DSLR Aerial Obliques
DSLR Oblique Aerial Photography
This page is the practical part of a successful flight for aerial photography with Oblique hand held camera(s) from an aircraft.
Job and Flight Planning
Camera Preparation for Flight
In Flight Operations
Post Flight Photoshop
Job and Flight Planning
Setting up the location in Google Earth
Planning the flight altitude
Determining suitable weather
Determining suitable time of day
Setting up the location in Google Earth
Planning the Flight Altitude
Determining suitable weather
Determining suitable time of day
Camera Preparation for Flight
Setting up the Nikon D800(e) for an aerial oblique mission
Camera Settings
Shooting Mode(Manual/Shutter Priority/Aperature Priority)
Battery and Memory Cards
In Flight Operations
Aperture and Shutter Speeds
Getting all your Stuff into the Airplane
Securing your Camera
Radio Communications
Flight Procedures
Post Flight Procedures for Photoshop work on Nikon Aerial Oblique Images
COPY FILES TO HARD DRIVE
As soon as practical, copy the images from the camera Compact Flash (CF) card to the hard drive of the computer you are going to work on.
All of the files should be copied to a new file folder named with the date and Nikon Obliques. Example: Year-Month_Day (YYYY-MM-DD)
2016-06-16 Nikon Obliques
Within this file folder, make additional folders for each job flown that day.
For Example:
2016-06-16 Ruscilli AEP Trans
2016-06-16 ClayCo Etna South
Place all images from each job in their correct folders that was just created.
The Nikon cameras will name each file with a user defined 3 letter prefix and a counter number. And the cameras are set to save a NEF (Nikon Electronic Format) raw file and a JPG compressed file. You should have both file types in main job folder you just created for each job.
Example:
_MED7981.JPG
_MED7981.NEF
Create 3 folders in each job folder which will contain each file types. One for the Original JPG files, NEF files, and one to contain your Final JPG files that will be sent to the client.
Example:
2016-06-16 ClayCo Etna South JPG (contains the final files after photoshop)
2016-06-16 ClayCo Etna South NEF (contains the NEF files as shot)
2016-06-16 ClayCo Etna South Original JPG (contains the Original JPG files as shot)
RENAME FILES
CREATE ACTION TO SAVE FINAL IMAGES
Load one of the images from either Adobe Bridge or Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop. This will serve as the image to create the action. You need a starting point.
I have a Photoshop Action “Set” called “Nikon Obliques” that I place all actions created to make the final jpg files.
Within this set, click on the bottom action to highlight. This will put the new action immediately below the highlighted action.
Click on the “Action Menu” button which is in the upper right of the Actions Panel to bring up the following menu
Click on “New Action“
This will bring up the following dialog box. The name will default to being highlighted so that you are ready to name the action by simply typing.
Enter the name the same as the job file folder
Click Record to begin recording your action.
This will create the action and will engage the recording function as indicated by the red circle in the Action Controls at the bottom of the Actions Panel.
At this point, anything that you do this the open image will be recorded. That means all photoshop functions that you engage on the open image can be applied to any other image either individually or as a batch through Adobe Bridge.
The typical actions at this point are:
- Change mode to 8 bit as sometimes ACR is set to output in 16 bit.
- Reduce the image to 1/2 resolution over the original when using the Nikon D800. This does two things. First it makes the file sizes a bit more manageable for the client. Second it standardizes the file size if there was any straightening (which crops the image) in ACR or cropping withing Photoshop after the file has gone through ACR. The final size to use is 7360×4912 pixels.
- Save it as a jpg in the file folder you created in the initial image copying and management.
There are a couple other corrections that can be done which are better in Photoshop than in ACR which can be done but are not part of the action. If additional corrections are to be made, then you will not be able to run a batch in Adobe Bridge, you will have to work with each file individually and then run the action which is simply resizing and saving.
Change mode
Click on Image, then Mode, then 8 bits/channel
Image Size
Set for 1/2 resolution for the Nikon D800 from 7360×4912 pixels to 3680×2456
Since the length and height is linked, you only need to change one, the other dimension will automatically be calculated and entered.
Click “OK” to accept
SAVE AS
Navigate to the file folder in which you want to save the file. This will be the folder you created with the project name and ending with JPG.
Select JPEG Format
Select an image quality of 10
Click “OK“
Close the file
When the dialog box shows up for saving changes, click “NO“
Stop recording by clicking on the red circle at the bottom of the actions panel