Mastering Drone Photography for Weddings

Let’s talk about mastering drone photography for weddings so you can level up your wedding photography with a new perspective.

If you want to grow your wedding photography business and be able to charge more, you have to find ways to add value.

After over a decade as wedding photographers, we’ve honed our craft in ways that not only bring added value to our clients but also infuse our work with renewed creativity and interest. Using drones is one of those ways.

If your wedding photography business offers both wedding photography and videography, you’ll find aerial photography to be even more of an asset to your business.

Drone footage can greatly enhance a wedding video in the same way that drone photos can level up a wedding album.

So, let’s take a look.

Advantages of Drone Photography for Weddings

There are many advantages to incorporating drone photography into your wedding photography offerings.

Whether you plan to become a licensed drone pilot yourself or hire one for your weddings, you’ll be able to offer a new angle for your couples.

And trust us – they will love it!

Drone photography is great for showcasing wedding venues, unique couples portraits, and accessing those hard-to-reach views.

Let’s talk about each of those advantages further and why showcasing the wedding from unique and typically inaccessible angles will enhance your wedding photography.

Capturing Expansive Aerial Views of Wedding Venues

For most couples and wedding guests, there’s more going on when they’re at a wedding venue than a simple photo can show.

You’ve felt it, too.

You’re standing somewhere absolutely stunning, surrounded by beauty, and you can’t quite capture it on your camera.

You realize you need a higher angle, something a little more dramatic to capture the essence of a place.

Before we had a drone, we would often climb ladders or trees to get just the right perspective. Now we can just launch our drone.

Not only will the couple appreciate how well you captured the setting of their love story, but the wedding venue will love to showcase their event space, which just might earn you that important spot on the preferred vendor list of wedding photographers.

• Best Drones with Screens on the Controller

Creating Cinematic and Dynamic Portraits

Every year, we try to come up with new and creative ways to capture portraits of our couples.

It’s always important to nail a solid, classic, nicely lit and posed portrait – but it’s also good to push creative boundaries.

When it comes to framing and composition, nothing gives you more freedom to capture the right angles than being able to fly a drone to the perfect spot.

Giving your couple a unique portrait from a bird’s eye view is a great way to up their wedding gallery.

It also allows you to capture the beauty of nature from different angles.

A great time for some drone portraits would also be at the engagement session.

Adding a Modern and Innovative Touch to Wedding Albums

Once you have drone portraits and shots capturing the setting of the love story, you can use the images to tell the story in your wedding albums.

Our couples love having albums to remember the story of their wedding day.

It’s a tangible product to offer your clients so that they get more than some files on their computer.

If you aren’t offering albums in your wedding packages, think of it as another way to add value and, therefore, be able to charge more.

Then, once your clients are booking big packages, you can deliver albums that truly tell the story of the wedding day, complete with storytelling aerial shots.

• If you want to know how much to spend on a drone, check out our Comprehensive Drone Price Guide.

Considerations for Drone Wedding Photography

If you’re going to offer drone wedding photography, there are a few considerations that you’ll want to keep in mind.

Drone photography requires a licensed drone pilot who is familiar with all the regulations, such as where you can legally fly.

As a drone photographer, you’ll also want to be familiar with when the weather is too bad to fly in.

Drone License and Regulations

If you want to shoot drone wedding photography, you first need to understand all the legal and regulatory aspects.

Essentially, you’ll need to obtain all necessary permits and permissions as well as comply with local aviation regulations.

The first step is to either obtain your drone license or hire a professional drone operator.

In applying for your drone license, you’ll learn all the rules about when and where you can fly.

That way, you’ll be able to determine if it’s legal to fly at the wedding venue you’re working at.

You’ll want to study some educational videos and take some practice tests until you’ve mastered the info.

Then, once you pass the test at a certified testing center, you can start offering drone wedding photography.

After that, you’ll want to look into liability insurance.

Weather Considerations for Drone Wedding Photography

In addition to needing the right license to fly, you need the right weather.

Inclement weather can make flying difficult, impossible, or risky.

Too much wind and you might not be able to control your drone.

One helpful tip for a windy day is to always fly upwind first so that you know how powerful the wind is and whether you’ll be able to return home.

• Guide to the Best Drone Accessories

Tips for Stunning Drone Shots

Now it’s time to talk about capturing those breathtaking aerial shots at an outdoor wedding; the kind that couples fawn over and social media goes crazy for!

As a drone operator, you’ll have researched and determined where at (or near to) your venue you can fly, and you can start planning your photos.

In this section, we’ll talk about how drone pilots plan for the best photos and then how to utilize them for the greatest impact.

Planning Shots for the Best Timing

Timing is everything, even when it comes to drone wedding photography.

Sure, drone wedding photos will add something extra to your wedding gallery, but if they’re shot in poor light, they can still be boring photos.

Therefore, as photographers, it’s always important to aim for optimal lighting when you can.

A sunset drone shot is going to be more interesting than a mid-day drone photo.

It’s also important to consider how everything fits into the overall timeline of the wedding day.

Typically, you’re not going to want to have the drone flying during the wedding ceremony because it can be disruptive.

So you might not have drone wedding photography of the first kiss; instead, it’s more likely that you’ll fly during the cocktail hour.

• Check out our Guide to the Quietest Drones for Silent Filming.

Determine How Your Drone Shots Work with the Story

Once you’ve thought through when you’re going to fly, then you’ll want to dive deeper into your goals and priorities.

How is your drone wedding photography going to enhance the overall story that you’re trying to tell?

If you go back to when we were talking about the wedding gallery and album that you’re delivering to your clients, you’ll remember that we thought about how to use the images in the album.

I always like to think about how clients might experience the photos and use that to help direct my vision.

Drone Photography Equipment for Weddings

 

Finally, it’s time to talk about drone photography equipment that you might consider for your wedding photos.

The most popular drone company is DJI and you’ll want to shop based on your needs and budget.

If you’re looking for photography exclusively and you’re on a budget, you’ll want to look at the DJI Air 2s. You can read our full review of it here.

If you’re interested in photography and videography, you might consider the DJI Mavic 3 Pro.

The Mavic 3 Pro is going to offer some of the best quality for photos and video in a compact drone. Our review of the Mavic 3 Pro goes into all the details about it.

 

With so many drones available, there are lots of other choices on the market. DJI serves a wide variety of price points with a wide range of features, so you’ll have to dive in to learn what best suits your needs.

• Read more: Adding Videography to Your Wedding Photography Business

Summary

As you can see, drone wedding photography is a great tool to add to your toolbelt for any outdoor wedding.

(Unless you’re shooting in National Parks where drones are illegal.)

If your company offers both photography and videography, that’s even more of a reason to get into drone wedding photography.

Not only can aerial photography add a new perspective to your wedding photography, it can add more value to your wedding photography business.