position for a few seconds before slowly descending to light up the ground a little more.

It's handy being a lightpainter at times!

My first drone light

A few years back I was obsessed with lighting things up in the dark throwing as many colours as I could at subjects in the dark.

This was my first drone lit shot even if there is a little flare off the Lume Cubes fitted to the drone.

Magpie Mine lit by drone

Since the above explosion in a paint factory image, I've become a little more subtle with lighting on subjects in the dark.

This will also always be a memorable occasion for me where my eyes were streaming with hay fever due to grass pollens. I never had it so bad!

Progression

This is a fairly recent shot where the drone was set to rotate around the top of this memorial. The bonus effect is the fantastic yet subtle lighting on the surroundings.

Tilt the lens back for distortion

To get the circle of light, it's a matter of timing to get the full 360 degrees without overlapping. I didn't quite get the circle right here but it serves as an example how difficult this can be.

Striking a pose in Padley

Here we mixed the lighting with an overhead drone lighting the scene and a backlight in the form of a flashgun on a light stand. The backlighting created background separation to make the trees stand out. We did try this with only light from the drone but adding the backlight improved the image by miles.

The Drinking Dinosaur

I've visited this rocky cliff edge on the East Yorkshire coast many times but never in complete darkness. Here we stood on the edge of a cliff in the pitch black of night and set the drone overhead to light the scene.

Note the sleeping seals we must have disturbed on the beach!

Aurora Borealis and Drone Light

On an Aurora event in August this year we lit the foreground with a drone. We found that due to the scale of the scene it was necessary to light one section at a time. This is a 3 shot composite image with the sky blended from the same 3 images.

Stanage Edge by Night

This is another early drone lit shot which I very much want to reshoot. This is a mix of lighting by me with an LED panel and light from overhead.

About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex, landscape and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; the social side of photography is always good!

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