drone flashWhen it comes to flash photography, unless you have an assistant that is able to hold the flash unit for you, chances are its position is pretty static, meaning that you’ll have to move the entire setup if you want to reposition the flash. It’s not a bad thing since it has pretty much been setup the way you want the flash to go off to begin with, but what if you wanted more dynamic lighting?

Well the folks at MIT have recently proposed an idea in which drones can be used for flash photography. Given that drones can fly and hold devices, why not attach a flash unit or two to a couple of drones and have them hover around, thus giving the photographer quick access to them if they need to change the direction or height at which the flash is triggered.

The drones will also allow a photographer to keep their setup relatively simple. All they’d need is a drone or two and a handful of flashes, as opposed to current setups which might require weighted stands, reflectors, umbrellas, and so on, all of which can be a pretty bulky affair.

MIT is also working on an algorithm that will allow the drones to be smart enough to follow the camera, so if you’re moving around, it will reposition itself to keep that same flash direction in accordance to how you are shooting. The algorithm will also let the drone detect how the light falls onto a subject and will correct itself in order to achieve a particular effect. Pretty clever, huh? Photographers, what do you guys think?

Filed in Photo-Video >Robots. Read more about .

Discover more from Ubergizmo

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading