Air show image help

Hello all, long time lurker here and I love this forum! I've been serious with my Canon T5i dslr for a few years and I'm interested in some help so I can do better and recognize errors so I won't repeat them next time.

Recently I went to an air show with a new lens, 70-300 L. Got some great shots, some not so great and learned things. I had the lens on IS mode 2 for panning since I was following planes in flight. Ai servo mode on the camera, evaluative metering and in aperture priority.

The weather started off cloudy and progressed to partly cloudy with large patches of blue sky amongst clouds. It was clearing. I set ISO to 200 figuring it would give me a faster shutter speed. At the time, metering was telling me 1/800 though as skies cleared the shutter got faster.

My first question I ask myself is if I should have used manual mode to possibly keep the sky exposure similar between shots?

https://www.dropbox.co​m …m9s6g11/IMG_798​4.CR2?dl=0

This raw file I'm attaching is a good example of one of the photos i'm trying to figure out how to do better. Being that its at 1/3200, I would have used ISO 100. Still with ISO 200, it seems to have a bit more noise on the aircraft that I would like. I didn't think ISO 200 would deliver that much noise but the plane is small in the frame. I do admit to pixel peeping, it is how I evaluate and challenge myself to do better.

Also I do remember i was shaky trying to keep the aircraft in the center of the viewfinder and I wonder if that erratic back and forth shaking contributed to the soft details in the image?

I use center dot focus and noticed the plane is not in the center. I'm wondering if the lens was at infinity already due to distance or if the focus changed (being pointed at the sky) and took the plane out of focus as the plane details are soft?

Original image & histogram 92KB:

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

I do. Did you see this happening? Post #47

It can happen: Post # 16: AF Point selection for sports

http://www.learn.usa.c​anon.com …ckbutton_af_art​icle.shtml

We don't always want the subject in the center. Look in your "Custom Functions" & put the choice of focus point under your control. For what it's worth, I use C.Fn-13 (1) to put the focus points on my joystick (multi controller) which makes it easy to switch when things are moving fast or other situations where I need an off-center point.
Radio Controlled Boats

Can't see any clipping. Clipping is when the sensor is overloaded (on normal jpg value over 255). The histogram shows distribution of pixel exposure values so clipped images would have a large spike on the rar right edge. The "clipping" when values are above the max height shown on the histogram just means there are a LOT of pixels with this value, it is just not bothering to show the large number, the image is fine.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #17187200
I do. Did you see this happening? Post #47

Yes, I'm going to have to work on that.

That helps too. I just found out my AF dot needs to be on automatic for AI servo.

Thanks for the help! I just wish another air show was soon so I could retry my shots and put what I've learned into practice, haha!

Martin Dixon wrote in post #17187574
Can't see any clipping. Clipping is when the sensor is overloaded (on normal jpg value over 255). The histogram shows distribution of pixel exposure values so clipped images would have a large spike on the rar right edge. The "clipping" when values are above the max height shown on the histogram just means there are a LOT of pixels with this value, it is just not bothering to show the large number, the image is fine.

Oh ya, now I remember about that when I was learning about the histogram. Thanks!