Aerial Photography

[gundy74]

I like flying (as you can tell by my avatar) and I like photography (which is why im on this site). I want to combine the two and get into aerial photography. any tips?

 

[64North]

Are you thinking oblique or orthograpic photos?
Business or pleasure?

 

[SleepingWolf]

tips?
don't drop the camera

 

[Orrin]

I did a liitle of this many years ago from a 'straight tailed' Cessna 150.
The left window would open and fasten up against the wing, leaving
a large (and windy) open area.

Using a 150mm lens taped to an infinity focus, I would shoot just forward
of the wheel and not include the propeller.

Doing a "forward slip'" to the left would reduce the relative motion between
the aircraft and the ground.

 

[gundy74]

tips?
don't drop the camera

thanks, ill try to remember that one! my shots will mostly be for pleasure. if theyre good, then ill keep them in my photo collection. if they are really good, then I might enter one one in a contest.

and I have no idea what orthographic or oblique photograpghy means

 

[Unimaxium]

Airic should know a good bit about this. He's really into aviation photography. Hopefully he'll pop in at some point and share what he knows.

 

[Nic_sblx3]

Hi,

We love flying RC and full size aircraft add photography to that and you get:

http://www.helicam.co.za

Have fun flying and getting payed for it!!!!!

 

[mysteryscribe]

I promised I wasn't going to tell any more stories from the old days but alas here I am again..

A gentleman who owned a cemetary called me. Asked if I would shoot a picture of his property from the air. I said sure if you pay me what I ask. He agreed. I stopped by to see his 'old photo' it was made in the fifties. It looked fine but didn't show the newer parts of the cemetary.

He arranged a ride for me in a helicopter owned by the local power company. I had forgotten how it feels to ride in one of those things. I at least had a reverse sensation. The choper didn't go up the ground fell away under me. I remembered the feeling instantly, along with a lot more.

The thing was one of those total plexiglass bell choppers. I leaned out the window and shot a full 220 roll of high contast black and white film with my kowa 6.

I got back and developed them made a print and took it to him. He put it next to the one from the fifties. It was much, much softer. I looked at it a long time before I realized what had happened, the ground haze had distorted the focus of the camera. I was like shooting through a light fog.

This ended my aerial photo career. They occasionally shoot farms from airplanes around here, but they don't have to compare them to shots made when the air polution was much less.

 

[Philip Weir]

Mysteryscribe's post brought back some fond memories.
I have done countless aerial shoots over many years and remember when we were dedicated to shooting on a 10"x 8" format [excellent in a studio, but not made for doing hand held work] We set the camera up on the ground, with the focus obviously on infinity and rigged up a makeshift cardboard and coat hanger viewfinder and boarded the Cessna or it could have been an Auster. I sat in the back seat and, put in the double darks, and aimed the monster, while my accomplice cocked the shutter and fired it via a long cable realise. Not a great success, but great fun [and expensive] at the time.
You will find the flap window will stay up once you open it in a Cessna without you having to hold it, but don't waste your time shooting through the window. With an auto focus you won't need to tape your lens to infinity, I never even bother when shooting with a manual focus hassellbad.

Make sure you are in contact with the pilot through the intercom system. The wind noise will make it too hard to communicate otherwise and work out a system of signals; "up left wing" "turn right" etc. Go for it, you will love the excercise.

www.philipweirphotography.com

 

[nyyphan]

this is somewhat on topic:

Back in 2004-05 I worked for a company called Positive Systems (now out of business) and our primary work was creating mosaics out of aerial photography. Here's a couple sites where you can check out the work I did:

http://nris.mt.gov/nsdi/orthophotos/ - 1-foot resolution, 2004 imagery

http://maps.co.flathead.mt.us - Once you get into the map site and zoomed in on the right hand side you can expand the imagery and check "Imagery 2004." The entire area that is included in the imagery is around 14,000 acres, and each image to the mosaic (over 100) is around 2 GB in size.

As far as the actual taking of pictures, I really know nothing about how to do it properly, but I do know that there is a growing interest (especially by real estate) in obtaining the most recent photography. If I still had access to the software that was used to mosaic the imagery I would gladly pass that along. If you do decide to put a series of images together, I would suggest LizardTech. A lot of the programmers and code-writers from Positive Systems ended up there, and they have a very good product line.

 

[blooper]

ive seen the fish eye lens used alot with photos from the air. pictures of air diving or parashuting used them often. i think its to exxagerate the horizon line if there is one.