My first Airshow and aircraft shoot.

Hi Thane

I am new to this site also and I’m from Auckland and have posted photos from Wings over Wairarapa

The photo of the P-51 used as the signature photo in all of their advertising was supplied be me and it still gives me a buzz the see it on their website

Enjoyed seeing you photos and concur with the others about the prop blur. to get nice consistent prop blurr you often ahieve to sacrifice a bit of sharpness given the settings that you are using …. the Mosquito was very difficult to achieve nice prop blurr with owing to the very low revs that the Merlins are pulling

I photograph mostly on total manual settings and sometimes on shutter priority

I am a member of Warbirds and will post a few photos from the open days we have had there

Look forward to seeing more of your work

Ralph

Hiya Ralph,

Thanks for the comments mate. Something I have to practice with, that prop blur.

Don’t you guys have an International Airshow up your way soon? Looking forward to your images if you are going.

Thane

Hi Thane

I am new to this site also and I’m from Auckland and have posted photos from Wings over Wairarapa

The photo of the P-51 used as the signature photo in all of their advertising was supplied be me and it still gives me a buzz the see it on their website

Enjoyed seeing you photos and concur with the others about the prop blur. to get nice consistent prop blurr you often ahieve to sacrifice a bit of sharpness given the settings that you are using …. the Mosquito was very difficult to achieve nice prop blurr with owing to the very low revs that the Merlins are pulling

I photograph mostly on total manual settings and sometimes on shutter priority

I am a member of Warbirds and will post a few photos from the open days we have had there

Look forward to seeing more of your work

Ralph

Excellent captures thanks for sharing. 😀

The aircraft in the image under the P-51 Mustang is a Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk. Perfect framing on all shots and love the ‘tail on’ shot of the P-40 the best, they are all great shots!

Thanks Al, yeah I enjoyed the day very much, and especially being able to get some worthy images to share.

Thane

Excellent captures thanks for sharing. 😀

The aircraft in the image under the P-51 Mustang is a Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk. Perfect framing on all shots and love the ‘tail on’ shot of the P-40 the best, they are all great shots!

Some reworked images.

I was impressed with Daniels images and revisited my originals and did some judicious editting to better represent the aircraft on display. Below a set of eight.

P1198230_01 by Suburban Guerrilla, on Flickr

Vampire in RNZAF livery

P1198197 by Suburban Guerrilla, on Flickr

Mosquito in flight.

P1198171 by Suburban Guerrilla, on Flickr

Mosquito, two Vampires and a Venom in formation over the airfield.

P1198066 by Suburban Guerrilla, on Flickr

Not sure what this is, thought maybe Mustang but it doesn’t look right??

P1198054 by Suburban Guerrilla, on Flickr

Also not sure what this is, just know the grass was tinder dry and a definite fire hazard. Luckily none that day.

P1198046 by Suburban Guerrilla, on Flickr

Feed me!!

P1198039 by Suburban Guerrilla, on Flickr

One of the RNZAF’s new NH 90s (I think??) replacing the 50 year old Iriquois Fleet.

Hi Thane,

Check your Private Messages top right hand corner of the page below the Aviation Forum banner. I sent you a message yesterday explaining how to post your pictures here from your Flickr account.

Cheers,

Daniel.

Hi Thane,

Welcome to the forum – You’ve got some good pictures there, thanks for sharing. You guys in the Southern Hemisphere have got some great warbirds.

TTFN,
Neil

Thanks Neil. On show that day were 70 odd aircraft, not bad for a small wee island or two at the bottom of the world.

Trying to post image (testing here)

1-P1198198_01 by Suburban Guerrilla, on Flickr

Hi Thane,

Welcome to the forum – You’ve got some good pictures there, thanks for sharing. You guys in the Southern Hemisphere have got some great warbirds.

TTFN,
Neil

Hi Thane,

I wouldn’t have walked back for the glasses either!

It sounds to me like you know what you’re doing, we all can easily have a bad day I had a crap shooting day a couple of weeks ago ground to air (the light was very poor until the very end that’s my excuse), it doesn’t mean that we don’t have fun and don’t get good things out of the experience.

I was mostly covering shutter speeds in order to capture prop blur. As you know, shooting at a plane in the sky can often result in an over exposed or under exposed subject depending on what metering mode your digital camera is in. Like you in those circumstances I will either go manual or bracket my shots usually 1/3rd of a stop to a half a stop either way till I get what I am after or shoot manual and ignore the camera meter which is telling me I am over or under exposing as appropriate to the conditions.

It is also worth practicing panning using lower shutter speeds while shooting moving cars in the absence of aeroplanes. I will also sometimes before shooting rehearse position and holds trigger pressing etc simply because it gets me in the mode for the task and makes me think about my technique. I also double check my settings often, for I once took some panorama shots and more of a spectacular ancient lake with the most inappropriate ISO setting for the conditions (oops) because I was shooting indoors and neglected to check the camera ISO settings. Lesson learnt well of course that said the shots are still nice just incredibly grainy and not what I was after.

