Our top pick916 reviews
20 minHollywood & Beverly Hills Celebrity Helicopter Tour
★ 4.9 · 916 reviews
- 20 minutes, over Hollywood and Beverly Hills
- Hollywood Sign views
- Most booked
- Free cancellation
$199$9.95 / min
Check availability→ Photographs
Helicopter ride Los Angeles photos: the seat, the settings, the side
Almost every photograph that fails on a sightseeing flight fails for one of three reasons, and none of them is the camera. It is a reflection off the inside of the window, a shutter speed slow enough to catch the rotor, or sitting on the wrong side of the aircraft when the Hollywood Sign goes past.
Quick answer
Wear black, put the lens against the glass, shoot at 1/1000 s or faster, turn off the flash, and ask at check-in which side the Hollywood Sign will be on. A phone is genuinely good enough — the limiting factor on a helicopter ride Los Angeles operators fly at 1,000 to 2,000 feet is the window, not the sensor.
Shooting from a helicopter, at a glance
- Best seat
- Front leftmost glass, no rotor mast
- Wear
- Black or darkanything pale reflects
- Shutter speed
- 1/1000 s or fasterkills rotor blur and vibration
- Lens position
- Touching the glassnot resting on the frame
- Flash
- Offit reflects straight back
- Polariser
- Leave it at homeaircraft windows go rainbow
- Phone or camera
- Eitherthe window is the limit, not the sensor
- Best light
- Last hour before sunsetor mid-morning
- Doors-off flights
- Not on these listingsall fourteen fly doors on
- Straps
- Wrist strap, alwaysnothing loose in the cabin
The three things that ruin frames
And the fix for each
Black clothes, 1/1000 of a second, and ask which side.
Reflections. A white or light shirt bounces off the inside of the window and lands in the middle of every photograph, and you will not see it until you are home. Wear black. Then put the lens physically against the glass, which removes the air gap the reflection lives in. Do not rest the camera on the window frame — the airframe vibrates and the vibration goes straight into the picture.
Motion. A helicopter moves, the air is not always smooth, and the rotor cuts through the top of the frame. At 1/1000 of a second all three problems disappear. On a phone, that means not shooting in night mode by day and not using any long-exposure setting. On a camera, shutter priority at 1/1000 and let the ISO go wherever it needs to.
The wrong side. The Hollywood Sign goes past once. On most routings out of Burbank it is on the left, but wind, air traffic and the day’s routing change it. Ask at check-in. It is the single highest-value question you can ask and nobody asks it.
Ten things that make the difference
Practical, in order of how much they matter
None of this needs equipment you do not already own.
- Ask for the front left seat
More glass, a lower sill, and the rotor mast is behind you rather than in the frame. Ask at the counter, early.
- Wear black
The single biggest improvement available for free. Dark clothes do not reflect.
- Clean the window if you can
Ask at the counter rather than reaching for it yourself. Some operators wipe them between rotations and some do not.
- Lens against the glass
Touching, not near. It removes reflections and it removes the double image from the window’s two surfaces.
- Burst mode, always
You are moving at ninety knots past a thing you get one pass at. Shoot fifteen frames and keep one.
- Turn the flash off before you board
It reflects straight back and the pilot will ask you to anyway.
- Leave the polariser off
Aircraft windows are laminated and a polariser turns them into rainbows.
- Shoot wide, crop later
A zoomed frame from a moving aircraft is almost always slightly soft. Wide is sharper and you can crop on the ground.
- Take some video
The turn across the front of the Hollywood Sign is better as ten seconds of video than as nine stills, and you can pull a frame out of it afterwards.
- Put the phone down for the last minute
On a twenty-minute flight, one minute of just looking is worth more than the photographs you did not take.
Book direct
The flights that give you the pictures
The four flights that give a helicopter ride Los Angeles its photographs: the Hollywood loop, the Sign alone, the lit grid, and the coast.
