Help on shooting night storm clouds from Aircraft flight deck.

oscaroque

oscaroque

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I have been trying to get some shoots from the flight deck of an active storm cloud, and include part of the flight deck as well, but I have had no luck with the results, I had to raise the ISO crazy high to get something with a lot of noise as a result. My equipment 5DMk3, Canon 16-35, 17-40, 50mm pancake, and 70-200II 2.8, Manfrotto tripod and head. I have also tried to get some extra light for the deck with a flash but not the result I want since washout the colors of the switches and screens.
Any advise will be very appreciatted. Happy shooting to you all.
 
How wide of a view of the flight deck are you looking to get? I have seen long exposures well reasonably long exposures done from the flight deck so assuming you can secure the tripod I see no reason why you couldn't go down a slightly longer exposure with maybe a small low powered burst of flash to add a little fill light

I'd probably be looking at something like 10s exposure, f/11ish and ISO50 but this is all guesstimate if I'm honest as I've only ever been in the flight deck once and that was as a kid I was about 10 on a BY 767
 
Thats not going to work as a 10s exposure would mean the storm would move too much in relation to the shooting point. Have you thought about using a gorillapod, one short shot for the storm then another one for the IP then merging them? Or you could try raw and create a digital bracketed set from one frame.
 
cw318is said:
Thats not going to work as a 10s exposure would mean the storm would move too much in relation to the shooting point. Have you thought about using a gorillapod, one short shot for the storm then another one for the IP then merging them? Or you could try raw and create a digital bracketed set from one frame.
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I kind of assumed we were talking about lightening since it was night...night time wise, unless shooting wide open and ultra high ISO I'm not sure how your going to see the clouds but if you go for a long shutter speed it's possible that the lighting will ask like a front curtain flash burst and freeze the cloud formation in view also..
 
I think id be inclined to take two exposures. One for the flight deck panels, and one for the sky. Blending the two in PS should be pretty straightforward as you have the straight edges of the screen/windows.
 
Quick and dirty edit to show what I meant, with perhaps the worlds worst shot!

 
If this is night time.... then this will be hugely difficult. Ordinarily, it's camera on tripod, slow speeds etc. Can you use a tripod on the flightdeck? Even if you can, the aircraft will have to be supremely steady. There's no way you can do this handheld unless you shoot really high ISO as you've already discovered.
 
Thanks guys for all your advises, I use a tripod in the deck is a320 and it is quite roomy. The camera has the HDR mode which I can set and blend 3 exposures, my big problem is to get the proper timing with the lightnings since I can not do HDR for a long exposures lets say 15sec or so at least I haven't try it. I will try to get the lightning and merge later as Nick suggested, I have a 5 hours flight to Bangkok tonight to play with, don't worry Im jump seating not working the flight, I had to scape home just to work on this idea. Thanks for your comments, I promise I will try each of them and I let you guys know. Cheers, Oscar
 
Your best bet is to get an infrared lightning trigger, once attached to the camera, the camera then responds to the lightning strike in an instant, then it can go onto taking the other two differencing exposure shots if the camera is set at HDR mode anyway. Or something like that.
 
Thanks Ian, I will look for the trigger first time I heard of it. Last night a disaster no luck with the weather en route, I come back tomorrow night hopefully more luck.
Thanks.
 
oscaroque said:
Thanks Ian, I will look for the trigger first time I heard of it. Last night a disaster no luck with the weather en route, I come back tomorrow night hopefully more luck.
Thanks.
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Last night shouldn't have been a disaster, you should look on it as a dry run (y) were you able to get a clean shot? Even if there were no lightening?
 
I took this one in the pool of the hotel, a little channel color change on Aperture, comments!!ImageUploadedByTalk Photography Forums1406562137.025728.jpg
 
I'll be honest the look of it is a little too "grungy" for my tastes, however I do like the monotone idea :thumbs: and overall the exposure doesn't look bad at all for a night time photo with some really strong light sources
 
I got to thinking about your situation earlier so ran a quick search on the other forum I'm a member of and found this which I'm guessing is about what your aiming for...as the view out of the window based on how the lightening has acted as a flash to show the form of the clouds

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Turkish-Airlines/Airbus-A330-343/2267730

Sadly no exif but if I had to guess that's no more than a 15ish second exposure likely at close to base ISO and a medium to large aperture as some stars have been picked out so probably no more than f/5.6

But I think this will be the one to really help, though as this shows the cockpit type view, with both the outside and inside visible...

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Binter-Canarias-(Naysa/ATR-ATR-72-500-(ATR-72-212A)/1359176

Exif on this one shows it to be a 10 second exposure, ISO200 and f/2.8...this should easily be recreated in your situation :thumbs:

I really hope you get the opportunity soon as I for one would really like to see the outcome :thumbs:
 
MWHCVT thank you so much for taking the time to research on my project, thats exactly what Im trying to get, I will for sure post them once a get a descent result. Once again thank you, happy shooting!!
 
Of course it would help with taking the pictures if you had the widows open while in flight. That way you avoid the bird splatter on the screen or the wipers getting in the way. You could of course make up a rig to hang out of the widows similar to using a car rig. :banana::ROFLMAO:. Or what about attaching it to the steering wheel?:rolleyes:

THe first time I went on an aircraft I said to the stewardess " those people down there look like ants we are so high up"
She replied " They are ants we have not taken off yet"

What is the last thing that goes though a birds brain as it hits an aircraft window?

Answer= its tail feathers
 
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Jajaja true, but no way I can get windows open in flight, I would have PP the window reflections.
 
That IS a shame not being able to get the widows open in flight, Obviously a design fault in the aircraft build. Or maybe it is designed that way so pilots with wigs on their heads don't get them blown off :eek::rolleyes:

Only other way I can think of is to super glue your camera to the nose cone and use a wireless remote to trigger the camera.

See always trying to be helpful with great ideas (y)
 
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oscaroque said:
MWHCVT thank you so much for taking the time to research on my project, thats exactly what Im trying to get, I will for sure post them once a get a descent result. Once again thank you, happy shooting!!
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Your more than welcome I'm happy to be able to help, especially on something that got potential for some spectacular images...I'm more than a little envious of your opportunity to be able to capture this ;)
 
MWHCVT said:
Your more than welcome I'm happy to be able to help, especially on something that got potential for some spectacular images...I'm more than a little envious of your opportunity to be able to capture this ;)
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I wish you could join, no doubt I would learn by looking 100 times faster than trying. Thanks
 
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