RAW Digital Group is a Detroit drone photography and video company at 2200 Hunt St. Its FAA Part 107 certified pilots fly aerial photo packages from $450, aerial video from $1,500 and FPV fly-throughs from $2,500, with no travel charge in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties.
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Detroit drone photography and video, flown in-house
Detroit looks different from 300 feet. The river bends, the grid opens up and a single tower reads as part of a skyline instead of a building on a block. That view sells apartments, fills event calendars and makes a campaign look like it cost twice as much. It is also the part of production most agencies hand off to a subcontractor. For us, it is the core of the business.
We fly aerial stills and 4K video, cinematic reveals and orbits, and FPV fly-throughs that move through a building in one continuous shot. The same crew handles the ground camera and the edit, so aerial footage arrives already cut into the story it was shot for.
Drone services we fly
Every type of aerial project has its own shot list, rules and deliverables. These are the ones we are hired for most, each with its own page:
- Property. Real estate drone photography for listings, commercial real estate aerials for brokers and owners, and multifamily drone video for lease-up.
- Construction and industry. Construction drone photography on a set progress schedule, aerial timelapse that turns months into seconds, and industrial drone video for plants and yards.
- Hospitality and destinations. Hotel and resort aerials, golf course drone photography and waterfront aerials along the river and the lakes.
- Institutions. Campus drone video for schools and health systems, and municipal drone photography for cities, parks and downtown districts.
- Video and motion. Finished aerial video from a drone videographer, FPV fly-throughs indoors and out, and automotive drone video for cars on the move.
- Stills only. Aerial photography for listings, sites and brand photo libraries, starting with the aerial photo package.
What you get from a drone shoot
- 4K aerial video, color graded and cut to length, delivered horizontal for your website, listings and screens and vertical for Reels, TikTok and Shorts.
- High-resolution aerial stills, edited and sized for print, press, listings and investor decks.
- A shot list agreed in advance, so the flight covers the angles your team actually needs.
- Ground coverage in the same visit when the project calls for it, so the aerials cut cleanly with interiors, people and product.
Aerial photography: angles, light and file sizes
Angles and heights
An aerial photo is two decisions before it is anything else: how high, and at what angle. Get those right and the image answers the viewer’s question. Get them wrong and a handsome building turns into a gray roof.
- Low obliques, roughly rooftop height. The camera looks across at the building. You see the facade, the entrance, the windows and the street. This is the angle for storefronts, homes and anything where the front of the building sells it.
- Higher obliques. The camera rises and tilts down. The building shrinks and its setting appears: the river, the park, the freeway access, the neighborhood. This is the angle for context, and for commercial listings where location is the pitch.
- Top-downs. The camera points straight down. Lots, rooftops, site plans and parking read like a map. Contractors, brokers and planners use these more than anyone.
The legal ceiling is set by the FAA: under 14 CFR 107.51, a small drone may fly no higher than 400 feet above ground, unless it stays within 400 feet of a structure and no more than 400 feet above its top. Most of the best property photos are taken well below that limit. Going higher is not the same as seeing more.
Most sets mix all three. A listing might open on a high oblique that shows the lake, then move to a low oblique of the house and a top-down of the lot lines. We agree that mix before the flight, so nothing important is missing when the pilot lands.
Detroit light by season
Light changes more than anything else across a Detroit year, and it decides when we fly.
According to U.S. Naval Observatory data for Detroit, the sun sets at about 9:12 p.m. on the June solstice and at 5:03 p.m. on the December solstice, with sunrise near 7:58 a.m. that day. In practice:
- Summer gives long evenings and green canopy. Late-day light is warm, and there is time to catch both golden hour and twilight in one session.
- Fall brings color to tree-lined neighborhoods, parks and campuses, and an earlier sunset. By mid-October the sun sets before 7 p.m.
- Winter keeps the sun low all day, so shadows run long and facades stay side-lit. Twilight comes before most offices close, which makes lit windows and signage easy to catch. Snow can make a skyline; slush and gray skies rarely help.
