Blue Angels

Shot during their practice last week.

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very nice! i cant wait til the california capital airshow next month.

Nice shots. Saw the Thunderbirds do similar stuff last year. Just amazing.

Good ones!

WOW!! Great pictures!!!

Very nice! I plan on making the Air Show run this year in Ohio and Michigan. What settings were those taken at? I am brand new to the photography thing and would love some advice in taking shots at the air shows.

thexrickx wrote in post #4995649
Very nice! I plan on making the Air Show run this year in Ohio and Michigan. What settings were those taken at? I am brand new to the photography thing and would love some advice in taking shots at the air shows.

The changeable lighting due to clouds and reflection off the ground (really) combined with specular highlites from sun glare and reflections can play hell with your meter. The key to consistant air show photography is to get familiar and comfortable with shooting in full manual mode where your meter doesn't get fooled into over or under exposing. For example, shooting the USAF Thunderbirds, auto metering is going to give you underexposed images because the meter will want to stop down due to their white jets. Conversely, shooting the Blue Angels, you'll get overexposure because of their dark blue jets.

This, IMO, is where carrying an 18% grey card is a must. If you have the room at your feet, you can simply lay it on the ground in direct sun and check exposure as the day passes. Or, you can hang it off your belt where you can just reach down and hold it up in the sun to check your meter setting. With some time and effort, you'll begin to get a feel for when you need to open up a stop or close down a stop based on sun angle and the exposure you need for each plane. Also, get to know and use RAW as this can really help you in post processing in case some are a bit over or under cooked.

One thing related to shutter speed: Avoid shooting at shutter speeds over 1/250 when shooting propeller driven planes. You want to get some "prop blur" which conveys the fact that the blades are, in fact, spinning. Most first timers bang away at 1/1000 or higher and that just freezes the prop entirely which look unnatural. Helicoptor blades turn at an even slower RPM so you might have to drop down to 1/125 or even 1/60 to get good blur. Of course you can shoot much faster when your subject is a jet.

Good Luck and Happy Airplane chasing. It's one of my favorite things to do!

Nice pair of shots Nuke...

Even in winter training, the Blues are impressive!

Wow, nice.

An alternative: Need an exposure crutch?

PhotosGuy wrote in post #4997877
An alternative: Need an exposure crutch?

I would still reccomend the 18% grey card for beginning air show shooters. No thinking, no compensations, no nemonics or "rules of thumb." You shoot the card and it is what it is.

No sweat. Choices!

Great pair of shots. I can't wait till they make it here for the airshow...it'll be the first time in town for the Blue Angels in about 15 years.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #5002286
No sweat. Choices!

Roger That...

great captures