Hiya newbie needs advice

[Jellycopter]

Hi all I'm Nath from Leicestershire by no means an expert lol! I'm applying fir a job on a helicopter where part of the job involves taking ariel shots any advice appreciated!

 

[cw318is]

Hi Nath,

Best advice - don't fall out.

Seriously though it depends what your going to be taking shots of. A decent zoom is probably a must and probably one with IS. What camera do you have at the moment?

 

[RacingSnake]

and whats your job? sounds cool

 

[Jellycopter]

Hiya
Basically my dream job working on a specialist helicopter unit, part of the job is taking photos from above. I wont be using my little digital camera the team have a cannon slr with various zoom lenses. Just need some basic advice re shutter speeds etc

 

[cw318is]

Tough question to answer, so many factors involved. Are we talking day or night, from 500' or 20,000', do you want the whole of Leicestershire in focus or just a particular building? Are you moving or hovering?

To start with I'd recommend using aperture priority and letting the camera work the rest out. If you go around f8 on a nice sunny day that should give you a good semi fast exposure. Rule of thumb on a full frame camera is set the speed to match the focal length, so a 400mm lens for example you'll be at 1/400.