Interesting Photo of the Day: Drone Light Painting Mountains

Drone Photography  •  Interesting Photos

Photographer Reuben Wu has been experimenting with his drone to light geographical features and make long exposure composites for some time now. His project called Lux Noctis is a fusion of traditional landscape photography, 19^th century romantic painting, and science fiction:

Using a drone to light mountains by Reuben Wu (Via thisiscolossal.com. Click image to see full size.)

Wu’s primary tool is the light that illuminates the obscure night landscapes and adds the visual effect that becomes the main theme of his images. This is the Fiilex AL 250 aerial light, which he mounts to a 3DR Solo light remote controlled drone. He uses a Phaseone XF 100 megapixel camera system to capture the shots. This video explains his process:

Wu heads out before it gets dark to set up his shots. Once it is dark he flies his drone with the light mounted on it and takes a series of five second exposures at an f/8 aperture to ensure that he has a large depth of field. The remote control drone with the light acts as a light painting tool, which Wu uses to highlight the specific elements of the landscape that he wants to include in his composition.