Cheers,

Daniel.

Thank you Daniel.

Thanks for all that mate all very good advice. I should have broadened my explanations of how and why I shot the way I did. Firstly I posted before the Airshow on DPR Review asking for advice on the best way to shoot my first aircraft show and largely received the same advice you posted here, so in essence I knew what I had to do. However things never go right on the day. Firstly I left my reading glasses in the car (parked 1 and 1/2 miles away) so I couldn’t read the LCD properly. I did indeed select Shutter Priority for the first few shots of Prop aircraft in the air (at 1/125) but all the first few shots were badly overexposed so I kept (blindly) playing with the settings and lucked out continuously, so being a predominantly Manual shooter I reverted to tried and true as I was missing some aircraft in the air and I didn’t want to waste any further opportunities. Lesson learned.

As for shooting at 1/1250 that was reading issues, thought it was 1/125, but 1/640 is easier to explain. The sweet spot for the 70-300 is 1/640 so that’s what I predominantly used. But I am now wiser and more prepared to go practice at the local aerodromes with Shutter Priority and play with settings until I get what my camera gives me best. PLUS I now have new glasses that I wear all the time so no further LCD issues.

Thanks again and glad you enjoyed the images. I was hoping by posting them all something new or different made it’s presence felt and gave novelty to my set.

Thane

Hi Thane,

Welcome to the forum and thank-you for sharing your nice pics from what must have been a terrific show to see, as to boring I would love to see more.

I had a look at your shots on your Flickr account and hope to offer some advice that might be of help to you, I will share some of my techniques and settings.

I see that most of your shots showing live propeller aircraft are shot with a shutter speed of 1/1250 or 1/640 as you can see doing so freezes the props which makes a turning or turning and moving aeroplane appear a little unnatural. What you should try to aim for is to get nice prop blur while the subject also appears sharp, this isn’t always easy to achieve especially when panning or being blown by wind or in poor light etc, practice and a few techniques will help to overcome this.

When I shoot stationary live propeller aircraft from the ground with engines running I use shutter priority (because in camera metering these days is very good so Manual capture in this instance doesn’t really contribute anything better). For example with a 70-200mm lens hand held I start shooting at 1/320 sec and then adjust the shutter and reshoot until and including 1/60 sec to capture prop blur. Because of the risk that the pictures will not be sharp as the shutter speed decreases I usually start faster just in case to nail it. I also concentrate on position and hold as well as subtle shutter manipulation.

For moving propeller aircraft ground to ground or ground to air I’ll usually shoot at a shutter speed of 1/160 or 1/125 and hope for the best in order to get reasonable prop blur while limiting dud shots which when panning are unfortunately easy to get. I will however sometimes also shoot moving prop aircraft on the ground at 1/60, 1/120 1/200 and 1/320 as well;

For moving propeller aircraft air to air I also use Shutter Priority stating at either 1/400 or 1/320 and then step down until 1/60 or 1/100 which tends to work well since again I nail an okay shot with a touch of prop blur then anything I capture to full prop blur that works is a bonus.

For Jets burning while stationary or moving feel free to shoot at a shutter speed of 1/1250 sec for example. Of course if the jets are mixed with turning prop aircraft shoot all as if they are propeller aircraft.

For all aircraft that are stationary and not running I will most often shoot using Aperture priority for depth of field.

Next time you visit an airshow or just generally shoot aeroplanes try some of the suggestions and see how they work for you and keep shooting more I have found the more I do the better I get. Also if you don’t mind please post more of your aeroplane pictures here, I am certainly not alone in enjoying them.

Cheers,

Daniel.

Welcome to the forum Thane. Great shots, clear, clear detail and balanced colours. Good framing and choice of shot. 🙂

Great captures, thanks for sharing. 🙂

I wish I could have made it over for the airshow.

Thanks Al. Funny thing too I have been back to my originals after seeing what was on offer here and found I could better “depict” the aircraft in flight with some judicious cropping and enhancements. I’ll be putting a few up for consideration soon.

Thane

Great Pics… You seem to have a lot of good , interesting stuff over in NZ.

Thanks for sharing ……..:D

Yeah thanks for your reply. I too was amazed at what was on offer and that was just the “older” aircraft.

Thane

Welcome to the forum Thane. Great shots, clear, clear detail and balanced colours. Good framing and choice of shot. 🙂

Great captures, thanks for sharing. 🙂

I wish I could have made it over for the airshow.

Great Pics… You seem to have a lot of good , interesting stuff over in NZ.

Thanks for sharing ……..:D