Night: The AeroShell Aerobatic Team's Gene McNeely in a AT-6 Texan.

AeroShell Aerobatic Team

1.

More night shots here: Night Air Show - Alma, MI

Night Air Show, part #2. Aircraft & Fireworks... lotsa' fun?

Lovely light in #1, Frank. I guess you didn't have too much of a problem getting the prop blur?

I really like the cowl lights (LEDs?) Gene has. They make an otherwise boring bit of the plane into a focus point for a photo.

I got a couple of him earlier this year:
http://moving-target-photos.com …ides/IMG_2810_s​creen.html
http://moving-target-photos.com …ides/IMG_2794_s​creen.html

You mentioned focus issues. I've had pretty good luck with the 100-400mm IS on a 40D at night (although maybe some softness I've attributed to motion could be AF-caused). It'd been a while since I used my 20D for that kind of stuff, but I seem to remember it did OK at night, too.

mhm2526 wrote in post #15104132
Lovely light in #1, Frank. I guess you didn't have too much of a problem getting the prop blur?

; D When it's that dark, the problem is "everything blur"!

GeoffSobering wrote in post #15104967
I really like the cowl lights (LEDs?) Gene has. They make an otherwise boring bit of the plane into a focus point for a photo.

I got a couple of him earlier this year:
http://moving-target-photos.com …ides/IMG_2810_s​creen.html
http://moving-target-photos.com …ides/IMG_2794_s​creen.html

Those are excellent shots! Looking at the EXIF & the clouds in some of them, I suspect that you might have had a bit more light than I did. (Not an excuse... just an observation.)

IS? Vas is das "IS"? I like to push the limits, but the night air show is one of the most difficult things that I've shot. I'm looking forward to next years show.

Thanks for the comments, guys!

PhotosGuy wrote in post #15105718
Those are excellent shots! Looking at the EXIF & the clouds in some of them, I suspect that you might have had a bit more light than I did. (Not an excuse... just an observation.)

I think they are pretty similar. We both shot at ISO 1600. You had 1/100s @ f/2.8, I had 1/50s @ f/4.

All I know is I had a couple of sharp(ish) shots from many (many!) frames...

Was Gene flying solo in that show?

One of the shots I keep trying to get is the formation flying through their own smoke like these shots:
http://moving-target-photos.com …slides/IMG_0998​_800w.html
http://moving-target-photos.com …ides/IMG_9385_s​creen.html

One thing that's king of cool in the formations is when you get some "fill flash" from one of the plane's strobe. If you look in the second shot (above), the far left plane's cowl is much sharper and brighter than any other plane parts in the frame. You can see the wingtip strobe on the next plane is firing during the open-shutter time.

Aside: a friend of mine likes to shoot them with a 580ex. You have to be pretty close (essentially directly underneath the path) to get close enough, but he's gotten some really cool shots with that setup.

My comments aside in your other thread of the same subject, #1 here is pretty solid.

Except at 95mm, I would have liked to think you could have dragged the shutter to at least 1/30, bursted and gotten a couple of keepers. Would have disc'd that idling propeller up good and proper (ok, not really on a T-6, but it would have been closer). Would have liked to see the aircraft 0.3 - 0.7 more over exposed.

rammsteinmatt wrote in post #15106576
Except at 95mm, I would have liked to think you could have dragged the shutter to at least 1/30, bursted and gotten a couple of keepers. Would have disc'd that idling propeller up good and proper...

Actually, I'll bet with much longer shutter-speed and no reflection off the prop it might have completely disappeared. As it is it's just a ghost blur.

GeoffSobering wrote in post #15106358
I think they are pretty similar. We both shot at ISO 1600. You had 1/100s @ f/2.8, I had 1/50s @ f/4.

I was looking at the sky in this shot:
http://moving-target-photos.com …ides/IMG_2894_s​creen.html
The "NASCAR burnout" shots came at the end of the flight at my show, after landing & taxi, so it looked to me like you were shooting in earlier light.

"A couple". Me, too. I'd expected a bit better performance than that. (sigh.)

No. See the links in post #2 for some team shots.

Got a link? I've done something similar with football. It's amazing how far a strobe will reach when you're shooting wide open at high ISOs.

rammsteinmatt wrote in post #15106576
Would have liked to see the aircraft 0.3 - 0.7 more over exposed.

I can understand the thought. Since I was shooting for night shots, maybe I went a little too far to emphasize that.

Thanks for the comments!