The View From Above: Aerial Reference Photos

From the helicopter: big landscapes with detail

A helicopter flies high enough to show a whole valley but low enough to keep detail. These packs were shot on full-size cameras, so they hold up well in large matte paintings.

• Himalayan Mountain Range Helicopter View: 136 photos of the Annapurna range in autumn, with villages, glaciers, rock formations and snowy peaks. Shot at 6000 × 4000.
• Nepalese Town Helicopter Views: 155 photos of Pokhara, a city in a valley surrounded by mountain ranges 7–8 kilometers high. A light haze softens the horizon.
• Green Mountains and Valleys: 283 photos of green Hawaiian ridges and valleys, mostly from a helicopter, at 7360 × 4912.

From the drone: low and close

Drones fly low and slow. They show how things are arranged on the ground: field patterns, roofs, roads and shorelines. Most small drones shoot at about 4000 × 3000 pixels, so these packs suit backgrounds, layouts and mid-ground detail.

• Italian Coastline Drone View: 138 photos of the Liguria coast.
• Aerial Sand Dunes with Tracks: 455 photos of vehicle tracks on dunes in Australia, at dawn, dusk and through the day. It mixes drone shots with ground photos from a Nikon D810.
• Pink Lotus Lake Aerial: 364 photos of a shallow lake in northern Thailand covered in pink flowers.
• Aerial Small Rice Terraces Village: 132 photos of a village on Luzon, surrounded by rice terraces, with straw-roofed granaries and a church.

From the airplane: patterns at high altitude

From a plane, the ground turns into pattern and color. This is the view you need for world maps, planet surfaces and very wide establishing shots.

• Aerial Red Arid Australian Desert: 103 high-altitude photos of red and brown desert in central Australia.
• Aerial Australian Green Plateau: 113 photos of the empty green plains of central and northern Australia.
• Mountains Aerial View: 70 photos of New Zealand mountain ranges from two flights.

From towers and cable cars

Fixed high points give you a stable, repeatable view. Tokyo Aerial Cityscape has 208 photos of the city spreading past the horizon, plus close-ups of the streets below. The Ancient Australian Rainforest Aerial View is 644 photos of a Queensland rainforest canopy, taken from a cable car.

Used in a real matte painting

Matte painter and concept artist David Edwards used the Vancouver Aerial Photography pack in his matte painting "City of Silence". The pack is a fly-over of Vancouver in 175 photos, sorted into Islands (59), Suburbs (75) and City (41). For more packs built for this work, see our matte painting stock photos.

Frequently asked questions

Which aerial packs have the highest resolution?

The packs shot from helicopters and planes on full-size cameras. Green Mountains and Valleys is 7360 × 4912. Many others are 6000 × 4000. Drone packs are usually around 4000 × 3000. Each product page lists the exact resolution.

Can I use aerial photos to design game terrain or maps?

Yes. Aerial photos are good reference for erosion, river shapes, field patterns and road networks. The license also allows you to create your own 3D models and textures from the photos for your projects.

Do the packs include video?

Most aerial packs are photos only. If a pack has video clips, its product page lists them.

Is it a problem that some photos show real cities?

No. Real places are the point of the reference. If a pack is Editorial or has an Editorial folder, you can still use those photos as reference and in your artwork. You can't reproduce them directly in advertising or on products for sale.