Thunder Over Michigan

Anyone head out to Willow Run today? I was driving by so I stopped for a few minutes to see what kind of action was happening. It was pretty busy so shooting was difficult because of all the work being done and the sky was hazy hazy hazy.

I was also trying out a 2x MKII converter on my 70-200 f2.8 lens. I'm not sure I like it but I'll give it a good try over the weekend.

This was taken through the fence and at full zoom. Not real sharp but...

Here's a couple more. Still pretty rough shots. I'm not liking the 2x yet...

Keep trying with the 2x + 70-200, whilst it may not be the best choice, I am loving mine.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/wallerni/594702​7463/

What's your EXIF, Jon?

Frank, the first shot was:

Exposure time: 1/400
F-stop: 8.0
ISO speed: 200
Focal length: 400.0000

Second shot was:

Exposure time: 1/1000
F-stop: 7.1
ISO speed: 100
Focal length: 400.0000
And cropped something terrible!

Third shot was:

Exposure time: 1/320
F-stop: 7.1
ISO speed: 100
Focal length: 400.0000
This was shot through the fence too.

Jon.

IanW wrote in post #12807995
Keep trying with the 2x + 70-200, whilst it may not be the best choice, I am loving mine.

Ian.

I will have it with me tomorrow when we go back to the air show. I have a Steampunk shoot to do in the morning if the weather holds then I'll be back to the planes for the rest of the day. Hopefully I get it worked out.

Jon.

I didn't think mine was sharp enough at that. f/11 was what I used for the WHRRI series. You really should test your combination to see what works best with it.

Your exposure times of 1/320 look a but slow for 400mm, too.
I used:
Focal Length: 400mm
Aperture: f/10.0
Exposure Time: 0.0010 s (1/1000)
ISO equiv: 800

We went back on Sunday and got totally smoked. It was HOT. I still didn't get the shots I was after with the 2x but I got a few others that will work...

70-200 f2.8 IS without the extender.

I was thinking about you yesterday. Beautiful clear, blue sky at 9AM. Then the usual Michigan gray sky crud at noon!

EXIF?

Yep. Sunny in the morning. Then hit or miss with the blown out clouds the rest of the day. It sprinkled on us once but not enough to cause any trouble. It was hotter than hades on the blacktop too. The sun also made an appearance later in the afternoon but the show was pretty much over.

I'll have to get the EXIF later and post it (I'm at work right now).

Jonathan shot the Blue Angels show with the 2x while I was shooting some other stuff on the ground. He hasn't checked his shots yet but I'll be interested to see if they are as bad as mine. He should have been keeping his shutter speeds up a lot higher for the jets too so we'll see what he has...

Jon.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #12818463
EXIF?

I think this was the PBY shot EXIF

Exposure time: 1/250
F-stop: 13.0
ISO speed: 200
Focal length: 400.0000

Jon.

Jon Foster wrote in post #12822609
I think this was the PBY shot EXIF

Exposure time: 1/250
F-stop: 13.0
ISO speed: 200
Focal length: 400.0000

Jon.

By the look of the sky I would have bumped up the ISO to 400, and aimed for a shutter of between 1/300 - 1/500

Martin

UK_Tomcat_Fan wrote in post #12824058
By the look of the sky I would have bumped up the ISO to 400, and aimed for a shutter of between 1/300 - 1/500

Martin

Why? That would kill any hope of prop blur.
Gray overcast skies are what we get around here. Jon has got shadow detail & a reasonable amount of prop blur for an almost profile shot IMO. I might sharpen it just a tiny bit more, but I don't see anything "(not a happy shot)" about it?

Why aren't you happy with it, Jon?

UK_Tomcat_Fan wrote in post #12824058
By the look of the sky I would have bumped up the ISO to 400, and aimed for a shutter of between 1/300 - 1/500

Martin

Hi Martin,

Most of the shots with shutter speeds of 1/200 or 1/250 give you decent prop blur. Anything faster and you'll start freezing the props. I actually like shots like that but most people don't. They would rather have the prop blur so I tend to shoot for the blur more often now. Also, the amount of prop blur you get in the shot depends on the RPM of the engines. The PBY wasn't breaking any speed records either. It was just lumbering along...

Jon.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #12824311
I might sharpen it just a tiny bit more, but I don't see anything "(not a happy shot)" about it?

Why aren't you happy with it, Jon?

I can try sharpening it a bit more but in general I'm not happy with the shot. Overall it's just fuzzy. More fuzzy than the usual shots I get due to my poor skills and shaking hands.

The shots I took without the 2x compared to the shots I took with the 2x are like looking at shots from totally different lenses.

I will play with the 2x a bit more this week to be sure it's not just me. To be fair, most of the shots I took with the 2x were during the cloudy times of the day and I did have trouble seeing the planes let alone taking pictures of them.

Jon.