please advise Air Show tips?

[ittv]

Hello to all,

I am going on air show tomorrow and I will appreciate your advices on what settings will be the most appropriate. I will use 75-300mm lens, will choose shutter priority mode, also I think would be better using continuous AF, and wide AF area, since the fast motion I think will be better the camera to determine which AF area to use.

Please advise since I might be missing something or be in the wrong direction.

Thank you in advance

 

[prodigy2k7]

I suggest aperture priority instead, get the fastest shutter possible, just use the smallest F/number you can. (This will allow fastest shutter possible)

Use the center focus for AF, its faster and more accurate than the others..

 

[gsgary]

Use a slower shutter speed for prop planes there is nothing worse than seeing a stationary prop

 

[Overread]

The only problem with aperture priority is that whilst it will pick the fastest shutter speed possible for a proper exposure (depending on metering method used) there are many times when this shutter speed might still be too slow for a good shot - at that point you have a choice:

1) exopsure
or
2) motion capture.

Exposure you risk blurred shots but you aim for good exposures allround on the shots - the risk with this is that you can't correct motion blur in editing so any that occurs will stay with the shot
Motion capture - here you push for a faster shutter speed, either using exposure compensation in aperture priority mode or by switching to shutter priority and here the risk is that you will get an underexposed shot. You can correct this a bit in editing and you might get a servicable shot at around websize scale, but fullsize and noise shown up by boosting lighting levels might be too strong.

Note also that if your shooting dark planes against a bright sky then you have to battle the lighting as well - a polarizer can help keep the sky in check and something like spot metering would give you a good chance for a good exposure of the plane itself.

good luck with the shoot

 

[LWW]

Hello to all,

I am going on air show tomorrow and I will appreciate your advices on what settings will be the most appropriate. I will use 75-300mm lens, will choose shutter priority mode, also I think would be better using continuous AF, and wide AF area, since the fast motion I think will be better the camera to determine which AF area to use.

Please advise since I might be missing something or be in the wrong direction.

Thank you in advance

Use MF set to infinity or AF-C. Planes are not close.

Also, I will either spot meter off of the plane on the ground if the sun will not be behind the planes, or matrix metering and accept that some shots will silhouette.

Use Ch or continuous high speed motor drive.

If it is jets exclusively I shoot wide open. If propellers rule I use aperture priority at between 1/320 and 1/60. If both are in the scene I use 1/320 or 1/250.

LWW

 

[Dwig]

My recommendation is to go manual focus and manual exposure for the aerial portion of the show. Statics are another matter.

In general, use a wide aperture / high shutter speed combination. You might want to avoid extremely high shutter speeds with prop planes and helicopters to avoid freezing the prop/rotor. You don't want to use too slow a speed as you will be using a long lens and need to avoid any blur from less than steady hand-holding and/or less than smooth panning.

AF is unnecessary as distances are similar and all near infinity. Using it will add to the release delay reducing your ability to get the shot exactly when you want it. The same goes for exposure. Meter a general scene on the ground while in position for the aerial show and looking in the same compass direction. Set this exposure manually.

On the subject of panning, you want to "pan through" the shot when shooting fly-bys. The plane should be in the same positon in the frame when the mirror returns after the shot (assuming you are using an SLR, digital or film) as it was before the shot. If not, you did a poor job of panning. Good panning is critical if you are shooting at anything less than the very highest shutter speeds.