- Selfies are for wimps. Real photographers self light. From now on, I am going to always be followed around by this dramatic lighting thanks to my aerial lighting drone that I built myself. This thing's great. This is just a DJI Phantom 2 with a light stuck on it. It's drifting a little bit 'cause it's windy out here. Several months ago on the Practicing Photographer I introduced to you the idea of drones as lighting platform, but I didn't really give you any specific equipment recommendations.
I'm gonna do that here now because I found a really cheap, really effective way to make a drone that's ideal for still shooting. We got a lot of light coming out of this thing. It may not look like it on video, but when you're working with a still camera, this is a tremendous lighting platform for doing some really cool aerial lighting effects at night. Let's go inside now and take a look at what I've done to make this work. (drone buzzing) I got two drones here, so I can show you a before and after, but before we get to the modification, I wanna show you the light.
This is it, it's tiny. This is the LumeCube, that's L-U-M-E-C-U-B-E and I think that's just LumeCube.com. I'm just very impressed with this. It's a little LED light. Simple controls, there's a button on the top that turns it on, and this lets you dial it up and down. There's another button that lets you control Bluetooth because I can have Bluetooth control of this light, and actually drive its brightness from my phone. Here we go, it's getting dimmer. These things are rechargeable. There's a USB port on the back.
If I just unscrew this, there's a little micro-USB. It charges pretty quick. Now it's flashing, what's going on? What have I done? It holds a charge for a long time. It's a little stubborn to go off apparently. It doesn't weight very much. It actually weighs less than a GoPro. Here we go, here's the micro-USB in the back, water tight lid. It weighs less than the GoPro, so it's ideal for the drone. It actually means I'm gonna get a little more battery life out of my drone than when I'm flying around with a GoPro. It's got a standard tripod screw on the bottom and this is the key to getting it mounted.
Good solid metal. Probably three hours out of a charge when it's fully gassed up, so it's very, very flexible. Ideal for sticking on a drone. 79 bucks off of the LumeCube website. I think I even saw them, maybe they're selling these at Walmart now. So the trick is how do you get it attached to your drone? This is a Phantom 2, I don't know if they still make this one, but they make lots of variations of it. This one has a gimbal built on the bottom. This is the Zenmuse gimbal, it came with the Phantom 2.
This all has to come off. So this is where the GoPro goes. This is the computer that's controlling the gimbal. This is the mount for the gimbal. The mount comes off. You don't have to disassemble it. The mount comes off with four screws. There's one here, one here, and then two on the bottom. If you take those screws out, this whole thing just drops off. You might wanna do a little disassembly. Actually, you still don't have to. You take this off, and then you can use this thing as a template for where to put screw holes in the plate that you're gonna make on your new drone.
So here's the finished thing here. It's pretty simple. This is just a piece of aluminum, not very wide, that's been bent at 90 degrees. You can easily do that in a vice. Just get a thin piece of aluminum, stick it in the vice, you can bend it in half with no problem at all. It's attached to another metal blade. This is just a piece of scrap metal. So by taking this mount and setting it on this piece of scrap metal, it was possible to find out exactly where the screw holes go, and then you need a way to screw this bracket into this piece of metal. So you need another hole there.
We've also epoxied it on here just to get it all very, very sturdy. This easily removes just with these same four screws that hold the gimbal on. Then we just got a hole up here. This is a standard thread size so I just got a bolt here, and a washer, and a couple of lock washers, and this goes into here. The other washers go on the other side, obviously.
Now I've lost my threads, woah. This screws on here. Now this gives you a couple of things that are really nice. Very, very easy to get on and off, which is important if you want to get it off quickly and recharge it. I'm talking about the light. I can pull the light off separately. You can see how easily I'm getting this on here. I can get the light, I can just pull the light off of the mount normally very easily. There we go. No, I didn't get that threaded straight.
This is really no problem in the design. It's just me being uncoordinated. Simple Allen head to screw that on. The whole mount itself comes off very easily so if I ever wanna put my camera gimbal back on, I can. More importantly, this gives me options. Right now it's pointing straight down. So the type of light that you saw earlier in this video is very easy to achieve. I just fly it up over me and it shines straight down. You saw what a big pool of light this thing will cast. It puts out a tremendous amount of light. With low light sensitivity in the camera, it really counts for a lot.
But I can also tilt it and lock it down. So if I wanna shine it forward on something, I can do that. So a very, very, very simple mount that makes a big difference. I've been flying these things around, shooting stills and some video with them for a while, and it's fun. But I gotta say I'm more excited about the lighting options than I ever was about the shooting options. The GoPro gets a little frustrating for me to shoot with 'cause it's so wide. But this has been really fun to get out and be able to light stuff up at night, and see stuff that I normally wouldn't be able to see.
Very inexpensive light, throws out a ton of light. I've got phone control if I wanted. I've got an easy to create mount. You can do this out of scrap metal if you've even got any lying around. Very easy to get all these pieces at Home Depot, or Lowe's, or something like that. In a future Practicing Photographer, we're actually gonna take this out and shoot it, and you can see what the issues are once you get this up in the air and start trying to expose.
Author
Updated
12/23/2020Released
5/19/2013Skill Level Beginner
Duration
Views
Q: Why can't I earn a Certificate of Completion for this course?
A: We publish a new tutorial or tutorials for this course on a regular basis. We are unable to offer a Certificate of Completion because it is an ever-evolving course that is not designed to be completed. Check back often for new movies.
