Advise for Ametuer. Southport Airshow

philipfirth1983

philipfirth1983

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Philip Firth
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Hi All. Just a bit of advise really.

I'm going to the Southport Airshow on Sunday and would like some advise on what settings to set my camera too. I'm fairly new to photography. I have a Fuji Finepix S9600 Zoom.

I am starting college today on a digital camera course but don't think they will show me the settings this week and don't really wanna shot on the auto setting.

Thanks In Advance

Phil
 
Hi, there, i don't know your camera settings but normally for an airshow there are a few options.

If there are prop planes you usually want to use a slow shutter speed so you get some prop blur but not too slow otherwise you risk a blurry plane, i normally shoot some planes taxiing as a tester and adjust shutter speed so i get a nice prop blur then adjust this during the show while the planes are in the air for best effect.

For jet planes then you want a fast shutter speed to capture them sharply as they move fast and you have no props etc to worry about blurring.

You may find as i have on a bright day that the planes tend to silhouette against the sky so advice from the forum was to dial in a bit of exposure compensation. i don't know if you can do this on your camera or not, but again just play with it.

Also make sure you pan smoothly and keep panning even after shutter release. Try playing with continuous autofocus to help track the planes.

Most important is to enjoy it, its probably one of the more difficult things to photograph, play with the settings, you are going to miss a lot of shots so if you come away with a few you are pleased with you have done good.

Plus learn from it to apply the settings etc you used the next time.
 
Thanks for that PPP.

Will post the pics when I get home.

Can anyone advise on what F stop and shutter speed. Also should I adjust these in Manual mode or have it set to Apeture or Shutter priority?
 
Shutter priority's the way to go. For prop stuff probably 1/250s is as fast as you want to go, you can go slower if you want but don't go too slow unless your panning technique is up to it. Anything quick you'll need to look at 1/1000s if there's enough light.

Unfortunately you can't expect every shot to be perfect (I dumped 75% of my shots from Donington the other weekend) but have a look at the duffers and try to work out why they're no use. Is it motion blur from a slow shutter, poor framing becuase your panning needs practice etc, if you know where things are going wrong it's far easier to get it right the next time.
 
Photography advice aside......I'll offer my own nugget :)

Get there early, before the rush if you can. The front barriers fill up quickly, so get there early and claim your spot...spread your wings too, because I guarantee when it gets busy people will try to push to the front.
 
Be aware that your camera has a bit of shutter lag (all compacts do) it means that when you press the shutter button it takes a fraction of a second before the shot is actually taken. Not usually a problem with static subjects but heed ppp's advice about continuing to pan after you've pressed the shutter for moving aircraft.

/edit and don't squint if you'e looking through the viewfinder, keep both eyes open and relaxed, that will make it easier to follow moving targets.
 
Good advice about the shutter lag. My canon 300D had that also. You had to anticipate that brief moment ahead...
 
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