Dylanfwhit From United States of America, joined Feb 2007, 5 posts, RR: 0 Posted (4 years 5 months 3 weeks 2 days 3 hours ago) and read 2369 times:
Hello Photographers,
I was completely taken by surprised on Christmas and was given a new Canon XSi camera with a 75-300 mm lenses, it's my very first DSLR camera. I went to the McClellan Palomar Airport in Northern San Diego County and took some pictures anticipating the usual United Express/Skywest Airlines flight from Los Angeles. I was hoping some of you seasoned aviation photographers perhaps with the same type of equipment would be wiling to help me out. Here is my shot of the Embraer 120: (hopefully I am not violating any A.net regulations by attaching this)
Having taken this with a low lighting condition, what should I have done? It seems a bit blurry, would I be able to make it look "Airlines worthy" with some Photoshopping? I had taken it in the "sport" mode. What are the optimal settings for snapping shots of aircraft?
Dylanfwhit From United States of America, joined Feb 2007, 5 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (4 years 5 months 3 weeks 2 days 3 hours ago) and read 2355 times:
Here are a couple more pictures I took with the same settings. Once again, if I am violating any sort of regulation please delete my thread.
Viv From Ireland, joined May 2005, 3109 posts, RR: 31 Reply 2, posted (4 years 5 months 3 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 2298 times:
The first shot suffers from a too-slow shutter speed and/or camera shake. There is no cure for the resultant blurriness in Photoshop.
Rather than "Sport" mode, shoot in Shutter priority (Tv) or Aperture Priority (Av). Make sure in each case that your shutter speed is not numerically lower than the amount of zoom you are actually using (e.g. the shutter speed for zoom of 200mm should not be less than about 1/200/sec.). Also, try to keep your aperture in the range f/7 to f/11, for maximum sharpness.
Finally, use the lowest ISO setting the available light (and your camera) will allow while respecting the shutter speed and aperture settings.
Practice smooth panning to minimise camera shake - one hand under the lens body, arms braced, swing your upper body rather than just your arms, smooth press of the shutter button..
Hope this helps.
Nikon D700, Nikkor 80-400, Fuji X Pro 1, Fujinon 35 f/1.4, Fujinon 18 f/2
Cpd From Australia, joined Jun 2008, 4879 posts, RR: 44 Reply 4, posted (4 years 5 months 3 weeks 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 2281 times:
Quoting Dylanfwhit (Thread starter):
Having taken this with a low lighting condition, what should I have done? It seems a bit blurry, would I be able to make it look "Airlines worthy" with some Photoshopping? I had taken it in the "sport" mode. What are the optimal settings for snapping shots of aircraft?
What's wrong here is that you've either had shaky hands - but, more likely, the shutter speed wasn't fast enough. If that's the case - then you need to increase the shutter speed.
However, this also reduces your exposure levels, so to get the same amount of light, you'd need to open up the aperture (eg, set it to something like F/4.0 instead of F/6.3, if you lens allows it).
However, doing that, you reduce your depth of field - so other elements may be blurred out by bokeh (depth of field blur). Your next step, if the camera can handle it is to bump up the ISO sensitivity a little bit. That will allow the shutter speeds to be as fast as needed, while still getting correct exposure.
However, this can create noise in the image (unless the camera is very good like the 35mm Nikon D700, D3 or D3x).
So it's a fine balancing act between ISO sensitivity, aperture and shutter speeds to achieve the desired results.
If you do a lot of experimenting with the camera in manual mode you'll learn how this works fairly quickly.
Fergulmcc From Ireland, joined Oct 2004, 1916 posts, RR: 54 Reply 5, posted (4 years 5 months 3 weeks 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 2279 times:
Quoting Viv (Reply 2): Rather than "Sport" mode, shoot in Shutter priority (Tv) or Aperture Priority (Av). Make sure in each case that your shutter speed is not numerically lower than the amount of zoom you are actually using (e.g. the shutter speed for zoom of 200mm should not be less than about 1/200/sec.). Also, try to keep your aperture in the range f/7 to f/11, for maximum sharpness.
Finally, use the lowest ISO setting the available light (and your camera) will allow while respecting the shutter speed and aperture settings.
Practice smooth panning to minimise camera shake - one hand under the lens body, arms braced, swing your upper body rather than just your arms, smooth press of the shutter button..
Dylanfwhit From United States of America, joined Feb 2007, 5 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (4 years 5 months 3 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 2242 times:
Thanks everyone for all your feedback and advise. I will try everything you have all mentioned today and will try and catch the same flight with the methods. Walter2222, I could not seem to open your posted link, it might just be my connection though.
Thanks very much once again, it will be very helpful
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