Shutter speed and such

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rockfordstone
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Shutter speed and such

Post by rockfordstone »

Hi All

I went out today and tested out my new lens (Tamron 150-600 for anyone interested) on the BBMF Lancaster fly past locally.

I was shooting shutter priority at 1/160th of a second, ISO 100 and as in the past using these settings have issues with the focus not quite being on (which i really seem to struggle with when it comes to the Lanc for some reason). Examples can be seen below

Image
Image
Image

I don't ever have any issues with jets, and i know this issue is down to user error, but is there anything else I should be doing on top of just practicing panning and having a more steady hand?

Any advice you learned chaps can offer would be great.

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Jakub.Zurek
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Re: Shutter speed and such

Post by Jakub.Zurek »

My first observation would be that 1/160 is very slow if you are at the 600mm end of your lens, especially if you don't have a full frame camera.

My second point, is that if it is a flypast and the aircraft is flying over you, rather than across your field of view like at an airshow, then it will be much harder to successfully pan. At air displays, my technique for panning is to face the airfield rather than the aircraft. Then as the aircraft appears, I turn my upper torso either left or right, and just move my hips/torso as the aircraft flies across. That way, you are much more stable when holding your camera, and can pan very easily across the whole length of the flypast/display.

My last tip would be that if you are using a lens with image stabilisation, which you are, then make sure you focus onto the aircraft early, not at the last second. Image stabilisation takes a couple of seconds to actually activate, and in the past, I noticed some of my shots were blurry because I focused on the aircraft too late and didn't give time for the IS to activate.

As you say though, the key is most likely practice.

Domvickery
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Re: Shutter speed and such

Post by Domvickery »

If it were me I’d look to raise the shutter speed, at OW on Sunday I was sat at 1/320th all day only dropping for the slower stuff but really never went below 1/200th
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rockfordstone
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Re: Shutter speed and such

Post by rockfordstone »

Thank you both

I think next time (im up at Duxford in a couple of weeks) i'll step the shutter speed up. I'm in search of the golden prop blur but i didn't consider the change in lens would affect that, so thanks for highlighting.

you certainly have a point with the field of view element, i was almost having to shoot arcing over the shoulder whilst turning on the spot as opposed the side to side motion you get at an air show.

To be fair ive certainly taken worse photo's of air craft and i'm still fairly new to the world of aviation photography, but hopefully i can get it dialled in a bit more before RIAT comes around.

Cheers

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rockfordstone
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Re: Shutter speed and such

Post by rockfordstone »

on another note, after having looked at your images, i see you apertures are sitting nicely around the F7-11 range, mine however have gone up to F25 on some of the shots.

i'm guessing this is just a reaction to having the slower shutter and being in shutter priority. is there any merit in me jumping to manual for this rather than hoping the camera can work it out?

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tankbuster
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Re: Shutter speed and such

Post by tankbuster »

rockfordstone wrote:on another note, after having looked at your images, i see you apertures are sitting nicely around the F7-11 range, mine however have gone up to F25 on some of the shots.

i'm guessing this is just a reaction to having the slower shutter and being in shutter priority. is there any merit in me jumping to manual for this rather than hoping the camera can work it out?


ND filter is useful for keeping F numbers low on props on a sunny day.
Trevor C
recent and not so recent pictures here https://trevorc28a.wixsite.com/trevspics

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