RC Aircraft

I also shoot photos of RC aircraft. I'm still learning "HOW" but getting fairly acceptable (IMHO) results. I shot all of the following at Las Vegas 2012 in October. These were taken at Bennett Field next door to Boyd Stadium (UNLV).

First is a couple of shots of John Morgan's fabulous AC119K Stinger that he built in 8 months just to fly at this event. This plane was entirely scratch built from 3 view drawings and is not a kit. It was not yet detailed or finish painted but was ready for flight as you can see.

Nice photos of very nice aircraft. You did quite well for the equipment you used. I shoot the local events & I use Tv mode. matching shutter speeds to type of plane, heli's no higher than 1/320, props are usually OK in the 1/400-1/800 range except the big gassers on landings when the engines may be at idle. Jets of any kind can be high depending on what you want in background blur, but I usually stay at 1/1000 for them. The smaller EDF's can be a real challenge to keep in the viewfinder, & the same goes for 3D heli's.
My father was Air Force & worked on the "Flying Boxcars" back in the late 50's so it's nice to see that someone has scratch built one. Hopefully somewhere down the road you'll get a few shots of the finished product.

Larry

these are great, the people that make and fly are very talented.

These are very nice!

It doesn't look as if the light was changing, so this might help: Need an exposure crutch?

WAO! That jet is insane.

cicopo wrote in post #15252539
Nice photos of very nice aircraft. You did quite well for the equipment you used. I shoot the local events & I use Tv mode. matching shutter speeds to type of plane, heli's no higher than 1/320, props are usually OK in the 1/400-1/800 range except the big gassers on landings when the engines may be at idle. Jets of any kind can be high depending on what you want in background blur, but I usually stay at 1/1000 for them. The smaller EDF's can be a real challenge to keep in the viewfinder, & the same goes for 3D heli's.
My father was Air Force & worked on the "Flying Boxcars" back in the late 50's so it's nice to see that someone has scratch built one. Hopefully somewhere down the road you'll get a few shots of the finished product.

Larry

The AC119K is a John Morgan project deluxe! He (IMHO) is a master craftsman. He has already started the "detail" work installing all the armaments (miniguns and such) as well as the searchlights and flare dispensers, a full cockpit WITH operating controls and running lights (LOL! They had them but never turned them on after take off for the AO!!) I will certainly TRY to get a few of it when it is finished but - that probably won't happen until next year at Vegas in October. John lives in Chappel Hill Tennessee and I am in California so...

I have seen most all of your work that you've posted here. It inspires me to do better. I appreciate the comments and the suggestions. I try to go out here to our flying sight and "practice" as much as I can before a big event. It helps - but - this year there was a terrific difference between the bright sunshine of the desert where I live and the dark overcast fast moving clouds that shaded everything at the event. I just do not have the where withall to "change" on the fly very well. I "learn" something, practice that to exhaustion and then stick to it. I was in "M" mode. Period. I don't think the photos would have been "better" for me if I had suddenly tried to do something I was unfamiliar with. I will need to get used to shooting in Tv mode and then I would feel much better using that. LOL!! I was a crazy situation for me as I was "practiced" shooting in bright sun but on the days of the shoot there were a LOT of big clouds that wee thick and dark and moving. The planes were flying great - in and out of dark shade and in and out of bright sunshine! The internal metering system was flitting back and fourth so much I thought it would wear out or burn out!! LOL!! I finally just ignored it and shot when I could get what I thought was going to be a good shot. I definitely NEED to learn more!! It's a "hands on" thing for me so I am dependent upon the weather, the area, my friends, and their planes!! LOL!!

Hillbille

PhotosGuy wrote in post #15253500
These are very nice! It doesn't look as if the light was changing, so this might help: Need an exposure crutch?

I know. The AVAILABLE light WAS constantly changing. A normal electric plane flight will last from 3 or 4 minutes to 8 or 10 depending upon the size of the plane and the manner of flight the pilot takes. I will post 2 photos more. These are of a flight that lasted 6 minutes. The first shows the plane at take off. Notice that the background sky "looks" clear and bright. But the plane is actually in overall shade as the clouds are overhead just out of view. The second shot is at the landing - 6 minutes later. Please note that NOW the clouds have totally enveloped the flying site and are easily seen in the background. I was ahving quite a time trying to shoot small fast moving objects - in focus - props blurred - stopped mid-air - in bright light and suddenly in dark shade in miliseconds depending upon ONLY the timing of the shutter press. LOL!!

Thank you for the kind words, and I'm trying my best to get others to take a try at R/C event photography. It's challenging but a great way to get better at panning. Most clubs are really happy when someone wants to shoot their events & share the results, and I'm sure there's a limited market to sell a few photos if that's what some are trying to do.
That is really low light compared to the first one. By using Tv you remove having to match the aperture to the situation & let the camera pick an appropriate match, which based on experience it's very capable of but I try to glance at the files on the LCD during the action. Whenever I think I need to I'll add or subtract some EC. Now that I have a camera with auto ISO override, (which I've chosen to use & set the parameters) it becomes even easier as the background or lighting changes because the camera can increase the ISO for the shot & then go back to my preferred setting.
The biggest challenge for me, & I still haven't nailed it, is deciding on a metering mode that works through all the different situations the flight line offers. Some shots are 90% bright sky or dull overcast with a dull coloured plane somewhere in the frame, and others are mostly the field / background (trees, buildings in the distance etc) so a different metering mode suits 3 out of 4 shots but I am constantly shooting both scenes in quick order because there are 3 or 4 planes in the circuit all day long. I've just set my 1D4 to meter off the active AF point so I'll see how that works out next season.
The biggest local event of our season is run at a municipal airport not far from me BUT we must stay on the north side of the run way so I'm shooting straight at the sun all morning (and the pilots are looking into it too) which is a real challenge. Finally about 2:00 PM the sun is far enough to the west to start lighting up the planes the way a photographer prefers.
Do you know the size of that Boxcar? Must be on the big side for all the options he's adding.