Cheapest10 minutes
10 minHollywood Sign & Universal Studios Helicopter Tour
★ 4.6 · 127 reviews
- 10 minutes, above the Hollywood Sign
- Small group
- Cheapest here
- Free cancellation
$159$15.90 / min
Check availability→ 
Rated 4.9Night flight
30 minLos Angeles Night Helicopter Tour: Hollywood & City Lights
★ 4.9 · 91 reviews
- 30 minutes, over Los Angeles
- Griffith Observatory views
- Downtown LA lights
- Free cancellation
$299$9.97 / min
Check availability→ 
Rated 4.9Coast
30 minCalifornia Coastline & Hollywood Celebrity Helicopter Tour
★ 4.9 · 60 reviews
- 30 minutes, along the California coastline
- Small group
- Hollywood Sign views
- Free cancellation
$299$9.97 / min
Check availability→ Which side is the Sign on
And what else to expect on each side
Usually left out of Burbank. Ask, because it changes.
It depends on the departure airfield and the day. Out of Van Nuys and Burbank, both north of the hills, the standard approach to Mount Lee puts the Hollywood Sign on the left on most routings — but that is a tendency, not a rule, and air traffic around Burbank rewrites it regularly.
What is more reliable: on a loop that runs Hollywood, then Griffith, then the Sunset Strip and Beverly Hills, the aircraft turns, so each side gets its own landmarks. If you are on the right for the Sign you will be on the correct side for Downtown and the basin on the way back.
Ask at check-in, take the answer, and stop worrying about it. The people with the worst photographs from a helicopter ride Los Angeles are not the ones on the wrong side. They are the ones in a white shirt.
The most expensive mistake on a sightseeing flight is a pale shirt.
Seats and check-in→Common questions
Photographs, answered
Can you take photos on a helicopter ride Los Angeles?
Yes, on every flight here. Phones and cameras are allowed, with a wrist strap, and nothing loose in the cabin.
Which side should I sit on for the Hollywood Sign?
Usually the left on routings out of Burbank and Van Nuys, but it changes with traffic and wind. Ask at check-in — it is the most useful question you can ask that day.
What shutter speed should I use?
1/1000 of a second or faster. It removes rotor blur, airframe vibration and the effect of your own movement in one setting.
Are there doors-off helicopter flights in Los Angeles?
Not among the fourteen listings on this page. All of them fly doors on, which is why the window technique matters.
Is a phone good enough?
Yes. At 1,000 to 2,000 feet through a laminated window, the window is the limiting factor, not the sensor. A modern phone held against the glass beats a good camera held six inches from it.
Should I wear a polarising filter?
No. Aircraft glazing is laminated and polarisers produce coloured banding across the whole frame.
Day or night for photographs on a helicopter ride Los Angeles?
Day for landmarks, night for the city. The lit grid is the more striking photograph and the harder one to get: black clothes, no flash, 1/1000 if your camera will hold it.
What to shoot in each part of the flight
Four minutes, forty seconds, and the turn for home
Three minutes of nothing, forty seconds that matter, then the wide one.
The climb out. Nothing yet. Put the phone down, get the headset comfortable and find where the window reflections are, because on a twenty-minute helicopter ride Los Angeles flight you have about three minutes before the first landmark.
The Sign pass. Forty seconds. Burst mode, wide, lens on the glass. Shoot the whole pass rather than waiting for the best angle — you cannot see the best angle coming.
Griffith and the Strip. The observatory domes and then the long diagonal of Sunset Boulevard. Good video, because the aircraft is turning and the frame moves across the city.
The turn for home. The widest view of the basin you will get on a helicopter ride Los Angeles flight, with the mountains behind and the ocean on the far side. One frame, wide, and then stop.
Four settings to fix before you board
On the ground, not in the air
The cabin is noisy and the landmarks arrive fast. Nothing here can be done at ninety knots.
- Flash off, grid on
The flash reflects; the grid keeps the horizon straight, which matters more from a banking helicopter than from anywhere on the ground.
- Shutter at 1/1000, or burst mode on a phone
The single setting that saves most frames on a helicopter ride Los Angeles flight.
- Storage cleared
Running out of space forty seconds into the Sign pass happens more often than you would think.
- Wrist strap on
Nothing loose in the cabin. It is a rule, and it is also how people lose phones.
Go deeper
More on helicopter rides in Los Angeles
Cost
What it costs
From $159 for ten minutes, and what the hour buys.
The SignThe Hollywood Sign
No road, no public access. Why the air is the only front-on view.
The verdictWhich flight is best
Fourteen listings, and the four worth your money.
At nightNight flights
Two listings, and a completely different city underneath.
DowntownDowntown LA
The towers, the stadiums and the basin they stand on.
PrivatePrivate flights
From $640 for the aircraft, and when it works.