Related Courses
-
Photography Foundations: Composition
with Ben Long5h 29m Intermediate -
The DIY Photographer
with Joseph "PhotoJoseph" Linaschke2h 39m Intermediate -
Photo Tools Weekly
with Chris Orwig26h 18m Intermediate
-
The Practicing Photographer - New This Week
-
16-bit in Photoshop6m 23s
-
-
Introduction
-
Previous Episodes
-
Choosing a camera5m 27s
-
Let your lens reshape you7m 26s
-
Working with reflections1m 26s
-
Exploring mirrorless cameras7m 25s
-
Using a tripod3m 33s
-
Wildlife and staying present5m 58s
-
Why Shoot Polaroid11m 12s
-
Seizing an opportunity4m 4s
-
Shooting wildlife7m 24s
-
Using a lens hood4m 48s
-
Working with themes2m 48s
-
Setting up an HDR time lapse7m 55s
-
Processing an HDR time lapse7m 55s
-
Scanning Photos5m 37s
-
Jpeg iPad import process3m 17s
-
Warming up3m 26s
-
Taking a panning action shot10m 17s
-
Shooting a silhouette3m 9s
-
Using Lightroom on the road6m 28s
-
Shooting level2m 42s
-
Photoshop and Automator8m 54s
-
Softboxes vs. umbrellas2m 55s
-
Working with hair in post3m 28s
-
Exploring how to use Bokeh5m 38s
-
Shooting stills from a drone6m 57s
-
Working with models2m 40s
-
Tips for shooting panoramas7m 16s
-
Dry sensor cleaning6m 23s
-
Composing in the center2m 48s
-
Vignetting9m 56s
-
Inspire3m 29s
-
Minimizing camera baggage4m 24s
-
Working without a tripod4m 11s
-
Printer options6m 51s
-
Exploring lo-fi printing options11m 58s
-
IOS macro photography gear12m 25s
-
IR Conversion Part 27m 27s
-
Raw editing in Lightroom mobile10m 35s
-
Shooting a macro insect shot13m 5s
-
A brief history of photography12m 19s
-
Shooting with a Petzval lens9m 49s
-
What is a low-pass filter?4m 35s
-
Teleconverters and lenses5m 12s
-
Media card care7m 19s
-
Dual slot4m 2s
-
Exploring smart previews9m 12s
-
Flying and photo batteries5m 41s
-
Partial vignettes on photos8m 38s
-
360 image editing plugins6m 59s
-
Using a gimbal with an SLR8m 13s
-
Choosing a lens6m 27s
-
Switching camera systems7m 42s
-
Using 360 drones5m 41s
-
VR gimbals4m 16s
-
Working with a photo subject14m 26s
-
Posing a photo subject12m 53s
-
Framing and safety7m 7s
-
RAW converter options3m 59s
-
Drone flight7m 19s
-
Basic abstract photography8m 51s
-
Aspect ratio3m 40s
-
Focus lock on your camera2m 11s
-
Using the Astropad app6m 33s
-
Working with dim sunlight6m 33s
-
Configuring dual cards2m 52s
-
Long lens options4m 45s
-
Moving images from catalogs7m 47s
-
Photography education11m 7s
-
In-camera focus stacking9m 52s
-
Exposure isn't everything4m 17s
-
Why shoot film?8m 55s
-
Culling4m
-
Choosing a film camera8m 38s
-
Analog workflow9m 9s
-
Easily produce giant prints10m 15s
-
Luna Display4m 19s
-
Choosing film7m 50s
-
Photo fads4m 46s
-
Portrait lighting techniques8m 32s
-
Diopter control2m 56s
-
Loupedeck for Lightroom6m 48s
-
Printing small3m 37s
-
Lens flare removal6m 28s
-
Paper choice for prints7m 39s
-
Aspect ratio for portraits2m 33s
-
When in doubt2m 24s
-
Looking vs. seeing2m 44s
-
Do you need a carnet?5m 23s
-
Scan large items6m 17s
-
Create an honest portrait5m 34s
-
A portrait assignment3m 23s
-
Am I good?5m 59s
-
Boredom4m 13s
-
Clichés4m 29s
-
Finding inspiration5m 42s
-
An everyday project5m 47s
-
Learning from students4m 56s
-
Life as a project5m 27s
-
Why take a workshop?4m 33s
-
Photographic honesty2m 52s
-
Up to interpretation3m 27s
-
Photographic style3m 40s
-
Photography drills6m 31s
-
Digital chores4m 23s
-
Photos and words4m 11s
-
Stay-at-home exercises3m 45s
-
Understanding your medium2m 28s
-
Darkroom for iOS5m 15s
-
iOS image editing extensions2m 58s
-
On set: Simplicity4m 5s
-
On set: Corners2m 19s
-
On set: The build4m 30s
-
On set: Same pieces, new set3m 18s
-
Choose a price first3m 20s
-
Rewind: Choosing a camera5m 41s
-
On time and in tune3m 3s
-
Avalanche for aperture4m 8s
-
Evaluating a wide-angle lens6m 14s
-
Auction catalogs4m 56s
-
Get out and shoot (safely)3m 45s
-
Do ruts exist?2m 24s
-
- Mark as unwatched
- Mark all as unwatched
Are you sure you want to mark all the videos in this course as unwatched?
This will not affect your course history, your reports, or your certificates of completion for this course.
CancelTake notes with your new membership!
Type in the entry box, then click Enter to save your note.
1:30Press on any video thumbnail to jump immediately to the timecode shown.
Notes are saved with you account but can also be exported as plain text, MS Word, PDF, Google Doc, or Evernote.
Share this video
Embed this video
Video: Nighttime drone photography using a cube light