Taking photos at an airshow

aarhap

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Hey guys. In a few weeks Ill be going to an airshow and I just wondered if any of you have any advice for getting good photos. I was thinking of shooting in Tv mode but yeah...any advice would be welcome.

Heres some photos I took yesterday at an airport but I dont think they are that nice.

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I like the 1st with the prop spinning. Um. as far as recommendations I would say fast shutter speed and waiting for that one shot. For the 3rd photo I would crop it a little so the planes are more in the center.
 
I spent a day in the sun snapping shots at an air show and the sun created a headache for checking the pictures on the LCD. I found out afterwords that the camera was metering on the whole frame and ended up underexposing the planes themselves to compensate the blue sky. If you notice in your shots posted, the planes lost detail due to this metering.

My advice would be to bias your exposure 1-1.5 stops over, and use a polarizer to deepen the blue sky.

Good luck and please post your results.
 
Thanks for the advice. I'll try and get the polarizer, but money is a little tight at the moment. Anything else?
 
for prop planes I shoot at 125th of a sec for all planes except Boeing Stearmans, for those you can shoot at 500th of a sec

Helicopter you really need to slow things right down to about 60th or 100th

as for jets I switch to aperture priority and set F8

As for metering I use spot metering and over expose by either 2 thirds of a stop or one stop


loads of examples here http://www.hardpointphotography.fotopic.net/show_group.php?id=3307
 
for prop planes I shoot at 125th of a sec for all planes except Boeing Stearmans, for those you can shoot at 500th of a sec

Helicopter you really need to slow things right down to about 60th or 100th

as for jets I switch to aperture priority and set F8

As for metering I use spot metering and over expose by either 2 thirds of a stop or one stop


loads of examples here http://www.hardpointphotography.fotopic.net/show_group.php?id=3307

Thanks a lot lostprophet. When you shot prop planes and heli's, do you shoot in Tv mode or full manual?
 
I shoot in TV mode and I always shoot in RAW
 
Thanks so much :D You're a lifesaver.
 
Some photos from yesterday. Any feedback is welcome.

I wasn't able to shoot in RAW and my polarizer hasn't arrived yet but I think I did an OK job for the equipment I had.

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Looks pretty good. Remember, with prop planes (pic 4), you want to shoot at a slower speed. Freezing the prop while the plane is in mid-air doesn't look right, like it's about to fall out of the sky. This may require a higher f/stop to get a slower shutter speed, which also may require a little panning to keep the plane sharp.

The motion of the heli blades look good.
 

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