Airshow Photos

[Karl]

Went to the airshow at RAAF Base Pearce yesterday to try my hand at aviation photography. We don't have many of these types of events here in Western Australia so I thought I would make the most of it.

All taken with my new 7D. Static photos with the Sigma 18 - 250mm lens and moving shots were with the Sigma 170 - 500mm lens.

Comments welcomed as I am learning

Karl

PC9 Trainer



Super Hornet



Super Hornet in flight



C17 Globemaster



F/A 18 Hornets

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Karl,

You'll have Colin drooling over the F/A 18 shots

I felt all three of the air shots weren't quite as sharp as the ground ones, nothing significant, because a simple sharpen after downsizing should fix things. The other possibility, and I cannot see any EXIF data to confirm/disprove, is that the shutter speed was too low for the focal length. Was it the Sigma 150-500 with IS?

On the ground shots, especially the PC9, I find it always pays to 'elevator' yourself up and down a bit before pressing the shutter to get the best compromise of background clutter vs subject and sky, maybe you have already. In which case, a wider aperture, for narrower DoF may help separate subject, or even some artificial blur added to background in PP.

Cheers,

[Karl]

Hi Karl,

You'll have Colin drooling over the F/A 18 shots

I felt all three of the air shots weren't quite as sharp as the ground ones, nothing significant, because a simple sharpen after downsizing should fix things. The other possibility, and I cannot see any EXIF data to confirm/disprove, is that the shutter speed was too low for the focal length. Was it the Sigma 150-500 with IS?

Dave thanks for that. The 170 - 500 is non IS and I had the camera set at Tv with a shutter speed of 1/800 sec and they were hand held. I haven't used this lens much but when I do I find that it just isn't sharp despite whatever I try

Also appiled some sharpening in PP but was trying not to over do it.

Karl

[Dave Humphries]

Dave thanks for that. The 170 - 500 is non IS and I had the camera set at Tv with a shutter speed of 1/800 sec and they were hand held. I haven't used this lens much but when I do I find that it just isn't sharp despite whatever I try

Hi Karl,

The 1/800s shutter speed is pushing it a bit for 500mm on a crop body with a non IS lens.

I assume it is Auto-Focus?
Personally I had a bad experience with the Sigma 18-250mm, it consistently back focused on my Nikon.
e.g. shoot a bird on the river that was some way in front of the river bank and all the grass in the background was sharp

I used to have to focus on water way in front to stand a chance of a sharp bird, given the fairly narrow Depth of Field. As I'd bought it new, it eventually went back.

Of course, if your longer lens has a similar problem, shooting planes against the sky doesn't allow you the luxury of being able to 'offset' focus. You might want to try shooting something at an oblique angle and see whether there is another part of the image which is sharp to prove or rule this out.

Also try some tripod shots to rule out camera shake.

What PP software do you have and did you shoot RAW?

[Karl]

Hi Karl,

The 1/800s shutter speed is pushing it a bit for 500mm on a crop body with a non IS lens.

I assume it is Auto-Focus?

What PP software do you have and did you shoot RAW?

Thanks for that, yes it was auto focus and I use PSE9 and shot in RAW.

Karl