Duxford lighting for photography

[Unknown74]

On a recent visit to Duxford I discovered my photos when I looked back after taking them were dreadfully too dark especially the ones taken in the Airspace Hanger is this just my own camera or is the lighting just generally too low?

[jalfrezi]

You're right the Airspace hangar is quite dark, as are parts of the American hangar.

[Orion]

Best to use a tripod and manual exposure. Bracketing the exposure is a good idea too.

Regards

[trebleone]

Best to use a tripod ...

Assuming they're permitted in the hangars at Duxford .... many museums don't allow the use of tripods for H&S reasons (possible trip hazard or may cause an obstruction), but I don't know the rules at Dux. If tripods are not allowed, consider getting a seperate flash gun - the pop-up flash on the camera may help, but will probably not be sufficient due to the size of the subjects.

... and manual exposure.

Why? Aperture Priority auto should give an equal result ... unless the required exposure time is in excess of 30"

Bracketing the exposure is a good idea too.

Agreed ... although checking the histogram and, if necessary, re-taking the shot with appropriate exposure compensation, would also be effective.

[Pen Pusher]

Tripods are allowed at Duxford and I sometimes use the on camera flash on my Sony Alpha with a piece of tissue over it just to diffuse it a little.

I use manual settings and hand held in the Duxford hangars so I can control depth of field and give me a decent shutter speed, 1/10th sec and above, to help cut down on camera shake and up the ISO to 400 or 800 at times to achieve the necessary shutter speeds.

Brian

[Orion]

Best to use a tripod ...

Assuming they're permitted in the hangars at Duxford .... many museums don't allow the use of tripods for H&S reasons (possible trip hazard or may cause an obstruction), but I don't know the rules at Dux. If tripods are not allowed, consider getting a seperate flash gun - the pop-up flash on the camera may help, but will probably not be sufficient due to the size of the subjects.

... and manual exposure.

Why? Aperture Priority auto should give an equal result ... unless the required exposure time is in excess of 30"

Bracketing the exposure is a good idea too.

Agreed ... although checking the histogram and, if necessary, re-taking the shot with appropriate exposure compensation, would also be effective.

Tripods are permitted at Duxford. I set the aperture to f5.6 preferably and use the histogram to get the exposure OK although sometimes I do shoot against the light. If this is the case checking against the view on the LCD screen is useful and bracketing the exposure always. It's also useful to experiment with colour temperature, there are some funny lighting mixtures at Duxford but, to be fair, this isn't restricted to Duxford other sites are worse.

I only use available light.

While I wouldn't want to say this is the only method that works, it does work for me. See http://www.flickr.com/photos/68685377@N ... 030404257/

Regards