The 3C's: Camera, Capture, & Correction
In this post, I'm covering at a high level some of the "mission planning" that I do for a typical Real Estate photography job.
The planning is absolutely critical for:
Safe flying
Selection of which camera (drone)
Awareness of the job site
Ability to take off & authorization
The tools needed for successful planning are free, so it all comes down to process. Let me share what I typically do, the tools I use, and why it matters.
Job Site Awareness & Safe Flying I always start when given an address with getting a good awareness of the job site. By that I mean, are there powerlines, physical barriers, high traffic roads or people in the area. But that's just the safety aspect. The second goal is to begin to visualize the images / video that will be the "money shot" or ideal flight paths for capturing video. Best tool for the job is https://earth.google.com/. What's slick about Google earth is you can tilt the land to get a sense of the horizon, pivot and virtually fly around a property to see what might be interesting to capture when onsite. Another benefit of Google earth is the direction of the sun is known so you can plan for the lighting conditions ahead of time for when you'll be onsite. Is the property catching the Golden Hour sunlight? Or soft morning sunrise light? That helps for planning when is the best time to be onsite and capture great images.
Weather & Wind I love flying when the winds are lite and the weather is sun is bright. You need good weather to fly, both for safety and for good capture. The wind speed is a big driving factor to determine what camera (drone) is suitable. Why does the wind matter so much? It's a camera, and a gust of wind can cause motion and result in a blurred image. Or worse yet, if the wind is really strong, you may not be able to return the aircraft to home and lose it. Best free mobile app for wind speed is Drone Buddy. I use it onsite to confirm winds when on-site. For mission planning, any website with hourly wind speeds and wind gusts forecast will do.
Clear sky's are not a must for image capture because we can replace the sky in Photoshop. That's not easy to do (well) for video though, so it's usually best to have some sun.
Authorization & Takeoff This step is a "must do". Always check the airspace of the jobsite. As a part 107 pilot, this is just a good practice even in well known areas because a temporary flight restriction can be put in place or a government agency may be working to save lives or put out a fire. The phone app I use for Air Aware when on a jobsite, and they have a website you can use for mission planning. Here's a sample of the area around the MSP airport: https://airaware.aloft.ai/?lat=44.82281841593121&long=-93.31153699727278
Controlled airspace needs authorization from the FAA. It's easy with the app or website and requires contact information, date, time, height you'll be flying and for how long. The authorization is called LAANC and stands for Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability. Now experience has taught me that LAANC may not be enough. I had a real estate job 2 miles from the runway at MSP and had LAANC but couldn't take off. Why? DJI enforces an invisible "Geo Fence" in the air for their drones as a second level of safety. You have to prove you have FAA LAANC and go through a DJI approval process to unlock the ability to take off. And, you have to stay within the boundary of airspace you are approved or the drone will force a landing. (For more information, see: https://fly-safe.dji.com/home)
Mission planning for photo and video capture is a critical step in the job. I hope the steps above help those that follow me in this. It's fun, creative, but you want to be safe and efficient before arriving on site to capture amazing images for your client.
We'll pick that part up in the next blog post. ;-)
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