Ready to master drone photography? You're in luck, because PPA's Online Learning Center (an extensive library filled with hundreds of educational videos on topics that interest professional photographers) just added 11 new comprehensive videos all about drone photography!

You definitely want to dive into this information, which covers everything from what you need to know to get started, to more nuanced information about equipment, safety, and even video. This series is led by Colin Smith, founder of PhotoshopCAFE and author of 20 books, including the recent "The Photographer's Guide to Drones".

Without further ado, let’s get into this drone series!

• Drones: Lift-Off: Essentials for Getting Started: Colin shares his essentials for getting started, such as finding a location, setting up, accessories, take-off, and landing.
• Drones: Safety: Colin shares important safety tips for being around children and animals, and how to successfully perform a catch landing when it’s too crowded or you are restricted to uneven surfaces.
• Drones: Transmission Settings: Colin explains how to control composition, white balance, image size, and format and create a time lapse using the transmission settings on his drone.
• Drones: Gimbal: Colin discusses one of the most important pieces of equipment on the drone: the gimble. He explains how to keep a smooth tilt and make adjustments to the settings for the best image quality.
• Drones: Accessories: Colin shares his favorite accessories when setting out to fly his drone.
• Drones: 3 Dimensional Composition: Colin shares how to create a 3-dimensional composition when shooting over the water at Piedmont Park. He demonstrates using altitude as a compositional tool, and concludes the segment with the editing process in Lightroom.
• Drones: HDR-High Dynamic Range: Colin demonstrates how to capture an HDR image by bracketing shots for multiple exposures. He finishes the segment by taking the image into Lightroom for editing.
• Drones: Capturing a Panorama: Colin demonstrates capturing a panorama of Atlanta’s downtown skyline at sunset. He then takes it into Lightroom to focus on edits and small details.
• Drones: HDR Panorama: Following the HDR and Capturing a Panorama segments, Colin shows how to combine these two in order to create a multi-layered HDR panorama. He then goes to the studio to stitch the images together and add final edits.
• Drones: Making a Video: Colin captures a video while flying his drone over the lake at Piedmont Park. He works through some of the settings when shooting in video mode and tips for shooting over water.
• Drones: Premier Tips: Colin shares some editing tips when working in Adobe Premier such as effects, reverse direction, speed, and color.

The only way to access these helpful videos is through your PPA membership. As a PPA member, you can access these videos anywhere, anytime. Between PPAedu and PhotoVision, photographers who have a PPA membership can tap into hundreds of programs to help them Be More! Join PPA today.

About the Instructor:
Colin Smith is founder of PhotoshopCAFE which has received over 30 million visitors. Colin has authored 20 books, "The Photographer's Guide to Drones" is his latest. As a commercial artist, his clients include Satcchi & Satcchi, Proctor & Gamble, Toyo Tires, and Microsoft. As a leading Photoshop  trainer, he's worked with many large companies including Edison, ABC Disney, Apple and Adobe. He has won numerous awards, including 3 Guru Awards. He's been nominated for the Photoshop Hall of Fame twice. He loves art and technology and is currently one of the foremost aerial Drone Photography experts with acclaim from Time Magazine, and one of the top ranked "DJI Experts" on DJI’s Skypixel among others.

Colin is a regular columnist for Photoshop User Magazine. He's been featured in almost every major imaging magazine, and is in high demand as a speaker at major industry events including WPPI, Adobe MAX, Imaging USA, PPE, Photoshop World, creativeLIVE, Siggraph, CES, PMA, and NAB.