lenzguy
Offline
Image Upload: Off
|
Dave,
I've done a lot of aviation-related shooting so here's a few more general tips that should help - some of which has already been mentioned by other FM'ers:
- Practice your panning with something easier, like moving cars before you go to the airshow. You'll find aside from getting appropriate exposures that smooth and consistent panning will save you more times than not in getting that "money shot".
- Use some added camera support. Unless you're in really good upper-body shape you'll find that angling the camera up above the horizon for an entire airshow will wear you out fairly quickly. Thankfully you're not hand-holding up a hunk of glass like a 300mm f/2.8 or something similar but your body will still appreciate the extra help. There are a couple ways to do this inexpensively:
David and Sanford make a "Steady Stick", which was originally designed for small video cameras but I've successfully used it (and I've seen other event shooters use them) several times at airshows to help hold up the beastly bodies I shoot (1Ds, F1-N, F5 etc). It's completely adjustable, costs under $100 bucks and will save your body-holding arm for all-day long shoots. Or a Monopod. It takes a bit of practice to pan smoothly with a one of these but it too is an inexpensive method of getting more support.
Here's a really cheap, effective albeit goofy way to pan easily and give yourself more camera support: take a light office chair, preferrably one without wheels or, locking wheels. I know this sounds crazy (until I saw a guy actually doing this and then tried it myself) but it really works. If you get a chair that allows you to lean back a bit, it allows you to be in an upright pointing position, the armrests give you extra support and you can swivel the chair left or right with your feet and follow the action really smoothly - I mean, really smoothly! Laugh if you will, but just try it once and you'll be hooked. I've done it twice now using smaller lenses like the one you'll be using and it's just "plane fun". Get it? (laughs)
Now about exposure; shutter priority is best for getting prop-er (more word play there) propeller blur, but if you're shooting in an automatic mode then you're going to be at the mercy of the camera's meter cosntantly changing values as you pan - and this can cause you to not get nailed exposures on the subject. Here's what I suggest to avoid this issue:
If you have a handheld meter, use that instead to get some accurate average readings of the light or, take some test shots in shutter priority, chimp and look at exposures, pick the one that has a "nailed" exposure, set the camera on manual with that exposure setting and keep that EV setting thoughout the day. This way as you pan with your subject, the camera won't be changing EV values on you and you won't end up with varied exposures while you pan. If however you're in a cloudy or partially cloudy day where the subject goes in and out of sunlight, then you've got no choice but to shoot in shutter priority and let the camera make the corrections on the "fly".
If your lens came with one, use the lens hood - always. If it didn't pick one up.
Also, don't be afraid to break the rules with getting the subject sharp. Play with long exposures while panning. Some of the most dramatic imagery of aircraft I've seen is where the shooter panned with the plane and purposely used a slow shutter. This will not only give tons of background blur which will enhance the sense of speed, but sometimes getting the aircraft blurred will also give the same feel to the image. Airshows are one of the best places to catch man & machine doing dramatic things, and sometimes it's just not very dramatic when the aircraft is completely sharp and frozen from movement in the image - cut loose and get some drama man!
Hope this helps,
Robert
Edited on Aug 17, 2005 at 10:51 AM
|
