How did he do this??

Matty777

Matty777

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A quite famous photo on AirNet but despite a few requests I don't think the guy ever revelaed his exif or how exactly he got the shot??

Can you suggest??

(If it's anything to do with flash and curtain sync or whatever please explain in dtetail as that always confuses me)

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1147166/L/
 
Appears to be a long exposure, tripod mounted, with second curtain sync.
 
At least I was on the right track. Thanks for the link, it was explained very well.

I reckon that flight was at about 100-150 feet, so something like a 430 or 580ex flash would be needed and not the on-board flash of the 30D?
 
nah, the pilot would
a) be looking straight ahead
b) be looking at the instruments
flash from below would have to be searchlight size before he'd even notice

if you can't see the pilot - he can't see you!
 
I know :p Just emphasising you'd need a lot of flash power to stop that plane and get the exposure as good as that. :)
 
As far as I can see, the exposure was about 25 seconds. The 0.5Hz (Boeing) strobes on the wing tips can be seen in the red and green traces. Count back, and a little interpolation, shows a minimum of 12 flashes.

Does that give any more clues?

Bob
 
Canon Bob said:
As far as I can see, the exposure was about 25 seconds. The 0.5Hz (Boeing) strobes on the wing tips can be seen in the red and green traces. Count back, and a little interpolation, shows a minimum of 12 flashes.

Does that give any more clues?

Bob
Click to expand...

Wow that's some detective work:thumbs:

I've no idea how he did it, but wish I did it's an amazing shot:D
 
Interesting! It's a great shot, and it's entirely feasible that it's a single exposure with rear curtain sync. A battery of flashes could have been used to light the plane.

The only thing which bugs me about it is that with an exposure time that long wouldn't you expect to see some trails due to star movement? You can clearly see star trails in a similar shot in his gallery where he hasn't bothered to light the plane with flash - just captured the plane's light trails...

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/photos/middle/8/7/3/1181378.jpg

Possibly two separate shots -one for the light trails and another lighting the plane with flash?

Pretty impressive either way. :)
 
I can add a little more in the way of clues.

On the 737-500 srs, the red and green navigation lights are positioned about mid-chord on the wing tip. The red and green traces finish forwards of where they would have travelled to at the culmination of this shot. I don't think the lights are "painted" in as I can't see anyone remembering to put the strobe points in there.

Bob
 
I wouldn't expect the lights to be painted in Bob. If you look at some of the light trails in his other shots (with no plane) the leading edges of the trails always end conforming to the shape of the wing. Because of this it would be fairly easy to combine a light trail shot with another shot of the plane just lit by flash, and position and even resize the plane to match up with the light trails in all the right places.

The more I look at it, the more I think it's a montage of at least two shots, but I could be wildly wrong and it wouldn't take anything away from the shot for me if it was.
 
the light trails from the shot without the plane (the one with star trails) looks to be a much longer exposure. you can see the path of the plane a long way off on its approach.

would you expect to get any appreciable star trails from a 25s exposure?
 
I doubt star trails would show up at such a wide angle for the exposure time needed. A bank of flash guns or some portable studio heads would probably do the job. But the very sharp edge to the lights does bother me a bit, the leading edge should be dimmer than the rest as it's not had as much exposure, esp. the red one on the right.
 
The red and green strobes aren't strobing, they are on steady throught the exposure, that's not right is it?
 
I think you are all forgetting something fairly simple. When have you ever known a plane, coming in to land or take off, fly in a dead straight line. No turbulance, no yaw or slight banking of the wing tips.......Unless this is a seriously good pilot those light trails are Dead straight. Like they have been drawn with a ruler.

there is no way a plane would fly dead straight. Think of all the landings and take offs you have been in. There is always some form of correction being performed which would alter the light trails......but im no pilot and nto that great at taking pictuires either:lol:
 
I think it an amazing shot, and the pilot was very clever to have reversed the plane onto the runway like that.
 
Steep said:
The red and green strobes aren't strobing, they are on steady throught the exposure, that's not right is it?
Click to expand...

The red and green wing tip beacons are on solid. There are additional strobes (can be seen within the red/green) in the same position. The upper, ventral and tail reds do strobe.

Bob
 
Embarassingly I have tried a long exposure approach shot, it didn't really work for me, but the light trail is dead staight. so they are not always all over the place a one suggested.

The runway lights in all the other shots I tried just over took the photo and made horrendous reflections and artifacts.

240835709-L.jpg
 
I'd be inclined to think it was a single shot. The actual sky and trails are over exposed slightly (unlike his other similar pictures), the only reason he didn't adjust the exposure IMO is because he would have lost a lot of the detail in the aircraft. I'd say a long exposure and second curtain.
 
Canon Bob said:
The red and green wing tip beacons are on solid. There are additional strobes (can be seen within the red/green) in the same position. The upper, ventral and tail reds do strobe.

Bob
Click to expand...

What about the lights coming of the engine intakes Bob, are they meant to be? ....I didn't realise they had lights on those bits?

--
Looks like a faker to me, fantastic though.
I'm quite happy with the straight trail lines, but not the way they join to the plane. ( I don't know what I'm expecting to see, but that one doesn't sit right).. Stars look fine for 25secs I think.

I agree with CT, It looks like a separate panned shot, taken with the biggest flash he could find and only just managing to light the plane because of its height...
On that point also, the flash appears to be pointing directly at the plane, like it would on a pan shot (To get the most out of it possibly) ..if it had been flashed on the rear curtain, fixed tripod shot, ... not so easy....I guess it could have been pointed in the same way, but that would take some skill and practice to light it bang on, as he has done with the little flash light he had.


Thats my guess. :D
 
Forbiddenbiker said:
What about the lights coming of the engine intakes Bob, are they meant to be? ....I didn't realise they had lights on those bits?
Click to expand...


I think you'll find their reflections on the shiny metal from the NAV lights..
 
The "lights" on the intakes are highlights from the flash.
 
I wouldn't think you would need that much power for the flash, if you set any decent flash to full power it will light up more than you'd think. remember the flash head could be zoomed in a reasonable amount so not much light is wasted.

Great shot though :D
 
fraggle101 said:
I think you'll find their reflections on the shiny metal from the NAV lights..
Click to expand...

pxl8 said:
The "lights" on the intakes are highlights from the flash.
Click to expand...


Not those bits guys, I can see what they are ...I meant the actual steams of light coming off those intakes... they must be fixed light sources of some sort to have the streams coming from them ...right?
 
Thts what im talking about, the long line coming from the intake ect, its bare metal 'Ally' i assume, its the Nav lights either side reflecting so its also causing a stream of light for the lenth of the exposure..

Nav lights mid wing one side and on the wing/fusi the other..

The little spots of light on the top and bottom on the intake look to be reflections of the flash as Pxl8 said, they dont show any trail so are just very brief..
 
Studying this photo more, I too now, am not convinced. All the light trails don't quite add up from the start and finish points, and what should be on the a/c.
You lot are making me more sceptical :)
 
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