First commercial roof shoot. Looking for advise.

[IDPdrones]

As the title says this is my first paid shoot. I’m a newbie who comes from the construction world. I figured starting my drone business with roofs would be a plus for me since I’ve been on 100’s of roofs and am very familiar with construction.
There is a ton that goes into this. New invoices,checklist, charts etc. Add on the aspect of gimbal angles,speed,shutter speed video and photo’s I am a bit overwhelmed. Any words of advice would be great

I am flying evo 2 pro, and the nano plus.
Using apple products for flying and edits.

 

[GeoDrone SRL]

1. Forget the Nano+. Is not stable and you will have a low quality on such work. Keep Nano for other things....personal things.
2. Any video/photo of roof need at least 2 parts...One part is intro-presentation, second part is close-ups in video and photo.
I advice you to start with a Large Circle to see the whole building and surroundings, make a big circle with the building in middle, then at end of circle (you will use for circle OBRIT MODE) go with the video straight to building.
Next, start a close-up with a close circle around roof...then get on top of roof, using 45 degrees angle, slow motion...Next, make a pass-over roof with gimbal at 90 degrees, looking straight to roof. In some points stop the drone and make best quality pictures...this pictures you will insert in video, zooming each part of picture in order to see each part of roof....
If you see problems, make close-ups.
3. Use a mapping program...there are several, a few free. Use your Mission mode and map the roof. Make a GeoTIFF file, give to client with the free program to see GeoTiff's and make measures inside GeoTIFF, will appreciate it a lot to have this tool from you. Also the engineers that will make the repair can use it for making offers and checking the damage.
4. Use editing software like free Resolve or paid Premiere...If you think you can edit this in some cheap and simple software, you are wrong.
I cannot advise you about a special angle of gimbal or speed, there is no such thing, you must adapt your footage based on building and surroundings...and be careful at surroundings, talk with the neighbors and if they are not friendly, use a blur tool to cover their property or you will have issues.
Talk with the owner...explain to him the moves and result, see if it needs some more or less.
And not as last thing...Appreciate your work properly...Remember that one branch from tree, one wire, one bird, can be fatal for your drone and you loose 2000 USD for a footage that can value....HOW MUCH NEEDS TO BE VALUED FOR THIS RISK??? That is the question that YOU need to answer yourself.

As a sample, I don't take any order anymore that is under 500 USD...Does not worth it...after taxes, risk of drone failure, insurance paid, and so on, this minimum amount is providing me confort to cover some losses from time to time, without taking money from pocket...and I can tell you that in 2 years you will change at least 1 drone if you have weekly works, no matter how careful you are.

 

[IDPdrones]

Wow this is spectacular. Thanks for all the information and ideas.
I’m bringing the Nano + just in case something happens.
I’m hired to shoot the entire projects. Each are over 10,000 sqft so I’ll do before during and after. Love the circle idea first. Working on mapping before the shoots. It’s a past client (home remodeling client) and he is launching a new company and loves the arial photos. He knows this is my first shoot. Will be interesting to see my progress on these projects. I’m at 200 Per hour 2 hour minimum told him extra editing will cost more. From what I’ve read 200 ph is a good starting rate.

 

[herein2021]

Wow this is spectacular. Thanks for all the information and ideas.
I’m bringing the Nano + just in case something happens.
I’m hired to shoot the entire projects. Each are over 10,000 sqft so I’ll do before during and after. Love the circle idea first. Working on mapping before the shoots. It’s a past client (home remodeling client) and he is launching a new company and loves the arial photos. He knows this is my first shoot. Will be interesting to see my progress on these projects. I’m at 200 Per hour 2 hour minimum told him extra editing will cost more. From what I’ve read 200 ph is a good starting rate.

It sounds like you are off to a good start, I've probably shot over 500 jobs by now with various drones since 2014. It sounds like this project is what's called a drone construction progression project where you create footage at set intervals during the construction process. Those types of contracts can be very lucrative and long lasting.

I am not sure how familiar you are with photography / video but if you are not that familiar with it for photography F5.6, ISO100, Daylight WB, Aperture priority mode would be a good start. For video, Aperture F11, ISO100, Daylight WB, and around 1/400s for shutter speed would be a good start.

Personally, I never use mapping software or drone automatic modes and my hands don't leave the controller. In the almost 10yrs I've been flying drones commercially I've never lost one on a job.

