Airshow advice needed

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Richard T

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Rich
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Hi

I'm thinking of visiting the Southend air show and have some questions....

How do you guys shoot? Do you set a shutter speed and let the camera sort out the rest.

I normally shoot using Aperture priority
what sort of shutter speed will I need to get blurred props?

oh yes I'll be using a 350d with 70-300is


many thanks
 
From one of the recent Duxford threads:

malla1962 said:
The speed depends on how the engine is reving,For taxi and landing I like around
1/125 and flying hard 1/160-1/200 for helicopters about 1/80th
Click to expand...

I've no idea myself, but that sounds good - I shall be printing that out and taking it with me! :D
 
OK, just to make you aware, sea front airshows are not the best for photography unless you've got a 500mm lens. The aircraft never tend to get that close and display over the water, so alot of small grey dots in the sky. Friend went 2 years back and didn't enjoy the photographic experience, lots of people and nowhere good to photograph from.

Anyway, in answer to your question, stick with TV, for prop aircraft setting between 200 - 320th sec will get some blurring of the prop, slower speeds will get you the windmill effect of full prop blur (around 160th sec), but you have to have a very good panning technique to achieve this successfully.

For jets, TV settings between 640 -1000th sec depending on the speed of the jet.

These speeds will depend on your lens 70-300mm IS (f5.6) ability to achieve this. This will depend on the light condition on the day (pray for sun). Setting your ISO settings to 200 - 400 (sensitivity of sensor to light) will aid you with the shutter settings without putting too much noise into the images.

The most important thing is your panning techique, which does take time to master, especially at the slower shutter speeds. One good thing about airshows is, you get alot of practice taking pictures.

Enjoy the day
 
Depending on the wether you will almost certainly need to adjust the exposure for sky and or sea.
 
You may find Southend Airport a better place to take photos. It's quieter, most of the planes do a display there except for the red arrows, there is more background stuff going on most of the time, and most of the planes are on the ground some time or other.
 
pete.rush said:
OK, just to make you aware, sea front airshows are not the best for photography unless you've got a 500mm lens. The aircraft never tend to get that close and display over the water, so alot of small grey dots in the sky. Friend went 2 years back and didn't enjoy the photographic experience, lots of people and nowhere good to photograph from.
Click to expand...
Plus at Southend you have no choice but to be facing south (because the seafront runs east-west), which means into the sun. Not ideal!
Richard T said:
Yep am praying for a bit of sun
Click to expand...
I wouldn't if I were you. (see above.)
Defiance said:
You may find Southend Airport a better place to take photos. It's quieter, most of the planes do a display there except for the red arrows, there is more background stuff going on most of the time, and most of the planes are on the ground some time or other.
Click to expand...
When I was a kid I lived right near the airport in Southend, and the Red Arrows used it as an alternate base when they were away from their home base for various reasons. They always did a short display whenever they took off and landed. We used to climb up onto the (flat) roof of the house to watch.
 
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