Airshow shoot - advice please

[billtils]

I am going to the Scottish Air Show at the weekend. This will be a first time at one of these events and I'd appreciate any and all guidance.

The starting point will be my preferred set up for BIF shooting: single point focus, spot exposure metering with around +1.5 EV exposure comp, ISO set to give a shutter speed of 1/1250 or faster, Aperture priority and f/8, and panning, 300mmPF prime +/- TC-14E. The ISO/shutter speed combo will be adjusted for the older aircraft to leave propeller motion blur.

Thanks

Bill

[pnodrog]

If you happen to get a spot measure off one of the black Air New Zealand planes the +1.5EV EC will probably too much...

[John 2]

If as you pan, unless you have a fairly constant colour in the sky, using shutter priority will mean that your shutter speed will be adjusting to compensate for any exposure changes. You might be able to set your auto ISO to limit your shutter speed to 1/1250th as a minimum at the risk of introducing noise as it climbs. Shutter priority and letting the aperture compensate might be the better option with bracketed ISO backing that up. At the distances you will be working at, DOF shouldn't be a problem with a 300mm.

[William W]

If you are shooting from a static position and generally in the same direction, there is little reason NOT to use Manual Mode, thereby one has absolute control over Shutter Speed (for Propeller blur) and ISO. This is a typical technique used for Sport Photography in those conditions.

Even when there are TWO shooting scenarios (for one example), shooting in one direction and in another such that the sunlight's direction effects the need for a different exposure, or, (as another example) shooting with sunlight and shooting into shade, then the same technique can be used: in this case one computes the exposure difference necessary for the two shooting scenarios and when moving from one to the other simple flips (typically) the aperture or (possibly) the ISO to suit. Typically one would set the 'standard exposure' to the shooting scenario most likely to occur and set the flip for the shooting scenario less often required.

Obviously one has to be aware of changing light conditions, so, I would not suggest using this technique for the first time if (as one example) there is a lot of cloud movement, or (as another example) at dawn or dusk, when the EV changes rapidly.

The leverage this technique has is that the a meter driven exposure is never fooled by dark planes, (dark players' jerseys) etc and never fooled by a sun splash or reflection of glare.

FWIW, the same technique applies to shooting BIF, but I think that birds would not necessarily always have a choreographed flight path.

WW

[pnodrog]

Perhaps camera's need to offer peripheral weighed metering as an option. Then the background sky with a suitable EC would be used for determining the exposure and the colour and/or reflections from the plane would be of little significance...

For sports photography in NZ grass is often a better indicator of exposure than the black uniform some teams use.

[William W]

. . . peripheral weighed metering . . .

... love it.

(aside, if I may) . . . New Zealand grass is most beautiful. It's unfortunate that, recently, it has often been splattered with defeated Wallabies.

[billtils]

Thank you all for the advice - and Bill for the humour.

[ccphoto]

I only shoot manual, and rarely go higher than .7 or 1 EV and I generally do pretty well with all types and speeds of aircraft. Panning skills are a must and with that I find shooting 5-10 frame bursts get the best results for fast movers. I rarely shoot for proper prop blur at more than 100th of a sec, mostly at 80th. I am almost always shooting directly into a bright blue sky. I generally shoot either the D810 or D500 coupled to either my 24-120 for static shots or the 200-500 for air events (often I take both) and most shots are at ISO 640, 1/2500, f/8 EV .7 This is obviously a composited image shot at these settings:

[Donald]

I only shoot manual, and rarely go higher than .7 or 1 EV

Maybe you could explain what you mean, Chris.

For most people shooting fully manual, you wouldn't be thinking about any EV compensation. You set the shutter and you set the aperture. Maybe explaining what you do would help people understand.

There was a discussion on here some time ago on this and someone suggested that we need to re-define terms to distinguish fully manual from what I think you're doing.

[billtils]

Thanks Chris

I looked again at my OP and on reflection was a bit off on the EC. I set it on the day from the histogram of test shots and it usually turns out around 1.0EV but sometimes is higher.

I take the point about going shutter priority and what I guess meant by "Manual", namely setting shutter speed and aperture and leaving ISO as the variable, and also that aircraft - even props - are a lot faster through the air than birds, so will breathe deeply and give it a go.

[rpcrowe]

Bill, I shot for years using the Canon 300mm f/4L IS lens on a crop format camera and got some pretty nice shots. I switched to the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II lens after it came out. I didn't switch because I did not like the results of the 300mm (which I occasionally used with a 1.4x TC) but, because the zoom lens lens allows more flexibility, especially when the aircraft are really close up like they are when the Blue Angels practice at their home base in California...

I have used straight manual exposure (with no camera automation applied) - this is effective since the background such as mountains, blue sky or very white clouds will not change my exposure. I can expose for the aircraft and feel certain that plane will be exposed properly no matter the surroundings or background.

I have also used:

Manual exposure with Auto ISO

Shutter Speed Priority

and

Aperture Priority.

I have done well with all modes except that I don't use aperture priority anymore when shooting propeller aircraft because I want to have direct and complete control of the shutter speed; since I like to shoot prop aircraft at about 1/80 second. With jets, I shoot at the highest shutter speed my f/stop and ISO will allow, since they don't have propellers to worry about. This shot of a P-40 taking off was done at 1/80 second and shows the prop blur that I always want to capture.



I like to shoot using a lens that has shake control (Canon calls this IS). Shooting an airshow is different from shooting sports because I will always try for the highest shutter speed in sports photography. While 1/80 second is pretty darn slow when shooting with a long focal length.

A lens that has at least two types of IS: one for still subjects and one to use when panning is super great because panning is what I do at airshows.

Sometimes I wonder about shooting fast moving subjects using a camera with an electronic viewfinder. Of course, I have not had the opportunity to shoot with a top-line mirrorless camera.