Touch and Go

[Aviation Junkie]

My students were practicing power-off and short field approaches for next weeks NIFA SAFECON regional competition. I went out to the runway to critique their landings and decided to snap a few practice shots while I was out there. It was overcast and getting dark so I bumped up the ISO to 800 and even 1600 in a few shots. They came out rather grainy though. Let me know what you think. I'm looking forward to being able to take some shots at the competition next week and the following weekend I'll be at an airshow featuring the Blue Angels.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s156/d_finley/Airplanes/IMG_9793.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s156/d_finley/Airplanes/IMG_9814.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s156/d_finley/Airplanes/IMG_9823.jpg

[RadAL]

interesting planes.

[macca172]

Pic 3, flared a bit high?

[PhotosGuy]

They came out rather grainy though. They don't look bad here, except for not being all that sharp?
One way to reduce high ISO noise is to slightly overexpose in RAW & then dial it back in processing. And you have to be careful to get just the exposure you need, so I wouldn't have used Tv, either.

Gavin shoots a lot at various high ISOs & provides fun captions as well.
The week's sporting events in images... (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=443789)

[A2EVOMR]

And you have to be careful to get just the exposure you need, so I wouldn't have used Tv, either.
Thats where Frank and I differ. He is tried and true on manual :lol:

I actually always shoot Tv or Av with aircraft. With the props you can set your shutter at your desired speed to not freeze the props, and let the camera meter as best as it can, most of which can be adjusted with not too much hassle in RAW if its slightly off. When it's OVC as you had, spot metering is the best in my experiences, but can be tricky to get it to catch the proper spot. The higher ISO is only hurting your quality and is not necessary, especially when your shutter is 1/250 or slower. If you look, your aperture in a few shots went as high as f/16, when in most cases, f/8 or f/9 will work just as well. Undersides of aircraft really suffer with high ISOs, so try keeping it down 200 or below. With DA-20's and 40's in the flare, 1/125 or 1/160 should capture the prop with some motion, but will also keep your aperture down between f/8 to f/10.

Use some unsharp mask and your good to go.

[FlyingPhotog]

These aren't awful. Two and Three are a tad dark which makes me think your meter was "fooled" by the white paint. This, IMO, is where Av and Tv can fail people. They have to guess at how much EC to dial in.

I'm in Frank's Manual Labor Camp too. If I head over to the local Muni at 2pm or so, I know if I dial in 1/125 @ f/13 ISO 100, I'm 1/3 to 1/2 of a stop over when metering clear blue sky, straight down sun while tilted up to where my subjects will be on approach. f/11 if I have the drop in ND in the 300mm.

That will give me the blinkies on the hottest specular highlights (strobes, prop spinners, gloss white paint, etc) which in turn retains detail on the underside of aircraft. In post, I know I'll probably need 5 to 105 units of Recovery in LR for whites and Bob's yer Uncle.

My easy meter doublecheck then is blue sky. As the afternoon progresses and I'm suddenly right at the middle mark of my camera meter or falling below it, I know I need to open up a stop or so.

Easy Peasy...