Drone Photo Tips: How To Make Inception-Like Images

If you’ve seen the movie Inception, you’re likely very familiar with that one scene where physical space is bent on top of itself. It’s one of the movie’s most iconic visuals, and in this 3-minute video, COOPH shows how you can easily make your own photos with an Inception vibe with a drone.

The first technique the video tackles is what they call the “drone wall,” which involves splicing two images taken at different angles together. This simple method requires first that you photograph your subject from directly above, and then again at a 90-degree angle difference. You can then Photoshop the images together so it appears like the first image is a “wall” above the second.

The second method COOPH calls the “drone fold,” and requires three photos to bring to live. YOu start by taking a first image while keeping the drone close and at a low angle. You then take your second photo from slightly farther away, looking closer towards the ground. The last photo is taken from directly above, and the three images can be combined to create a sheer-cliff effect:

The last method is what COOPH calls Drone Distortion, is a bit more complicated and requires multiple images. When you’ve determined the subject if your image, you then start at a low, horizontal angle and fly in a curve. The goal is to slowly change the angle of the camera to point downwards as you curve the flight path upwards. In the example shown, this method takes at leat four images to achieve the effect.

This final technique also requires the most work in Photoshop, as you need to line up the lines perfectly from all the photos in order to get a smooth transition. This may require warping the images in order to pull off. If done right though, the result can be pretty great:

These all take a bit of work, but the results speak for themselves. If you’ve been trying to think of an interesting way to use your drone, give these a shot.

For more from COOPH, check out their YouTube Channel and Instagram.

(Via SLR Lounge)

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