- Twilight in any season needs planning, because the FAA’s lighting rule applies from civil twilight on (see night, twilight and flights near people).
Orientation matters as much as season. East-facing glass looks best in the morning; west-facing buildings and skyline views look best late in the day. Our property prep guide covers what to do on the ground before we arrive.
Resolution, files and sizing
Every use needs a different file, and the wrong one shows. Listing services set their own upload limits, websites need small files to load fast, and a web-sized image printed on a banner looks soft.
We deliver aerial stills in sets organized by use:
- Full-resolution files for print, signage, press and investor decks. Tell us the largest print size in advance and we will frame with room to crop.
- MLS-ready files sized to your listing service’s upload requirements.
- Web versions compressed for fast page loads.
- Social crops in vertical and square formats, framed so the building still reads on a phone.
Editing covers exposure, color and perspective. We keep skies and horizons honest, because a property photo that does not match the site on a tour costs trust.
Flying Detroit’s landmarks
Belle Isle. The island is a Michigan state park, so a city film permit does not cover it. The DNR’s Land Use Order 5.1 requires written DNR permission for commercial drone use and bars flying within 100 yards of a cultural or historical site or structure or over an occupied beach. Many of the island’s best-known views are historic, so the shot list goes to the DNR early. The west end, including the Scott Fountain, sits inside the game-day ring. See our Detroit film permit guide.
The Detroit Riverwalk and Centennial Park. The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy runs the Riverwalk, the Dequindre Cut and Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park. Its film and photography policy requires a permit for drone use, and drones need separate approval on top of it. Commercial shoots need insurance naming the Conservancy and must fit park hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Michigan Central. The station anchors a 30-acre campus, according to Michigan Central. Corktown is Class G airspace at the surface, but the station is about 1.4 nautical miles from Comerica Park, inside the stadium ring on game days. Launching from the campus or a nearby roof takes the owner’s written permission.
Ford Field, Comerica Park and Little Caesars Arena. The FAA bans drones within 3 nautical miles of Comerica Park and Ford Field from one hour before to one hour after Tigers, Lions and NCAA Division I football games. Together the rings cover downtown, the riverfront, Corktown, Midtown and New Center. Red Wings and Pistons games at Little Caesars Arena are not covered, though the FAA can issue separate restrictions for special events. The IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix falls under the same FAA notice’s auto-racing provision; the FAA’s event map shows the area and times. Our stadium TFR guide has the distances.
The Ambassador Bridge and the Gordie Howe International Bridge. Both cross the international boundary, which runs down the river. Flying into Canadian airspace needs Canadian certification and a special flight permit, so we keep the aircraft over the US side and frame the spans from there. The Ambassador Bridge is about 2 nautical miles from Comerica Park, inside the game-day ring. Because both are border crossings, we also check B4UFLY and current NOTAMs for security restrictions. See our Detroit River drone guide.
Downtown airspace. FAA data shows Campus Martius, Hart Plaza and the Renaissance Center as Class G at the surface, so no LAANC is needed below 400 feet. Coleman A. Young’s (DET) Class D begins around I-75 and covers Eastern Market, the Cultural Center and New Center, where LAANC is required. Detroit Metro’s (DTW) Class B starts thousands of feet above downtown. Our Detroit drone rules guide maps the edges.
Detroit airspace, explained
Flying legally in Detroit takes local knowledge. According to FAA facility maps, much of downtown and the riverfront, including Campus Martius, Water Square and Centennial Park, is uncontrolled airspace below 400 feet. North of roughly I-75, Coleman A. Young International Airport’s controlled airspace begins, and flights need authorization through LAANC. Detroit Metro’s larger airspace sits overhead at higher altitudes.
Then there are the rules that are not on an airspace map:
- Game-day restrictions. The FAA closes the airspace within three nautical miles of Comerica Park and Ford Field from an hour before to an hour after Tigers and Lions home games. That radius covers most of downtown. The Detroit Grand Prix falls under the same FAA notice’s auto-racing provision, and the FAA’s event map shows the area and times. Our game-day guide explains it.