Orbits are a great way to introduce a project in a video and the best way to do them is to practice until you can rotate and counter rotate effortlessly around a chosen center point. Turning on the center cross hairs greatly helps with this. Below are some more tips for just getting started professionally:

• Shoot at 60FPS - Yes I know the EVO II 6K drops down to 8bit video when shooting at 60FPS but you will be able to slow down the video later if you need to in case you run out of video footage for a scene before you cut away or the video was not smooth. Especially with orbits, you can turn 5 perfect seconds into 10 seconds if necessary. As you get more experienced you can shoot at 30FPS and you will not need the 60FPS safety net
• Simple Movements are best - Dolly, Crane, Tilt, Pan, Orbit, etc.......learn these movements and only perform one movement per clip. Even to this day some of my favorite footage to shoot involves simple camera movements. Newbies try to tilt, arc, and crane up all in one drone clip and it looks terrible. Simple is best and edit them together later. As you get more experienced you can combine simple movements together like orbit tilt up or dolly in tilt down or truck left + tilt up + crane up, etc......but get the basics first and get very good at the basics.
• Angles are your Friend - Large buildings / construction sites show best from angles when it comes to photography. Shooting from the corners almost always looks better than the sides or front/back.
• Camera Angle - Drone cameras distort the more they are angled due to the wide FOV, I try to minimize tilting the camera down any further than necessary. Newbies fly right over the subject matter and tilt the camera down 30+ degrees. The horizon curves, distortion kicks in, and typically the roof isn't that great to look at to begin with.

I could probably write a book on all the other areas that you need to know but I think you get the point. Many try to enter this field due to what appears to be easy money but just as many find it is far more difficult than it first seems. Flying the drone is probably the easiest part of the whole process; getting customers, keeping customers, camera technical knowledge, camera movements, video editing, video color grading, photography editing, commercial license maintenance, ins...etc, etc are all more difficult in my opinion. It is also my opinion that most don't make it because they only offer drone services. If you don't also offer regular photography and video you will lose every time to someone who does offer everything if the client needs everything.

Solo drone photography/video prices is currently in a race to the bottom with nearly everyone having a "friend" who is illegally flying commercially and who can get the few seconds or few pictures they need with the drone they bought yesterday or the college kid who thinks they made money by charging $50 for a 3hr commercial job. The main way you can differentiate yourself is by offering the "harder" services like photography and video production with aerial versions just an add-on to your core media production business. With that approach you will attract the larger clients and you will have alternate revenue streams when aerial photography/video work is slow. My best paying and typical project only involves a few seconds of drone video or a few drone pictures and the rest is all shot with regular camera equipment.

The following threads may get you started as well:

Why I NEVER use ND Filters with With Drone Cameras

Why I Never Shoot Video At 24FPS

Why I Never Use CPL Filters With Drone Cameras

Autel EVO II Pro - User Experience from a DJI User

EXPLORE YOUR WORLD: An Autel EVO II Pro 6K Cinematic Story

Why I ALWAYS use Daylight WB with Drone Cameras

 

[gschulzuio]

Wow this is spectacular. Thanks for all the information and ideas.
I’m bringing the Nano + just in case something happens.
I’m hired to shoot the entire projects. Each are over 10,000 sqft so I’ll do before during and after. Love the circle idea first. Working on mapping before the shoots. It’s a past client (home remodeling client) and he is launching a new company and loves the arial photos. He knows this is my first shoot. Will be interesting to see my progress on these projects. I’m at 200 Per hour 2 hour minimum told him extra editing will cost more. From what I’ve read 200 ph is a good starting rate.

The above is fantastic info. So, are you doing one off roof inspections, or after the job hero shots, or both to show the before and after? That can make a difference as inspections you are looking at big picture however close up, details. Hero shots can show details, however they are also more the "glamour" shot to show the completed project. Then there is the before to get an idea of work to do, locate issues, perhaps part of bid package or sow for a project. Most roof projects I have done are one off's, mix of before or inspect, as well as after hero shots. Otoh, recurring construction progress reporting projects can include roof as part of other focus areas and can be one off, or recurring spanning weeks, months or in some cases years. A 10K sq ft roof is not a bad size depending on shape, height, could be straight forward or more complex. If you are doing before and after, you can do by hand remembering your angles, locations etc, however you could also setup (or record when onsite) mission to repeat for next time. You could also then reuse that mission depending on the software for a different location (change you wpt locations).

 

[IDPdrones]

Herein2021
Thank you for sharing all this knowledge with me. I’ve been reading and digesting and feel good about these 2 upcoming progression projects. You are correct I am learning the photography and drone operations daily. To me this is a process and will take years to become proficient..I’ll be branching out to photography in the near future. My plan is to make my investment back and be able to roll back my home remodeling jobs in the next
5-7 years. I’m grateful to have found this group. Propellers up to all.

