Many photographers see capturing images as a personal pursuit. The results aren’t shared beyond friends and family, if at all.
But for the rest of us, a great shot is worth nothing unless there’s an audience there to appreciate it.
So which platforms can you use to show off the best of your drone photography? Whether you’re flying for fun or professionally, where can you build an audience and develop a following?
Skypixel
Skypixel is DJI’s own media sharing platform. It’s a hub for pilots that fly DJI aircraft.
If you choose, you can automatically upload all of your drone shots to your Skypixel account. Alternatively, you can upload your favorite shots after post-production to better curate your content.
You can search the platform for certain tags or locations if you’re looking for some creative guidance.
On the hunt for inspiration or ready to get competitive? Skypixel and DJI hold an annual drone photo contest and the winning entries are always spectacular.
Youtube
Setting up a Youtube channel and uploading your best drone videos is a great way to gain recognition for your work and build a following online.
But there’s plenty of competition out there. It’s up to you to carve out a niche and bring something new to the platform.
It’s worth bearing in mind that Youtube doesn’t give you the ability to edit your videos in detail, so you’re much better off handling post-production with Adobe Premiere Pro or a software platform along those lines.
Once your finishing touches are complete, Youtube’s enormous audience is ready and waiting for your best efforts.
Vimeo
It’s free to set up a Youtube channel and start uploading as many videos as you like. But if you want to do the same with Vimeo, it’s going to cost you.
Vimeo is seen as a platform better suited to media professionals for a number of reasons. The main one is that it’s ad-free. The second is the HD video is the standard. You can embed Vimeo videos into social media posts and websites just as you can with Youtube clips.
You can get a free Basic membership that allows you limited uploads, but it won’t come with priority support, tons more storage, advanced privacy control, player customization, or interaction tools, which include cards and calls to action in the embedded player.
Ready to build an online portfolio of your best drone videos? Vimeo could be the platform for you.
Dronestagram
Youtube and Vimeo give you a platform to show off your best footage to the world. But some drone pilots are more interested in engaging with the drone community and seeing what others have been able to create from above.
If that sounds like your cup of tea, Dronestagram is the place for you. The website bills itself as the no.1 drone photography platform for good reason: there are thousands of aerial photos from users from all over the world.
You can browse through the Dronestagram archives and look for inspiration in a number of different themes, from Urban to Sports to Dronies.
Like Skypixel, Dronestagram holds regular aerial photography contests for its users to compete in. There’s also a business directory, where you can list details about your professional services and win new customers.
More than anything, Dronestagram is a community hub for drone pilots and a place to find inspiration. There are no limits to the creativity that can be achieved through drone photography – this is the place to explore those limits.
Instagram is one of the world’s most popular photo-sharing social media platforms, with more than 500 million active daily users.
Most users navigate through the millions of images using hashtags, which means that a few clever tags are all it takes to put your best drone images in front of thousands.
It’s free to set up an account and use Instagram. There is also a range of tools to help you edit photos before you publish them.
For videos, Instagram’s auto-compression means that you’re better off editing and shrinking your videos to size before you upload them.
Like the platforms above, you can also use Instagram to search for inspiration, check out different locations around the world and connect with other like-minded pilots.
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