OK, last nite Al asked if i did any blurs at the airshow. well, i attempted a few. i got three in this series of which only this one i kept. personally, i like it. not as sharp as i would like, but still has a decent feel to it. let me know what you think. i can take it!!
D300, 120-400 at 400mm, f/11, 1/50s, ISO 1250, manual exposure
thanks for looking. comments and critiques much appreciated.
Hi Harold, I like the sense of speed which the image emits. Agree I would like it sharper but not bad as is. I might consider cropping down to the tree line. I find the blank sky a bit distracting...
I do alot of photos with the Royal Air Force here in the Uk so i know how much of a pain this can be
you have a good eye line which is hard to do, alot of people either have the aircraft at the bottom of the pic or capture too much ground
Some tips i can offer if I may,
1) Try and use one focus point on your viewfinder and lock onto the aircraft from as far away as possible to enable the camera to begin the track
2) set the camera to center weighted metering with +1 ev
3) if taking pictures of prop'd aircraft set to shutter prioity at 320 for normal flight and about 1/120-200 for blurred shots which should enable you to get some nice prop blur
Just a few tips i can offer here is one of mine from a previous trip
Hi Peter Thanks for the trips and looking forward some of you images !!!!
Just 0ne question, why use center weighted? As the plane gets large/smaller in frame your exposure will change but the plane is in the same light !! It would be best to set the exposure on the sky but in manual !! Will make a big difference. Even with clouds in the bg you will have variations with any auto mode !!! Would love to see an air show over there, have seen pictures and there are lots of old warbirds !!!
Nice going Harold !!! The trick to getting these sharper is adjusting the shutter speed, could have gone much higher and still blurred the bg !!! Do like it as presented !!! Neat !! btw would fill in the white and have all dark bg !!!
Re the center weighted it comes from point 1, as the aircraft pans from left to right for example you may start with a plane in the sky with little or no back ground and on matrix metering the camera will try to compensate, then as the aircraft moves through the display it will prob pass buildings/trees in the background which will cause the camera to adjust the settings again. If you are tracking the aircraft from the start of its approach by selecting center weighted and keeping the focal point on the aircraft itself you tend to get a decent exposure on the aircraft. The sky/trees can be tweaked in photoshop as they should have a decent amount of bokeh on them anyway. The hard bit is getting the plane sharp and well exposed. From years of bitter experience I have found this to be the most effective technique for me at least it works J If you want me to show a few pics from the last year or so happy to post a couple for C&C J In fact I will do one now ;)
Pan Blur at the Airshow
