How to take photos from the same place / angle?

[mdlntn]

I want to take roughly the same photo (i.e. from the same position, height, angle) twice - one before sunset and once after - and composite them later. Is it possible to do this automatically, that is saving my location/positioning/camera angle data? Matching everything manually is next to impossible. I use a Mavic 3 Pro if that matters

 

[GFields]

Use waypoints to plan your mission

 

[Glenh]

@GFields @clackey . Way points by what software? Your answer is a one liner, No assistance. Are you a Moderator?

 

[Felix le Chat]

Or... Go old-school.... Pick your TOAL spot. Work out what heading you will have the drone camera facing... mark the ground with a chalk/water soluble spray spot with an arrow pointing towards the POI... take the drone up to the optimum altitude in the morning (make a note of it) and in the evening place drone on deck with camera facing in the arrow direction then T.O. (left stick only) from the same mark up to your known alt. Position your camera more accurately on-the-hover using your on-screen grid lines and cross hairs.
Unless you're using an RTK drone and base station, onboard GPS ain't anywhere near as accurate as most people believe and mucking about with waypoints planning can be a PITA if you're not used to it.
Least number of moving parts: less chance of errors creeping in.
K.I.S.

 

[Droning on and on...]

Way points by what software?

There are several options.

The Mavic 3 family, Air 3, and Mini 4 Pro support a waypoint feature built-in to DJI Fly, and uploads the mission to the aircraft which then flies the mission autonomously. This is generally considered the Gold Standard of waypoint operation.

Some other late-model drones support control by third-party apps like Litchi Pilot (in beta), Drone Deploy, etc. Among them are the Mini 3 Pro, Air 2, Mini 2, and some others.

These solutions use a control method called "Virtual Stick", where the aircraft is flown from the controller just like you moving the sticks, it's just a program on your smartphone sending the control inputs to the aircraft instead of your stick movements.

 

[GFields]

@GFields @clackey . Way points by what software? Your answer is a one liner, No assistance. Are you a Moderator?

@Glenh, Yes, I am a moderator and you know that I am. My reply may have seemed vague to YOU but the OP did not mention the drone they were using. Therefore, I simply said waypoints. Just as @Droning on and on... stated, what waypoint method/application would depend upon the drone being used. Hope this is clear enough for you now. The OP must have understood or they would have questioned my statement themselves.

 

[mdlntn]

There are several options.

The Mavic 3 family, Air 3, and Mini 4 Pro support a waypoint feature built-in to DJI Fly, and uploads the mission to the aircraft which then flies the mission autonomously. This is generally considered the Gold Standard of waypoint operation.

Some other late-model drones support control by third-party apps like Litchi Pilot (in beta), Drone Deploy, etc. Among them are the Mini 3 Pro, Air 2, Mini 2, and some others.

These solutions use a control method called "Virtual Stick", where the aircraft is flown from the controller just like you moving the sticks, it's just a program on your smartphone sending the control inputs to the aircraft instead of your stick movements.

By the waypoint feature built into the Mavic 3, do you mean just the pain vanilla waypoints feature? Or is there a more complicated / advanced version?

 

[Droning on and on...]

By the waypoint feature built into the Mavic 3, do you mean just the pain vanilla waypoints feature? Or is there a more complicated / advanced version?

The WP feature built-in.

It's fully functional, and has about the same capability and features as Litchi considering just waypoints.

Of course Litchi does a whole lot more, being a complete replacement for DJI GO4 and Fly.

Litchi Pilot, not so much. Sorry Litchi, while I'm a huge fan of Litchi starting with my P4 and through the M2P, I can't say anything good about Litchi Pilot yet. It's been very disappointing, much due to DJI with the Virtual Stick SDK, not Litchi's doing.

 

[JGA]

I want to take roughly the same photo (i.e. from the same position, height, angle) twice - one before sunset and once after - and composite them later. Is it possible to do this automatically, that is saving my location/positioning/camera angle data? Matching everything manually is next to impossible. I use a Mavic 3 Pro if that matters

Waypoints works fairly well for this, what I've been using for the similar scenario. Your altitude will change a little at times due to barometer changes but it works fairly well. Lots of utube videos on how to do.