 

[IDPdrones]

The above is fantastic info. So, are you doing one off roof inspections, or after the job hero shots, or both to show the before and after? That can make a difference as inspections you are looking at big picture however close up, details. Hero shots can show details, however they are also more the "glamour" shot to show the completed project. Then there is the before to get an idea of work to do, locate issues, perhaps part of bid package or sow for a project. Most roof projects I have done are one off's, mix of before or inspect, as well as after hero shots. Otoh, recurring construction progress reporting projects can include roof as part of other focus areas and can be one off, or recurring spanning weeks, months or in some cases years. A 10K sq ft roof is not a bad size depending on shape, height, could be straight forward or more complex. If you are doing before and after, you can do by hand remembering your angles, locations etc, however you could also setup (or record when onsite) mission to repeat for next time. You could also then reuse that mission depending on the software for a different location (change you wpt locations).

Thanks for the great ideas. This client is a distributor for this roofing material. He is just starting and wants before during and after. So it’s 2 commercial roofs both in a strip mall average rectangles. I have a bit of wiggle room since he is a client with my remodeling business. Although these once done will be front and center for his marketing. Do you all put watermarks on the photos and videos?

 

[gschulzuio]

Thanks for the great ideas. This client is a distributor for this roofing material. He is just starting and wants before during and after. So it’s 2 commercial roofs both in a strip mall average rectangles. I have a bit of wiggle room since he is a client with my remodeling business. Although these once done will be front and center for his marketing. Do you all put watermarks on the photos and videos?

Regarding watermarks it depends on the client, how it will be used, license terms. However for general purpose posting, website display, then yes, watermark to be safe.

Regarding roof, basic shot list is the four corners plus sides (e.g. cardinals) at one or more elevations. Depending on the roof size, shape, another handy shot is fly to the center of roof, get as low as comfortable, then take a series of outward shots to the different corners.

Also a top down shot that could be a single, or, stich multiple downward shots into a single shot. For a smaller roof that is larger than what you can capture without having to go too high, just take a series of overlapping by about 1/3 shots horizontally, and if needed, repeat additional rows of horizontal shots. You can then stich them with MSFT ICE or many other tools. The above works good for roofs a few acres or less. For larger roofs I use apps like litchi/DD/autel explorer to setup a mission and then stich with diff sw like odm, DD, etc.

For video, fly the corners capturing images similar to above moving from corner to corner. With Autel, the smart orbit can be a fun way to capture and show roofs, particular for hero shots. Did a roof hero shoot yesterday where setup the smart orbit, then did a sequence clockwise, then counter clockwise, pushing in, pull out, climb and decent during the orbit.

Good luck, oh, and do a site assess from ground, and quick pop up to get to know area, where power lines, towers, antennas, RTUs & exhaust fans, as well as other things are. Also, not a bad idea to verify if any one is up on the roof working, or planning to be.

 

[GeoDrone SRL]

Thanks for the great ideas. This client is a distributor for this roofing material. He is just starting and wants before during and after. So it’s 2 commercial roofs both in a strip mall average rectangles. I have a bit of wiggle room since he is a client with my remodeling business. Although these once done will be front and center for his marketing. Do you all put watermarks on the photos and videos?

I used to, old days...now i work under contract, the terms are very clear...I make the bill only if customer is happy, if is not then is free.
In 1 year with this policy, I never had even one customer to choose Free.
But for a beginner, you can put a 40% transparent banner on image with Property Of..., Do not use it.
Will give the customer an idea about your work, but will not be able to get it and not pay.
You save yourself from some...issues....

 

[IDPdrones]

As the title says this is my first paid shoot. I’m a newbie who comes from the construction world. I figured starting my drone business with roofs would be a plus for me since I’ve been on 100’s of roofs and am very familiar with construction.
There is a ton that goes into this. New invoices,checklist, charts etc. Add on the aspect of gimbal angles,speed,shutter speed video and photo’s I am a bit overwhelmed. Any words of advice would be great

I am flying evo 2 pro, and the nano plus.
Using apple products for flying and edits.

To fill you all in. First off once again thanks for all the great information.

I did the first roof. Actually it was a 100,000sqft roof. I was there almost an hour shooting. Owner of the company was very pleased and sent me to do 3 more roofs. Win win.
Still working on sending him his package for each roof. Of course I should’ve figured these things out before I took on work but here I am. This office stuff isn’t my favorite thing to do but I’ll getter done.

Just wanted to let you all know how things went.

 

[GeoDrone SRL]

To fill you all in. First off once again thanks for all the great information.

I did the first roof. Actually it was a 100,000sqft roof. I was there almost an hour shooting. Owner of the company was very pleased and sent me to do 3 more roofs. Win win.
Still working on sending him his package for each roof. Of course I should’ve figured these things out before I took on work but here I am. This office stuff isn’t my favorite thing to do but I’ll getter done.

Just wanted to let you all know how things went.

Nice going. Good job!

 

[Fly-a-holic]

I get a roof inspection job for my EVO every now and then. My last one was to see how the roof was attached to the neighbor's wall. Once I showed the contactor the video, he was amazed. Then he wanted a whole roof inspection.