Props, Planes and Pics...A Question?

[GenEOS]

:?: What is the best in a prop driven airplane pics...

A full circle made up of all blades blurred to overlap the next? or multiple blurred pie pieces from a shorter exposure?

I have tried various methods, but getting a full circle blurred is the toughest. To get it, I have to lower exposure to the point it is not sharp. I guess the best bet is on planes with 4 blades turning at something over 2000 rpm. My calc says this would require a 1/133 exposure, so 1/125th would get a full circle.

Anyone have tips or experience with photographing prop driven birds?

[ssim]

I've done alot of airplane photography and this is always an issue. A great deal of mine have actually been air to air shots so trying to use a slow shutter speed is virtually impossible given that you are being knocked around the sky usually only a few hundred feet from another airplane.

I came close on this one
http://www.pbase.com/image/23658283.jpg
But you can still see the individual props albeit somewhat blurred.

I spoke with a staff photographer for an airplane manufacturer once and he says that they put the prop movement in after the fact.

I have a few prop aircraft in my aviation gallery http://www.pbase.com/ssim/aviation but most of my prop work was done years ago and I haven't bothered to scan them yet.

It is a delicate balance between a low shutter speed to get the prop movement you desire while still trying to keep the rest of the image sharp. I know that there are a couple of pilots on here that do some of this as well, hopefully they will contribute.

[PacAce]

I usually set my shutter speed to 1/125 or 1/250 to get a blurred prop image. You're right, trying to get a full circle blur would realy be tough without using a very low shutter speed.

http://www.tanseikai.com/tanseikai/images/Yakovlev%20Yak-9.jpg

[4walls]

Whoa, that's an old one. Time Air DHC-7. I flew with a couple of guys who were on it. the last one I saw was a CRAL colored one back in '89.

http://www.pbase.com/image/23658283.jpg

[robertwgross]

A few years ago, I took a ride on a Russian-built troop helicopter that was a relic of the Russian war in Afghanistan. We weren't too concerned with the way the main rotor appeared in the photos. We were simply glad that the main rotor was still turning.

---Bob Gross---

[DamienB]

For air to air work there's no need to have your subject aircraft welded to your wing all the time, let him drop back occasionally and power up to shoot forward and ahead of you - the high RPM gives you a few seconds to get some decent prop blur.

This was from a formation take-off so the subject aircraft was using a high power setting (still not full power though, in order to keep from overtaking the camera ship), and I only had to go down to 1/125:

http://www.dennydobson.34sp.com/images/gallery/dennydobson13.jpg

For aircraft on the ground, power checks are another good opportunity to get full prop discs, but it's often tricky to be in the right place for those. Aircraft waiting to get on the runway or taxiing slowly can be an option with a very slow shutter speed - this one is 1/50:

http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/pp2/isprop.jpg

Helicopters are a lot harder to deal with and the best you can hope for is a decent blurred sweep of the main rotors - you'll never get a full disc on anything except the tail rotor. This one was 1/80 and panning (thankfully, with an IS lens!):

http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/pp2/ishelo.jpg

I find the biggest problem with these low shutter speeds is the narrow aperture required to balance them - it shows up dust on the sensor. I tend to pop an ND filter or polariser on when it's sunny and I know I'll be taking lots of pics of prop jobs or helos.

At the end of the day it is digital so spray and pray with a very low shutter speed is always an option...