Shooting from a fixed wing aircraft

[gdusek84]

OK I did a search and found a few helpful things but I'm seeking more advice. I have a friend who will be taking me up in a smaller twin engine fixed wing aircraft here in a few days to get some aerial shots. The kicker is we're not going up till 7:30-8:00pm at night when it's dark. The good thing is I'll be getting shots of downtown Dallas all lit up, as long as our weather holds. I'm shooting with a 30D and will more then likely be taking my 85mm 1.8 and my 28-135mm 3.5-5.6. Now with that being said any recommendations on camera settings to help me out? Since it'll be dark I'm going to attempt to start off shooting at 400 ISO and go from there. I figure if needed I'll dial in some exposure compensation first before bumping up the ISO. Any input as to what metering I should use?

Any other comments or tips would be greatly appreciated.

[PhotosGuy]

The kicker is we're not going up till 7:30-8:00pm at night when it's dark.... The good thing is I'll be getting shots of downtown Dallas all lit up,

Some of the best "night shots" I've seen were taken before it's totally dark while there's still some light left in the sky. You don't need much, but you need some. So try to shoot as early as you can.

I figure if needed I'll dial in some exposure compensation first before bumping up the ISO. Any input as to what metering I should use?

Manual, only. Go out on a night before & see what works at 1/200 sec, f/4-5.6, ISO?
f/4-5.6 because you will be shooting at infinity & don't have to worry about depth. Depending on altitude, even f/2 might be OK.
Depth-of-field
But if you want to see more than just lights, you'll have to find a setting that will give you both well exposed lights & maybe still see some of the buildings at the other end of the exposure. The histogram will help there. Just chimp the lights up to the right side, no more. There are some links in Need an exposure crutch? on page 2 I think.

Safety in the Skies: Flight Plan for a Successful Aerial Photography Career

Aerial Photography

[gdusek84]

Frank I really appreciate the input. This is a big help and I'm really looking forward to going up... as long as our weather holds.

[gdusek84]

I learned sooo much last night and had a good experience overall. After reviewing the photos there were only a couple that I considered keepers, but I'm very very critical on my photos. I definitely have a better understanding of how I need to shoot for better photos next time. Here's a pic I took last night with a little pp to fix it up, exif should be in there.

[PhotosGuy]

It looks pretty good on my laptop.

# Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 1/60 second = 0.01667 second
# Lens F-Number/F-Stop = 35/10 = F3.5
# Exposure Program = shutter priority (4)
# ISO Speed Ratings = 3200

Looks as if you were right on the ragged edge, there! What's going on at the top of the image?

[gdusek84]

Originally Posted by PhotosGuy

It looks pretty good on my laptop.
Looks as if you were right on the ragged edge, there! What's going on at the top of the image?

That's the reflection off the wing. Some said it's too distracting and I have a shot with it cropped out, but I kinda liked it being in there. If I lighten the image the wing really stands out more but the rest of the picture looks bad.

[PhotosGuy]

That's the reflection off the wing.

Got it! If you like it, then keep it, but I'd crop it out.

[gdusek84]

Originally Posted by PhotosGuy

Got it! If you like it, then keep it, but I'd crop it out.

My theory on keeping it in there was because the pictures looks funny with the wing cropped out. You see the city lights from the background going almost to the top of the building which makes it look like there's no sky. Maybe a more shallow crop where you see more of the wing would fix it?

[FlyingPhotog]

@ OP: Great image.

A sneaky little trick you might consider (if you have the processing chops): Put the reflection off the underside of the wing on it's own layer and rotate only the reflection so that the lines of green neon are paralell to the ones on the actual building.

[gdusek84]

Originally Posted by FlyingPhotog

@ OP: Great image.

A sneaky little trick you might consider (if you have the processing chops): Put the reflection off the underside of the wing on it's own layer and rotate only the reflection so that the lines of green neon are paralell to the ones on the actual building.

Thanks for the tip. I'll give that a try tonight.

[gdusek84]

Oh and another thing I learned... WAKE TURBULENCE.... definitely not something you want to run into from a 737 from two miles out when you're up in a single engine Cessna. My pilot told me we were in a 20 degree bank when the wake turbulence hit us, we caught a down draft and dropped about 30-40 ft in altitude in a matter of seconds. Needless to say I wasn't expecting that and just about had to change me drawers.