4 things I check before every drone nude art photoshoot

The four most important things I learned from my first nude art photos

It wasn’t that long ago. I took the first nude art photos with the drone in the summer. Actually out of an idea, a whim. While for me there is a deeper motivation behind this art within photography. At first, however, there was a great deal of curiosity as to whether this could work at all. You could say pioneering spirit.

There was just this basic idea, this idea, and I wanted to implement it right away. It did take a bit of preparation. At least as far as the mental is concerned. The first drone nude shooting was anything but planned. Basically, we were on our way to a completely different photo shoot when we suddenly drove past this field. Sometimes in life you just have to be spontaneous. And so the first nude art pictures with the drone were actually taken.

Some time has passed since then and I have now taken several 100 nude art photos with my drone. Certainly not outstanding in terms of professional photography. But at least it is enough to have gained certain fundamental experience. In the beginning, you imagine a lot of things to be easier than they actually are in the end in real life and while photographing with the drone. But this is exactly what ultimately makes drone photography so exciting and what challenges and fascinates me as a drone photographer again and again. The creative process and your own growth in the art of nude photography.

Successful drone shots?

Before any photo shoot, make sure to follow these 4 underrated steps

I have found out four important points for me so far, which I consistently work off before every single nude photo shoot with the drone. This is the only way I can make sure that the nudes turn out the way I already see them in my mind’s eye.

1. Check the location for taking the nude art photos with the drone in advance.

When taking my first nudes, I more or less ignored this point. I was just very lucky that the location was extremely grateful and I could photograph there extremely well. However, after I had to change the location at very short notice for some planned nude art photos, it is now always my first step to check the shooting location with the drone. From the air, many things look very different than on the ground. Even after all these years as a drone photographer, it is not always easy for me to correctly assess all local conditions. In most cases, I have a guess as to what looks good, what works, and what may not work at all. However, the final security brings the view through the camera of the drone.

If I then see that even in the larger image section from above no unattractive details disturb the image composition, or something simply looks strange, I can start. The first important step on the way to perfect drone nude art photos is therefore already taken before the nude model gets into position.

2. Before the first nude art photo: Check the image detail

This second important step appears at first glance almost identical to the first. However, it’s quite different whether I’m checking the general environment to make sure it’s actually suitable for the nudes, or whether I’m checking the framing of the actual nude art photo. Both are incredibly important to get a really good result. Therefore, before I press the shutter release button for the first time, I make sure that there is nothing distracting in the chosen frame. Not infrequently, I have found in retrospect, when reviewing the nude photos after various nude art photo shoots things in individual images that do not belong there.

This can also include your own shadow, which then looks unsightly in the final drone photo. Likewise, I have also found socks in a nude art photo, which admittedly came from me. That was the first photo shoot back then at one of the most beautiful lakes, where, to find the perfect shooting location, I jumped over individual stones in the water to get to an island.

Stupidly, I slipped at one point and stood knee-deep in water. To dry my socks in the sun, I had put them on a stone. This one was later an actor in one of the nude art pictures, unnoticed by me. When I discovered the socks in the picture, I had to laugh out loud. These are those amusing moments that remind you of the special events on the ground. If there were no such thing, it would be boring. Or not?

3. Check batteries, remote control and memory card

Sounds too obvious to need extra thought? I thought that for a long time, too. However, if you are on the road a lot with the drone and take an incredible number of drone photos and drone recordings altogether, you can lose track of everything.

“I definitely had the batteries charged after all.” I thought to myself as I realized that somehow the batteries were not full. The same can apply to the remote control. And even the most obvious thing, the memory card, can sometimes be forgotten. All three fundamentally important things when I’m about to shoot. Without batteries and fully charged remote control, I can ideally still take 1 to 2 photos with the drone. But then it ends very quickly.

If the memory card is missing, it doesn’t look much different. The full battery is no longer of any use. Where should I save the nude art photos if not on the memory card? Internal memory of the drone or not. This is normally so small that it would suffice for a few nude art photos before the shoot would then have to be aborted. Normally, I have at least two empty 32 GB memory cards with me on every photo shoot with the drone. Rarely do I need both. But often at least one is almost full after the shoot.

Once, during a nude shooting, I actually didn’t realize I didn’t have a memory card in the drone until I was about to shoot the first photo, so I’ve become very pedantic about this. Every time before I head out for a photo shooting, I check my technical equipment. At the latest before I want to launch the drone, I check everything again. This way, it has not happened to me another time that I was left with half-charged batteries or without a memory card.

4. Pay attention to the right lighting conditions

Photo shootings with the drone take place 100 percent outdoors for me. Therefore, in contrast to studio shots, I am fully at the mercy of the natural lighting conditions with the drone. If a cloud moves in front of the sun, or if the sun just emerges from the cloud, the lighting conditions change abruptly.

As a drone photographer, whether I’m shooting landscape photos or nude art photos, I always have to be flexible to changing light conditions. In this point, too, a certain amount of experience is definitely helpful. As I found out over time, many nude art photos look different later on the computer than they did on the display during the shoot. Over time, I got a feel for what settings were needed for the perfect nude art photo.

For this reason, I always try to assess the lighting conditions as best I can before taking the photos and select an appropriate ND filter. Only once did I shoot a nude art shooting without ND filters because I had forgotten the filters at home. Of course, I thought it would be fine and not so bad. Far from it! I had really regretted it. The difference is considerable for me personally and I therefore like to work with ND filters in nude photography.

It’s the little things that have the biggest impact

As you can see, it’s often the simple things that can have a big impact on the perfect nude art photo. I learned a lot from my initial mistakes and since then I always pay attention to these four important points before taking the first nude art photo.