Miniaturize It

Syma X8C with Mobius camera on board. Processed in ON 1 Photo 10.

Miniaturizing an aerial image can be an easy and powerful process. By reducing the depth of field, an image taken from an elevated view can be transformed. If you have Photoshop, it's pretty easy: 

   -Select the area that you want to remain in focus.
   -Feather the selection. The higher the resolution of your image, the more feathering required.
   -Inverse the selection.
   -Apply a blurring filter such as the Gaussian blur. Experiment with the amounts

There are other photo editing applications out there that offer "lens blurring" effects that make this an even easier task to accomplish. I typically use ON1 Photo10 or (if on my smart phone) Snapseed. 

Toy-Grade Fun

My modest neighborhood via JJRC H12 and its low-grade 5MP camera (edited in On 1 Photo 10 software).

As nice as the high-end (and expensive), GPS quadcopters/drones can be, I have to confess here, I keep coming back to the toy-grade models. For me, they are just more fun because I don't have to worry about losing a flying piece of bling. And when I really stop to think about it, they really hold your attention rather than their GPS.

I came up with this image today during lunch when I stepped out on the back porch for a quick little peek over my neighborhood on a day that was way below freezing outside. As soon as the H12 took off, the lights started flashing with a low-battery power warning. Nevertheless, I had enough time to take it up 50 or 60 feet and capture my frozen neighborhood.

The low-grade cameras that come with such models are as fun to work with as the drones, and when used with a photo-editor like On1 Photo10, it's terribly liberating to toy with these toy images.

Along with my H12, I have a couple of H5Ps (another JJRC product) that provide the same results. Their extra large battery and flying time are a boon too. However, the first one came with a dysfunctional camera and I broke the second camera on a rough landing. It has been hell trying to find replacement cameras for these two low-fi drones. So, I'm reaching out to various drone groups on Facebook—hoping someone will shine a light for my downmarket drones. Let me know here if you know of a solution as well. Cheers.