Julian Baird 06/06/2018 Julian Baird 06/06/2018

Can You Print Images Captured from a Drone?

In the blog this week I look at printing images that were captured using a drone. Is there sufficient resolution and quality to justify making a print?

Capturing a Panoramic Image with a Drone

I'm a big fan of drones. I think they are an amazing bit of technology. Though I've taken still photos with my drone before, it is the video features that I use the most. The aerial footage you can insert into a vlog really helps tell the story of the location.

A few weeks ago though I published a video called Creating Panoramic Images of Glen Etive with a Drone. In the video, I used the drone to capture a big panoramic image of the Loch Etive area where I was staying on holiday. It was an image that I couldn't have captured if it wasn't for the drone.

Can You Print an Image Captured from a Drone

When the video was published a few people asked the question about how the image looked in print. After all, the camera sensor in a drone like the DJI Mavic Pro is nowhere as advanced as the sensor in my D850. However, does that mean that the images from a drone aren't worth printing?

As I'd never printed an image captured on one of my drones before I thought it would be a good time to find out. So, can you print an image captured from a drone? Let's find out.

As you saw in the video, it was more of a question of is their sufficient quality from a drone image to justify making a print. I think the answer is definitely yes. As long as the image is well composed and has good light, there is more than enough detail in the DNG files captured on a DJI Mavic Pro to justify making a print.

In the video, you also saw me try out a paper that I haven't used before. It was the Fotospeed Smooth Cotton 300. I really like this paper and this was my first time making a large print on a matt paper. You can really feel the weight of the paper and the surface has a real feel of quality about it. I think I'll need to try a few more prints using some of the matt papers I have in my Fotospeed Matt Smooth Test Pack.

So do you own a drone? Do you take still images with it? Have you ever printed a drone image? Let me know in the comments below.

Loch Etive Panorama - Taynuilt, Argyll: DJI Mavic Pro, 1/125th sec at f/2.2, ISO 100, 26mm (35mm equiv'), stitched from 9 DNG files — **Loch Etive Panorama** - Taynuilt, Argyll: DJI Mavic Pro, 1/125th sec at f/2.2, ISO 100, 26mm (35mm equiv'), stitched from 9 DNG files

Some of the links used in this article are Amazon affiliate links. By buying through the links I may receive a commission for the sale. This has no effect on the price for you.

Julian Baird 02/05/2018 Julian Baird 02/05/2018

Creating Panoramic Images of Glen Etive with a Drone: A 5 Minute Photo Adventure

In this blog post, I share with you the story, photographs and video of how I went about creating some aerial panoramic images with my DJI Mavic Pro drone.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have told you about my recent photography adventures to the Dalveen Pass, and to Kilchurn Castle. To be honest, given both these adventures were undertaken while on a family holiday I thought I was doing really well. After all, I was supposed to be spending time with my family.

Beinn Duirinnis

Landscape photograph aside one of the things I was most looking forward to doing while visiting Scotland was getting up into the hills. Or to be more precise the mountains! I love Devon. It's a beautiful county but I do miss walking the hills and mountains of the Scottish highlands.

When I suggested to my brother-in-law that maybe we should climb a Munro while I was visiting he couldn't have said yes fast enough. However, there was one slight problem. Despite it being April, there was still a lot of snow on the upper slopes of the higher mountains. Unfortunately, my skills as a hill walker don't include snow so we had to revisit our plan.

Almost directly opposite to where I was staying is a hill called Beinn Duirinnis. At only 550 m this was much more likely to be snow free. However, it would deliver magnificent views of north up Loch Etive towards Glen Etive. This was highlighted in Jager Scot's video and I thought a trip up this mountain might mean another chance for some landscape photography.

Unfortunately for me, Mother Nature hadn't finished delivering snow to Scotland, and an unexpected overnight dumping of snow meant that even Beinn Duirinnis became out of reach. Another plan was needed!

Landscape Photography from Your Back Garden

With almost every local mountain out with my skill set, I decided I would try something a little different. I had been playing with the drone a few days taking some panoramic images of the surrounding landscape. This got me thinking. Perhaps I could do some landscape photography without even leaving home and maybe produce a video to go with it!

With all the extra snow on the hills, I decided to send the drone up and see what I could capture. Here is how I got on:

As you saw, a drone can really open up some new creative options. It would have been impossible to capture those images without a drone. While I haven't used the drone that much for stills photography, this really did open my eyes again to the possibilities that this amazing bit of technology can offer.

Do you have an amazing view from your garden? Do you use a drone for stills photography? Let me know in the comments below.

Those Images

Here are those panoramic images you saw in the video. Enjoy!

This is the image I shot the evening I made the video. DJI Mavic Pro, 1/125th sec at f/2.2, ISO 100, 26mm (35mm equiv'), stitched from 11 DNG files.

I took this image a few days before I shot the video. I much prefer the light in this one. DJI Mavic Pro, 1/125th sec at f/2.2, ISO 100, 26mm (35mm equiv'), stitched from 9 DNG files.

Julian Baird 20/04/2018 Julian Baird 20/04/2018

Kilchurn Castle: A 5 Minute Photo Adventure (Special Edition)

In this blog post, I share with you the story, photographs and video of a near perfect morning at Kilchurn Castle on the banks of Loch Awe in Scotland.

More Landscape Photography on Holiday

In my recent blog post on Dalveen Pass, I talked about my desire to fit in some landscape photography while on an Easter holiday with the family. Dalveen Pass was easy to fit in as it was a short detour off the M74 while on the drive up to Scotland.

I was really looking forward to my family holiday but there was really no way I was going to spend a week in the highlands of Scotland and not do some sort of landscape photography! Fortunately, my family agreed (kind of) and so I was able to take a morning off from holidaying and take my camera out to capture some images. But where to go?

Kilchurn Castle

I was staying in a small village just outside of Oban in Argyll, so I could feasibly drive to any number of amazing locations. The obvious choice was to go to Glencoe. I had amazing photography adventure there last year, and normally I wouldn't hesitate to go back, but in the back of my mind, there was a location I wanted to visit even more.

Scotland has many amazing castles to photograph, but to me, Kilchurn Castle is one of my favourites. I grew up only a few miles away from Kilchurn Castle and so I had seen it from the road many, many times. I'd even visited the castle a couple of times. However, now that I am a landscape photographer I was desperate to revisit the castle to photograph it.

Picking the Right Day

With the exception of one day, I could pick any of my holiday days to visit Kilchurn Castle. A quick check of the weather forecast showed that the first full day of my holiday was for very light winds. This was ideal for the type of shot I wanted as there was a good chance that Loch Awe would be very still and provide some great reflections.

The only trouble was that I would need to get up very early and I would be tired from a long drive the day before. However, if the conditions were to be as predicted it would be so worth it!

Let's see how I got on.

As you can see the conditions were a bit of a mixed bag. I certainly got the glassy reflections on the loch, but these annoyingly disappeared for a while when the sun came up. The sky was also a little too clear. Some clouds would have added something a little extra to the images, but on the whole, it was a pretty special morning. Well worth getting up early for!

One thing you didn't see in the video was the other photographers that were there. I always enjoy having a chat with other photographers and the conversations I had were very welcome and good distraction from the cold. One of the photographers I chatted to, Dan Rooke, also has a YouTube channel, and I recommend you check it out here.

So have you photographed Kilchurn Castle before? Where would you have gone if you had just one morning to take photographs? Let me know in the comments below.

The Photographs

Here is a selection of the photographs I took that morning.