Settings for an airshow

[Guest Lee]

Can someone give me some tips on shooting an airshow please? I'm after which setting should I start off with (before fine tuning for the day) for getting shots of WW2 aircraft in flight.

I will be using Jean's Canon 60D with 100-400mm lens for the air shots and my Pentax K5 with 18-50mm f2.8 and/or 70-200mm f2.8 lenses.

Thank you :)

[JohnP]

Lee... Exposure is the difficult bit, if it's a bright sunny day you can end up with the aircraft under exposed, + exposure compensation and the sky is over exposed. I have found it's best to leave exposure compensation at 0 and use fill flash in post editing to bring out detail in the aircraft, that way the sky will be correctly exposed. On a dull day this problem is much less. As you will be taking shots of propeller driven aircraft you need to aim for some propeller blur, there is nothing worse than a static propeller. Use shutter priority and experiment with speeds around 300th - 400th sec and pan. If you photograph jets you will find it easier, just use a faster shutter speed. I hope this helps but it is a bit trial and error, just take plenty of shots and change setting a little and don't expect every shot to be a keeper. I remember taking about 1,300 shots at Cosford airshow and keeping about 100...

Here's a shot of the Lancaster complete with settings.

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi, Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

Canon EF Extender 1.4, 1/320s f/14.0 at 270.0mm iso200

[Guest Lee]

I hope this helps but it is a bit trial and error, just take plenty of shots and change setting a little and don't expect every shot to be a keeper. I remember taking about 1,300 shots at Cosford airshow and keeping about 100...

John - Thanks very much for that, it was just what I wanted. I've done the jets before, at Duxford, and they were pretty easy but planes with props are a different matter!

I'll take plenty of cards and give it a bash.

[Black Pearl]

Lots of info here: http://www.militaryairshows.co.uk/airshowphotographybasics.htm

Makes your eyes go funny mind.

[Guest Lee]

Cheers BP, looks interesting; I'll check it out in full when the boiler bloke clears off.

[Guest DaveW]

As BP has done Lee, just Google "Airshow Photography" or Aircraft Photography" and you will come up with many "how to" sites giving settings etc.

DaveW

[Guest Lee]

As BP has done Lee, just Google "Airshow Photography" or Aircraft Photography" and you will come up with many "how to" sites giving settings etc.

DaveW

Dave, I did but there was so much I thought I'd ask where I could trust the answers; seems to have worked, especially with John's answer.

[jeremy rundle]

Just remember the most important point TURN OFF all but the CENTRE af point of you will rarely get a decent shot

See my sports and surf shots NONE use anything other than JUST the centre focus point

http://www.jrs-photography.co.uk/gallery-1.html

Edited October 3, 2012 by jeremy rundle

[Guest Lee]

Good advice, I'll have to look at Jean's camera and figure out to switch them off but my K5 is always kept to the centre AF point.