Metering for aircraft in flight etc

Took my first shots of aircraft on Saturday during Forces Day. In PP I had to apply a lot of shadow rescue in Lightroom 5. I am currently using evaluative metering. Should I really be using spot metering along with spot or centre focus? Camera is a 7d & lens is the 100-400L.

Many thanks, Kevin.

Hi Kevin,

I prefer to use manual for aircraft shots, taking a light reading from something of a suitable tone on the ground, that is in the same light the aircraft will be in (grass works pretty well) then basing my settings on that. If the aircraft are going to be in sunlight for some shots and shade for others, either because of patchy clouds above or simply the angle of the sun meaning the aircraft will have the sun on the "wrong side" from some approach angles, then I will tend to use a semi auto mode (almost invariably Tv as I want to set a specific shutter speed, with props or rotors, to shoot as slow as I feel comfortable with and maximise prop blur - I raise the shutter speed for jets, where that isn't important).

In Tv mode, I tend to stick with evaluative metering but spot metering will work fine, so long as you make the necessary adjustments through EC (the same goes for using evaluative of course). Spot metering will help cut down the influence of the sky, but will still be thrown off by the aircraft itself. A WW2 fighter in brown and green camo will give a decent meter reading, but a jet in silver paint, or bare aluminium skin, will throw the meter into underexposing and a black aircraft (or even dark blue, such as old US navy warbirds) can result in overexposure. You need to dial in some correction for such situations. I find that, so long as you are using EC, the actual metering mode used is less important than knowing how it will react and how to compensate for that. If you aren't sure how much correction you need to apply, then make your best estimate and shoot the first pass of the aircraft. Then check the histogram and see how the exposure is, making a further correction if necessary. Once you have an idea of how much a "white" aircraft needs, or a "black" one, the next similar toned aircraft will need the same correction.

If shooting manual, then (so long as the light on the aircraft isn't changing) you can forget about using EC to compensate for different tones of aircraft, just set your exposure and do a quick test and check the histogram, then the settings are good to go for all aircraft generally. You might find that you want to deliberately underexpose light coloured aircraft in direct sun though, if you are getting large hotspots blowing out due to reflections. Again, if you think that might be a problem, check the histogram, preferably with the "blinkies" turned on to show the extent of any possible blown highlights, correct as required.

Judging exposure is really no different to shooting any other subject with a potentially bright background that might affect the meter reading. Be ready to open up the aperture a bit (assuming you are wanting your shutter speeds at a specific value) to allow for the metering seeing too much light from the background..

That is superb. Many thanks for your time. I will have a practice & see what happens.

Kind regards, Kevin.

My first attempt was these on Saturday. Look ok to me but all were very dark prior to PP.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/28825728@N08/9​185160925/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/28825728@N08/9​187957122/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/28825728@N08/9​187955282/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/28825728@N08/9​187944754/

Yeah, they haven't come out badly at all. A bit more exposure would have helped by giving you a better starting point, but those haven't suffered too badly from the recovery.

One other point to consider, next time you are shooting aircraft, is your shutter speed. You used quite a fast shutter speed for those shots and it has resulted in freezing the motion on the props, making it look like the engines have stopped. I normally shoot these sort of aircraft at 1/160th, sometimes dropping even slower, in order to get good blur on the propellers.

It does take a little practice with your panning, particularly with the faster warbirds when doing close passes. My suggestion in this situation is to shoot each pass the aircraft does at progressively slower shutter speeds. So first pass at 1/320th, second at 1/250th, third at 1/200th then all further passes at 1/160th.

Naturally, the slower you go the more likely your pan won't be spot on and you will get a soft image. I shoot at 1/160th or slower and accept that many shots will be blurred, but that I should have some sharp shots with great prop blur. Personally, I aim to get one really good shot rather than dozens of sharp shots but with very little prop motion.

