5 Tips For Taking Cool Dronies
Have you already heard about the Hover Camera? This self-flying drone follows you around everywhere and takes your selfies.
Sounds cool, right? But quality aerial photography equipment can take just as amazing drone selfies or dronies like the ones featured in this series:
Excited to take your own dronies? Make them awesome by keeping in mind these five tips:
1. Master Flying Your Drone with a Camera
Before you start taking dronies, learn how to control your drone first. Practice sweeping your drone in and out in figure-eights until you’re confident enough to do it smoothly and steadily, as recommended by Amit Gupta in his drone selfie lesson with the New York Times. Then gradually progress to flying it around you while the camera stays focused on you.
2. Snap and Snap Until You Succeed
You know how difficult it is to capture great selfies with a smartphone? Well, taking dronies is even more challenging, especially on your first few attempts.
But don’t be discouraged—just keep on shooting. Take lots of pictures at various angles. This will give you more shots to choose from, and chances are you’ll find one or two that are worth sharing.
3. Wear Something That Will Make You Stand Out
Avoid blending in with your location by planning out your outfit for the shoot ahead of time. It doesn’t necessarily have to be fashionable, but it does have to be in colors that contrast with your background. This will make you more visible in your dronies.
4. Shoot in a Unique Location
One of the best things about shooting with a drone is that it gives your audience a different perspective of your location. Wow your audience further by taking your dronies in places that look stunning from an aerial view.
5. Avoid Shooting in Bad Weather
Good weather makes for great aerial photos and videos. The colors pop up better due to the gentle sunlight, and the clear blue sky makes an excellent background.
Conversely, nothing ruins a dronie more than terrible weather. So before you head out to shoot, make sure you check the weather forecast for chances of rain anytime of the day.
Aside from making it difficult to control the drone, rains can cause moisture buildup inside the device and its eventual damage.
Strong winds may also cause your device to get lost once you lose track of its location and controls. Yes, you may have drone tracker installed in it, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
Taking drone selfies is tricky, especially when you’re just starting out, but if you apply these tips, you’ll soon find yourself doing it effortlessly.
Have you tried taking dronies? How was your experience? Share your story in the comments below!
Shane Haumpton is a contributing writer for several websites and blogs. She has written on a variety of topics, ranging from lifestyle, photography, travel, and arts and crafts to gadgets, social media, and internet safety. This self-confessed coffee addict and shutterbug manages to do all these while enjoying life as a nomad.
Kennedy Martinez
kennedy@dronethusiast.comKennedy Martinez is a resident writer who joined Dronethusiast at the beginning of 2019. She has years of experience reviewing drones and other tech products. When it comes to flying drones, Kennedy loves the ability to create artistic videos from a unique point of view. Kennedy enjoys researching new drones and other exciting products that are available to consumers which is why she is committed to creating the best buyer's guides for our readers.
Whoa these are really beautiful! Are these areas safe for the drone to fly out to?
This is really a cool way of taking a selfie until you lose control and eventually lose or break this expensive device. Planning the flight is important, thanks for your tips. I’m also getting a GPS device to attach to my drone any advice on what is the best in the market?
Trackimo is simply the best for me, I’ve been using it for a few months now and it’s just a great device. I’m using the velcro provided as an accessory to the vertical rear of my craft it works perfectly, no interference, no effects on my flight at all. I am now confident I can find my drone in case it flies away.
Hey! thank you for your tips. I have experienced flying my drone on a bad weather and it was lost. Now I have my new drone and I put on it a tracking device so that if it gets lost I can easily track it.
Thank you for the tips. I’ve been planning to get a drone tracker and Trackimo caught my eyes. It has good reviews and great features. Not to mention it is quite affordable unlike other trackers.
Thank you for the list of drone trackers. I’ve experienced a flyaway recently and really thought of having one.
Do GPS trackers affect your flight? I also think that having that device is safer than being sorry when you’ve lost your drone.
It depends on the tracker you’re using Nate. Been using Trackimo and it doesn’t affect my flight at all. It’s very lightweight and gives precise location for my drone.
Great suggestion Conal! Thanks to it, I have caught up to my fly away drone and landed it safely. I also suggest it to everyone.
The Trackimo surprisingly works on 3G GPS-GSM and gets mounted on the drone without worries. In my experience, their customer support did respond to my issues faced with the tracking device.
Tried the device, it did better than the bluetooth I bought online.
I think it doesn’t quite affect your drone’s flight but it depends on the tracker you’re using. There are a lot of GPS trackers available in the market that are lightweight and affordable.
Not really Nate. But it depends on the tracker you are using. I can suggest a tracker if you want. It’s very lightweight and been using it for quite a while and doesn’t affect my flight at all.
Yeah we have to avoid shooting during bad weather. But the weather changes from to time so we’ll never know. In case this happens, I’d attach a GPS tracker to my drone to help me track it’s location.
Same thoughts here Kerys! Since I attached Trackimo on my drone, I would never get worried in case it crashes out of sight coz it gives the exact location on where my drone is.
What GPS tracking device are you using?
Flew my drone during a windy day and was kinda worried . But I remembered attaching a GPS tracker to my drone just in case it lands somewhere out of my sight.
Amazing tips! What certain locations do you consider unique by the way? I’ve been wanting to do aerial photography and might as well get some additional info here. Thanks!
Dronies are really cool nothing beats the bird’s eye view of beautiful places.
These tips are so helpful for new drone users like me. Flying a drone is both challenging and fun, I hope to take stunning photos too.
After a lot of researching and practicing, I’ve manage to fly my drone with confidence now. Glad that I didn’t lose or crash it. These tips are great.