any tips on photographing sites

[matwelli]

Very close to me, (about 2km from town) we have the TuruTuru Mokai historic reserve, including a fortified pa site (think fortified village) from the 16th century, its a hill, will a series of embankments dug around it (that would have had large wooden stakes back in the day, and on top the hill is flattened , and has several depressions where storage huts would have been

here is some info, and a model of the site http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=32956

Anyway, whats the best way to photograph this , so it actually looks interesting, flat down aerials dont show the different elevations.

It did a hover above the main site today, in loiter, and yawed the quad around, 30 deg at a time, and let it take 3-4 photos at each point.
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camera is a gopro hero silver 3+ , and I notice it has the focus issue, where all long distance stuff is out of focus (have had a look at a video on fixing it, involves pliers and brute force...)

Anyway - what tips are there to actually take some interesting shots ?

I do wonder if i need to do a very large circle around the site, pointing towards the centre, at a low altitude

 

[hugh4g]

Hi Matt,
Early morning and best of all, Gods magic hour, just before sunset.... The low light will give you relief and contrast.
Bon chance

Hugh

 

[kloner]

using a fisheye lens is gonna be tough to get it done with....light is the most important factor. Try several elevations, several light conditions, unless i had to be there all day i'd show up at first and last light till the shots don't look interesting anymore. You can see it standing there looking around while you fly. To get cinematic you can play with backlight during then, catch a flare, get the moisture in the air glowing... etc. If all you have is a hero either try getting the fisheye out post or get a lens that doesn't fisheye on it. With hero unless your gonna make some large prints, i'd just record 4k video and pull stills from it. assuming you have a 3 black or better. gopro studio software is your friend with regards to fisheye removal

 

[matwelli]

Thanks guys, appreciate the info
Unfortunately its only 3+silver not the black
Tried the fisheye removal tool in the gopro studio software - didnt know it had that feature
Sunrise at the moment is 5:51 am , so that will work well.

Whats another in-expensive camera option apart for a go-pro, I guess if i was to record video and then pull stills from it i could use my fuji finepix ?

 

[kloner]

yea, any point and shoot would be a better option or hero video with fisheye removal then pull stills.

 

[hugh4g]

'Cept that pulling stills from video is a bit of a compromise...to my mind... There is an old adage about previsualising the photograph you are taking. May be old school way of thinking, but it is what gets you the photo.... Think Cartier Bresson!
I agree about any point and squirt camera though....

Hugh

 

[kloner]

can you fisheye remove a still?

 

[matwelli]

can you fisheye remove a still?

well, i imported all 192 photos into goprostudio, and it treated them like a time lapse movie I guess, as it allowed me to apply the fish eye removal.
I guess I would need to screen grab afterwards to get the individuals back out
I have used photoshop before for fish eye removal, its a more manual process but you have alot more control.

'Cept that pulling stills from video is a bit of a compromise...to my mind... There is an old adage about previsualising the photograph you are taking. May be old school way of thinking, but it is what gets you the photo.... Think Cartier Bresson!
I agree about any point and squirt camera though....

Hugh

will need to attach a servo to my fuji so I can trigger it. Did a google search on who Cartier Bresson was !

 

[Efliernz]

Do I need to bring my good gear down for a fly Matt??? It's 32 years since I was last crawling over that land...

 

[matwelli]

I think so Pete

For me its a chance to practise the craft....I had an email response from Milton who is looking after the place, and hes more than happy to show me around and let me have at it

Also in teh process of getting permission to overfly the development at Noels Lake (near Fonterra) as its on Fonterra owned property

 

[Efliernz]

Good onya going the right way about this mate.
Too many think they have the right to fly anywhere. Legally sometimes yes... but ethically and morally perhaps not... I think the old Pa is the perfect example where anything over 100' will probably just flatten the earth too much. Good luck

 

[matwelli]

heres a comparision - fuji finepix 14mp vs gopro silver 3+ at 10 mp
shooting location Mt Taranaki CarPark, just on sunrise, friggin cold !
both shots are croped, but NO other editing
The fuji to me looks the most dramatic, the go-pro picks up foreground definition better
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