cicopo wrote in post #15254041
The biggest challenge for me, & I still haven't nailed it, is deciding on a metering mode that works through all the different situations the flight line offers. Some shots are 90% bright sky or dull overcast with a dull coloured plane somewhere in the frame, and others...

That's why I gave you that link! ; )

The plain grey suits the first model. Somehow the over detailing of the others gives them away.

Great captures.

Frank, I've tried EVERY metering mode on each camera I've used in the last 2 years & although I've got good results with one specific mode on 1 camera it doesn't always give as good a result on the other I may be using for the event. I'm not getting bad results (unless shooting at the sun) but I'm still experimenting. The idea that I can meter off of the active AF point sounds great, but I won't get much chance to use it until spring. (cameras used in that period are 1D2n, 1Ds2, 1D4 & 7D).

I need a lot more practice. That link is very good and I will certainly use the steps to practice. I was just using the internal metering system to attempt to judge shots and it DID work but certainly wasn't optimal at all.

Trying to "press" the right button and "spin" a wheel while panning on a small moving object in and out of light and shade was very difficult!! LOL!! Some shots (up in the air with "sky" background) were completely blown out and in the same series of shots the ones in dark shade were SO dark that the plane was barely discernible from the foliage background. It was challenging.

"M" is not the way for me in this particular type of photography so I will be trying the "Tv" setting and allowing the camera to do some of the work. I have experimented with "Tv" mode before but wasn't educated enough to change the shutter speeds and got really blown out photos because of the bright sun and really slow shutter trying to get the "blur" of a prop. LOL.

When I first started I used the "green box" and very quickly learned that THAT wasn't for me. I then went to "sports" mode and liked that as in bright sun I got a LOT of keepers (well what I THOUGHT were keepers!) as planes WERE frozen mid-flight and in focus. But as soon as I started READING on this forum I discovered how rudimentary my photos were. So I began to examine the photos EXIF data and begsn to emulate it in "M" mode. That worked well as long as I was in bright direct sunlight - which I am about 99.9% of the time out here in the desert. As I began to slow the shutter down the prop blur got better - not as good as others though and at the same time my panning technique was obviously in need of better work too. Also I began to experiment with the Aperture to get more DOF. This is the stage I was at when these photos were taken. I got fairly good results but they could have been SO much better. In a four day event I took about 4000 shots and I got about 150 that were "usable". Of the 150 I really am only happy with about 40. The rest have varying "problems" that I didn't care for.

Hillbille

Funny that you realized that Sport mode wasn't going to cut it. The guy in the corner of my Avatar is the editor for the Canadian Content of Model Airplane News, and he was trying to photograph that gas turbine powered jet with an S5 IS from about 50 feet (or less) away as it made it's low level passes. He never said whether he got one usable shot but after seeing mine he bought a T1i & consumer grade lens & shoots in Sport mode. I've tried my best to get him out of that practice, but frozen props don't bother him as much as a fuzzy plane. He gets both, and posts them on line in his blog, but I doubt many make it to the pages they add to the magazines distributed in Canada.

It's a normal way of thinking. I don't think that I ever really LOOKED at photos of airplanes before I started TAKING them. The prop being blurred didn't register with me as being all that important. I had a basic knowledge that a "faster" shot would freeze the prop and just took for granted that it was necessary to get a clear in focus photo of a moving object. Much the same as I viewed photos of cars on a race circuit. They were "stopped" and I accepted this as the norm. NOW I realize that there were some good photos but that there were some REALLY good photos too - and now I at least recognize the difference!

Knowledge is truly the basis for appreciation. The more one knows the better one strives to put that knowledge to use. The trick I think for me anyway is - to be able to change the settings AND still get the desired results (at least get CLOSER to the desired results!! LOL!!).

One of the other aspects about RC is that the models although large in "scale" can be small objects moving at a high speed and present a problem getting a focus point on - and then KEEPING that focus point as the little plane moves toward you or away from you. I have come to realize the need for "faster" equipment i.e. lenses that have very fast focus as well as a camera body that can take advantage of that. Makes a difference.

Hillbille

Unfortunately this is an area where gear does matter, but so does skill, especially panning skill. There isn't any better way to learn panning than by practicing, which costs nothing more than some spare time. I don't know whether there's anything helpful here but a while ago I wrote this for the members of RC Canada, mainly because they are freezing props on both R/C's & full scale.

http://www.rccanada.ca …=Aviation+photo​graphy+101

I had hoped it would turn into a better discussion but since most events are behind us there wasn't much for them to try my suggestions on. Maybe next season.