I get a lot of questions regarding my aerial photography, so I felt an entry would be a good place to write about it, talk about my experiences, and provide some gear / shooting tips if you decide to venture into this genre of photography.
To provide some background on my aerial photography experience, I have been shooting aerial photography for over a decade now. I have been on 12 open door helicopter flights (It will be 14 or 15 by the end of the year). I don’t fly very often because of how expensive flights get in general.
My first flight was in Kaua’i, Hawaii back in 2011. I will never forget that experience. That flight is what ultimately sparked me to want to fly in open door helicopters anywhere I traveled. Seeing Waimea Canyon State Park from the air was truly a surreal experience.
Ever since that flight, I have flown in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas, and New York City. Seeing metropolitan areas from a completely different angle is something that changes your perspective on how you see the area.
I have heard the concerns about safety while in the air because of the random outlier freak accidents that happen that end up on the news. To the acrophobics, I can assure you that every flight I have been has been 100% safe. These companies value and pride themselves on safety above anything else. You are practically strapped in from head to toe.
One of the most difficult challenges I have had in aerial photography has been night time aerial photography. The challenge of night time aerial photography is you have three obstacles that you have to balance. The first is low lighting because you are shooting at night. The second obstacle you will have is shooting while in a moving helicopter. You will need a fast shutter speed, but you also want to have enough light on your subject so it doesn’t come out too dark. The third obstacle you are going to experience photographing night time aerial photography is risk of noise from increasing your ISO. Finding a balance between these three obstacles is definitely tricky, but not impossible to overcome. Since the conditions are ever changing, it becomes a game of trail and error.
In terms of things to bring, I would recommend bringing something warm to wear on the flight. Not only are you flying at a higher altitude, but you will also be dealing with high speed wind while flying. If you are just going to bring your phone to photograph while flying, I would recommend getting a gimbal of some kind to stabilize your phone, especially if you are shooting video.
My recommendation for shooting would be to have your aperture be a fixed setting leaving it wide open to allow as much light in as possible if you are shooting at night. That will allow you to just focus on finding a balance between shutter speed and ISO. If you are shooting during the day, you can adjust this a little bit. For shutter speed, I wouldn’t go any lower than 1/250th of a second (1/125tth of a second would be pushing it) because of how fast you are moving in a helicopter. You will risk motion blur in your shots if you have anything slower. On ISO, that will vary depending on time of day and should be adjusted to the situation accordingly. Having too high of an ISO can risk having noise (grainy) in your photos.
Regarding gear, I am not going to pick camera body recommendations because I feel that most DSLR bodies will work. However, I am going to provide some lens recommendations. If you are going to get a lens for aerial photography, get one that has an aperture of f/2.8 or better. A 24 - 70mm f/2.8 should be sufficient enough to bring with you as your go to lens. That lens alone will cover about 90% of what you are trying to achieve with aerial photography. If you have the ability to get a telephoto lens, I would recommend that for the shots you are trying to get close ups on.
In closing, if you are even considering doing something like this, I would highly recommend that you do it at least once in your lifetime just for the experience.