- Launch permits. The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy requires a permit for drone and commercial shoots on the Riverwalk. Belle Isle is a state park, where commercial drone use needs written permission from the DNR. The Detroit Film Office asks whether you will fly a drone or film on the river.
- The border. The middle of the river is an international boundary. Crossing into Canadian airspace requires separate Canadian certification, so we frame Windsor from the US side. Our Detroit River drone guide covers the details.
We check all of this before we quote a date. It is why our shoots happen on the day we schedule. The full picture is in our Detroit drone rules guide.
Night, twilight and flights near people
Some of the best aerial footage happens when the rules get stricter, so it helps to know them before you plan a shot.
- Night and twilight. Part 107 allows night flights when the pilot holds current training and the aircraft carries anti-collision lighting visible for three statute miles. The same lighting applies during civil twilight, which is when lit buildings and signs look their best.
- Flying near crowds. Whether a drone may pass over people depends on the aircraft’s category under Part 107, and sustained flight over an open-air gathering has further requirements. For festivals and concerts we plan routes over adjacent space and shoot the crowd from the edges.
- Remote ID. Since March 16, 2024, the FAA has enforced Remote ID, which means aircraft broadcast identification in flight. Ours comply.
- Line of sight. The pilot, or a visual observer working with the pilot, keeps the aircraft in sight. FPV flights, where the pilot wears goggles, always include an observer.
What makes an aerial shot worth paying for
Anyone can put a drone in the air. The difference is in the planning and the edit:
- Timing. We schedule for light. Early morning and the hour before sunset flatter glass and brick; twilight makes lit windows glow. In winter, those windows are short, so the shoot is built around them.
- Movement with a purpose. A slow reveal that starts on the river and rises to the building tells a buyer where they will live. An orbit tells an investor what the site connects to. We plan each move against the story.
- Continuity with the ground. Aerials land harder when they cut to the lobby, the kitchen or the crowd. We shoot both in one visit.
- Formats. Every project ships in horizontal for your website, listings and screens, and vertical for Reels and TikTok.
Why more businesses are budgeting for drone content
Aerial content has moved from a nice extra to a standard line item. In the National Association of Realtors’ 2025 Technology Survey, 52% of Realtors said they use drone photography or video, which made it the third most used technology in the survey. In construction, an Associated Builders and Contractors survey reported by DroneLife in August 2026 found that 36.1% of contractors fly drones. Of those, 80.8% use them to monitor progress and 77.5% use them for marketing and media.
The takeaway for a marketing team: your competitors’ listings, bids and social feeds increasingly include aerials, and buyers have come to expect them.
Who hires us for drone work
Developers and property managers use us for launches, leasing and progress updates, from The Residences at Water Square to Centennial Park on the riverfront. Hospitality groups and venues use aerials to show scale and setting, like Caesars Windsor at dusk, the Detroit Opera House marquee and the domes and 160 acres at Lost Woods. Builders and sign installers use repeatable progress flights and milestone footage. Charter operators, festivals and shopping districts use them to show the experience from above. Brands and agencies bring us in as the aerial unit on larger productions.
Where we fly
We are based in Detroit and fly drone photography across Michigan, with travel for projects out of state. Every city has a different airspace picture, so we keep local pages with the airport, the altitude limits and the launch spots that matter: Ann Arbor, Troy, Birmingham, Royal Oak, Dearborn, Novi, Southfield and Grosse Pointe. Outside Metro Detroit we travel to Grand Rapids, Lansing and East Lansing, Kalamazoo, Flint, Traverse City, Holland and Petoskey. The full list is on our Michigan drone photography page.
Safety and insurance
Our pilots hold FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificates, and every commercial flight follows Part 107: visual line of sight, altitude limits, airspace authorization where required and rules for flying over people. The FAA does not require insurance, but venues and property owners expect it, so they receive a certificate of insurance before we arrive. When a shot needs it, a visual observer joins the pilot.
Planning an aerial project?
Tell us the location, the date window and what the footage needs to do. We will check the airspace and permits, recommend the right mix of aerial, FPV and ground coverage, and send a fixed quote. Start a drone project or read the drone cost guide first.
