Aerial Drone Architectural Photography

Aerial Drone Architectural Photography

I was asked by an architect named Humphreys & Partners Architects who have offices in the US, Vietnam, China and Uruguay, to photograph some twilight aerial drone architectural photographs of a property in Austin, called  ThinkEast Austin. Student Housing photography is my main forte so this apartment complex was a familiar project. As a professional architectural photographer in Austin I have learned that the drone is my best friend. Just to be elevated 10 to 15 feet to photograph a structure can make all the difference. The rain had just ended and I launched the DJI Mavic Pro in pretty heavy wind. Getting a fast enough shutter speed with the lowest possible ISO is always the challenge when shooting in the dark. You cannot shoot from a drone with a shutter speed higher than 1/30 especially if it is windy. My ISO was pumped up to 1000 but it worked out well after I did my adjustments in Adobe Camera Raw. The lighting on the building was not very attractive so I had to create my own light in Photoshop. I had to push and pull the shadows, highlights and white quite a bit to get a nice looking final image. Here is the before and after.

Aerial architectural photo with Mavic Pro Austin AFTER editing

ThinkEast Drone architectural photo before editing