Aerial Photography
Whether you are a professional photographer taking aerial photos for your client or an amateur photographer looking for a unique perspective, a helicopter can provide the perfect shooting platform.
Who can take Aerial Photographs?
Whether you are a professional photographer taking aerial photos for your client or an amateur photographer looking for a unique perspective, a helicopter can provide the perfect shooting platform.
As a photographer you will want to remain in control of the position of the camera lens when shooting your pictures. Just because you are sitting in a helicopter with a pilot at the controls this doesn’t change. Feel free to ask the pilot to manouvre the helicopter to put you in the best possible position to capture the subject. You can direct the helicopter pilot to increase or decrease height, turn to the left or to the right of even come into the hover to give you more time to compose your photo.
Your Sony, Nikon or Canon is an expensive piece of technology, designed to produce the sharpest images. So we wouldn’t expect you to compromise the finished quality by introducing image reflection and refraction artefacts which occur when you shoot through the perspex cockpit canopy. All our photographic charters are flown with the doors off for clear untainted photo’s no matter what f-stop you use.
Our customers include commercial photographers shooting industrial, commercial, and residential properties; artistic photographers shooting landscapes, beaches, sunrises and sunsets; hobbyist photographers, photo-journalists, social media bloggers and vloggers etc etc.
If you can imagine a photo, we can help bring it to fruition. Feel free to give us a call to discuss your requirements with one of our friendly operations staff or else click on the “enquiries” button to send us an email.
Aerial Photography Support
Touchdown Helicopters can provide advice, tips and tricks based on many years of flying commercial and amateur photographers alike.
Telephoto Lens
Depending on your artistic or commercial requirements, we would ordinarily advise use of a wide to mid-range focal length lens. For use of lenses of focal length greater than say 80mm, unless you have a “fast lens”, the shutter speeds available can be quit restrictive and can introduce blur into your imagery.
Vibration
Shooting in bright daylight conditions is not an issue. As long as you support your camera without resting on any of the solid surfaces of the helicopter, you can choose a fast aperture setting and shutter speed to expose the picture without introducing blur due to vibration.
Low Light
Shooting in low-light, at night or whenever you want to use slower shutter settings can be a enough of a problem even when based on the ground. The longer exposures can introduce unwanted image blur and when you are flying in a helicopter the challenge can be even greater. If you prefer to leave your camera lens’ optical image stabilser turned off then perhaps a mini-gyro can you give you the optimal stabilised platform to shoot on.
Technical Summary:
Focal range: Wide – Medium
Point-of-view: Side
Maximum Camera weight: 18kg
Movement: Pan left or right, some tilt
Install time: 30 minutes
Stabilization: K8 Gyros
We can arrange the delivery of a Tyler Mini Gyro fro your use on the day of your flight at additional expense
