Panning Planes - What'd I do Wrong

Larry, looks to be Chuck Tippett up there on the Stearman.

When shooting low shutter speeds, you've got to try to be very exact about holding the focus point on a specific spot on the plane. For a shot like you have here, I'd probably have put the focus point on the pilots head or at the front of his windscreen where it meets the fuselage and held it there for the entire pass. Sounds kind of easy, but its not. It takes practice.

Stearman props turn relatively slowly. 1/200 would probably be about the fastest you could go and still show some prop blur, if you are taking a quartering shot. For a profile shot, you've got to go really low to show even a little blur, which will appear only at the prop tips.

1/160th

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When panning, I have the focus point on the centre line, off centre.. if I'm panning from left to right, I'll have it two focus points off the centre, so I can get the whole aircraft in the frame and have the nose/engine with the focus point on it. Visa versa going the other way..

John,

Awesome pics. Strange, in my shot of the wing hanger he wasn't wearing the red vest. Nor did it come out half as sharp as yours. What lens do you shoot. Where you there yesterday. Did you hear that one of their planes when down in a nearby field. Pilot dislocated his shoulder. The plane needs lot of repairing.

A Post photographer was there on a story they're working on.

I'm in centreville as well.

Larry, both of the shots I posted were done with the 100-400mm. I was not there yesterday. The top shot is from the Culpepper Airshow back in 2012. The pilot in that photo is Charlie Schwenker who lost his life almost exactly a year ago at the Vectren Dayton Airshow along with wing-walker Jane Wicker. Both were members of the Flying Circus. The wing-walker in my photo is Chuck Tippett.

Its a real kick in the gut to hear that there was an accident yesterday. Glad to hear that the pilot's injuries are not life threatening and that the plane can be repaired. Do you happen to know the pilot's name or the type of aircraft? I sent a message to a friend of mine that knows the Circus folks better than I do, asking for specifics, but she has yet to get back to me.

John, I don't know any of the pilots names or airplanes for that matter. It may have been the red or orange plane. All three blue/yellow planes and the walker plane were present at the end of the show. I believe the single wing red Barron plane was also present but I'm not certain.
The announcer said there was an engine failure and pilot had to set it down in a nearby field.

[QUOTE=cicopo;17002221​] Have the lens in Mode 2 IS, and from that shot I'd guess you needed at least 2/3 stop of +EC.

This was shot in terrible light (it's full scale) using the 100-400 and a 1D4. Settings were 1/200, AND + 1 stop of EC.

Cicopo,

You had me a bit confused with your comment abot exposure compensation (EC). I've been pondering it off and on, and couldn't understand why I couldn't figure out the purpose of EC when all one needs to do is change the aperture or shutter speed. After researched I learned that EC is not available when shooting in Manual mode, as I do, and which I assumed most were doing. That revelation begs the question; are you (and others) shooting in shutter priority?

I shoot shutter priority (Tv) and try to use an ISO that keeps me out of going f16 or higher, and use EC as necessary to get a decent exposure of the aircraft. With R/C there's often a lot of sky in the frame compared to full scale but so far I'm getting the results I want by shooting that way. Here's an example from a really bad day last season which had me shooting as much as 2 or more stops of EC. Had I not used EC the way I do it would have only been a silhouette.

Shooting Air shwos is great, but the first ones are bad for you.
The speed you need is very, very different for each aircraft, and I found that over 200 is not good except for real fast jets, But the problem is the blur.
So last show I shot over 1000 photos and actually less than 50 where any good to me.
1/1000

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I did much better on my second shoot. Far more difficult than I imagined, especially handheld. I had to abandon shooting manual and switch to shutter priority.
Anyway, here's my best, I believe.

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Much better. I think the benefit of using Tv & EC vs full manual is that you don't need to check the meter reading once you get the set up close. Once you have a good exposure setting (using EC as needed) you just have to check the LCD as the shots get saved to see if you need a minor adjustment as the light changes.

Yes, much better. Now, its just a matter of more practice.