Airshow shooting, what I learned.....

I work at the Alliance Airport where they were having and air show this weekend so I had a good chance to practice as the planes were practicing.

I was shooting with the E1 and the 50-200mm lens, I had a Hoya CP on the lens and did use the 1.4 at times but found that the 50-200 was best by itself. I used manual focus on most of the shots, on slower planes I switched to S-AF this worked just fine for them.

I removed the tripod mount from the lens which makes it much better to hold. I did try the monopod the first day but found it just did not work well for this type of shooting.
I did shoot raw for all shots and used RSP for the conversion.

The first day of practice I shot at ISO 200, A mode and found that I could not get the shutter speeds high enough to kill the camera shake. Some shots were good but I still missed a lot of good shots do to the camera shake. There is no way you can really tell how sharp and image is by using the LCD, some looked good but when viewed on the monitor were not as sharp as I would have liked.

The next day of practice I shot at ISO 800, A mode. I was able to kill the camera shack and got sharper images but I had a lot of noise in the sky. The sky is were you see the noise the most anyway. I could clean up some of it but there was still more there then I like. Taking out to much noise killed the sharpness and detail I was wanting.

The day of the show I shot at ISO 400 in S mode, this was the best. I had some noise but it was not bad and I was able to kill the camera shake. I set the camera at a shutter speed of 1/800th and this did a very good job.
I again used manual focus most of the time and this worked well.

More images can be seen here.
http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/planes_trains

One of my picks.
1/800s f/6.3 at 200.0mm iso400



This is a tight crop of the same image.



--
No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.

http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber

nice gallery Bill...the tbirds put on one heck of a show.
--
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Rob
'a camera is only a tool, a photographer creates the image'

for the post and I like that shot.

Mark

Here is a leason learned.

and some great shots as a result!
--
Gary S P



Mother Nature is my religion
http://www.garysworld.net

Thanks for the lesson, I plan to use your advice next time I shoot an airshow. I reallly how the pics came out for you and wish to duplicate it.

Again thanks for sharing.

Yet another post illustrating that the E-1 is still a very capable camera!

I haven't had the opportunity to shoot any airshows yet, but look forward to the chance!

What I have found shooting some kids' sports mirror your comments about reducing camera shake w/higher shutter speeds.

I almost never use S mode, (usually in favor of M or A); but lately I have actually improved my results in action shots (w/ the 50-200) by setting a shutter speed (usually around 500 for football) and maniuplating ISO (when needed) to "adjust", for lack of a better word, the aperture.

Of course, for this same scenario I could simply use Manual and monitor the exposure and adjust ISO to the necessary setting, but I find I'm a bit quicker on the draw if I allow my E-1 to handle at least one parameter in action photography.

Once again, nice shots of the Thunderbirds!!

--
Living in a Fisheye Lens,
Caught in the Camera Eye,
I Have No Heart to Lie;
I Can't Pretend a Stranger
Is a Long-Awaited Friend.

--Neil Peart

http://www.gtcraigphoto.com

Bill Huber said:

The day of the show I shot at ISO 400 in S mode, this was the best.
I had some noise but it was not bad and I was able to kill the
camera shake. I set the camera at a shutter speed of 1/800th and
this did a very good job.
I again used manual focus most of the time and this worked well.

This is a tight crop of the same image.



--

Click to expand...

Can't read the pilots' names, you need more pixels Bill......LOL!
Good technique...400, 400, 800.
Good shots, too.
--
Bob Ross
http://www.pbase.com/rossrtx

Great shot, Bill.
Last month I shot at the Toronto Air Show with the same setup, E-1/50-200.

Manual focus all the way. It's not as bad as it sounds. My problem was the overcast sky. The camera kept hunting in AF.

Here's the link to some of my shots. http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v90/jefkom/Airshow%202006/ I lost many of them due to a bad transfer from my 2gig CF to my image tank.

Jeff.
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The Blue Angles were there last time and I think I like them better. They do more close flying and that type of thing.

But not to take anything away for the Thunderbirds they are good and can fly very well.

--
No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.

http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber

You can monitor the settings but when the action is fast its easier said then done.

I think this is the first time I have ever set the camera to S mode.

--
No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.

http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber

I can't even see their name tags.

I wonder what more MPs would have done?

--
No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.

http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber

When I tried AF I could not keep the plane on one of the spots and as soon as it got off one it would then hunt and by the time I was back in focus the plane was gone.

As you say, manual was not that bad and most of the time you never had to refocus just set it on infinity.

I did notice that you were shooting at ISO 200, I just could not get very sharp images at ISO 200, to much camera shake.

--
No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.

http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber

Bill Huber said:

I did notice that you were shooting at ISO 200, I just could not
get very sharp images at ISO 200, to much camera shake.

Click to expand...

Actually I was getting fairly high shutter speeds in P mode, but my metering was getting fooled by the overcast sky. I should have overexposed by at least 1 stop.
There's always a next time.

Cheers,
Jeff.

That is a good point, I had to think about it for a second but you are 100% correct. The sky was stopping the lens down and with a blue sky it wouldn't.

Got the remember that one.

--
No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.

http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber

Thanks for sharing, this will be simular to my intrest auto racing..
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God bless our troops!

Very nice gallery of images! You did a great job of focusing in such a challenging situation. I'm curious as to what the big fire is in that one image in your gallery -- it looks rather ominous!

God Bless,
Greg
http://www.imagismphotos.com
http://www.pbase.com/daddyo

They do a thing called Tora Tora Tora and fly a bunch of planes back an forth over the center of the area and play like they are shooting things.

Here is a shot after about 5 min. of it. The smoke was so back that if blow into the building I was at and set off the fire alarms.



--
No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.

http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber

agreed, have seen both teams 20 or 30 times...and the Blue Angels shows are more spectacular.
--
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Rob
'a camera is only a tool, a photographer creates the image'

Colors are spot on, would have loved to have had a chance to shoot those babies. And I thought shooting flying birds was hard...sheesh....

Cheers,

Bill

--
Bill Wallace
dpreview & pbase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/papa51

Imagine what the blue angels could do if they flew f-16s instead of those old f-18s-- seen both and agree,. but I like the T-bird's planes better.
--
'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)