Using the reducing shutter speed method above, whilst practicing your panning and improving your technique, gives you the best of both worlds. You have shots at 1/160th, and hopefully get one or two sharp, but just in case you didn't get a sharp one, you have the progressively faster shutter speed runs to ensure that you at least come away with usable sharp images, and hopefully at a shutter speed that gives good blur. At all those speeds though, you should see enough blur to avoid the props looking stationary.

I shoot at slow shutter speeds most of the time, at airshows or motor sports, so have had quite a bit of practice with panning at such speeds. I have also been to several airshows, so have previously shot most of the aircraft I will be seeing, so don't need to think about getting a "banker" shot, to ensure I get something sharp of that aircraft. I am simply looking to get a better shot of it than I already have, so I happily play with slow shutter speeds and don't worry about it if I have a very low keeper rate due to camera shake.

Many thanks again. Really appreciate it. The pics I took were in AV with whatever shutter speed it selected. I will try in TV or even manual but with a slower speed. I will also have to get my trusty monopod out.

Frosticles wrote in post #16083528
I will also have to get my trusty monopod out.

Without a big, heavy lens, I think it gets in my way more than it doesn't, so I'd suggest that you go out & shoot some traffic to practice panning.

Airshow guys - prop freeze

PhotosGuy wrote in post #16083707
Without a big, heavy lens, I think it gets in my way more than it doesn't, so I'd suggest that you go out & shoot some traffic to practice panning.

I'm with Frank on this. Aircraft are moving in a three dimensional environment and I want full freedom of movement to be able to follow them.

If you put the camera on a fixed point and pan left/right, up/down etc. you will find it restricting and you need to move around more to follow the camera, as well as the aircraft. You use a 100-400L, so the monopod attaches to the lens collar. This means that if you need to follow a plane that is climbing, as you point the lens up, the viewfinder goes down forcing you to crouch a little, to still look up through it. Similarly, a plane flying quickly past from left to right would involve a pan rotating around the monopod, so you physically need to move around the monopd yourself to keep looking through the viewfinder. I find this extremely awkward and not conducive to keeping the camera steady.

By hand holding, I find it much simpler to move with the camera as I can now brace it with my arms tight to my body, and rotation is around my waist, which is more flexible than a monopd and I can more easily keep my focus point on the chosen point on the aircraft, giving a smoother pan.

I find monopods are handy for helping take some of the weight, but as you will need a ball & socket head (or similar) to allow the camera free movement (otherwise pointing it up would involve pulling the monopd back like a joystick, until you reach the correct angle) the camera needs to be fairly loose on the actual monopod and that can make things sloppy as you are moving it around. I do have tripods and a good monopod, but rarely use them. When I do it is usually for low light / night photography, landscape etc., where I will be keeping the camera pointed at a pretty stationary subject or scene.

Good points. Thank you Will leave the pod at home. I have become pretty good at shooting trains of late so hopefully this should help me.
Someone mentioned that you can use the custom settings on the 7d for a jet then another for a prop plane?
If so, Best sort of settings for these?

Kind regards, Kevin

I also prefer handholding for for panning, especially if there's any vertical changes. With that said using the proper gear/technique a monopod can work quite well for panning, so I'll use one if my camera/lens will be spending most of it's time up shooting. I use a tilt head on my monopod and if I'm panning I'll set the tension so that it's loose enough that I can quickly/smoothly tilt the camera/lens(it will still require some crouching for vertical pans as sandpiper mentioned) and angle the monopod back under me(or against my right foot) so I can rotate my body similar to handheld. As with handholding the monopod also takes practice, shooting cars is good practice and going up/down hills will help with vertical/diagonal panning.

Frosticles wrote in post #16083959
Someone mentioned that you can use the custom settings on the 7d for a jet then another for a prop plane?
If so, Best sort of settings for these?

It's also in the "Shooting airshows in Manual" link in the link I gave you, but it's impossible to say what settings will work best with the lighting you'll have. It could be front/back/bright sun/overcast lighting, no? So work it out starting what you think your safe shutter speed is, & progressing down to an "iffy" one.