A Plane

[Merlin5]

My first attempt at planes today. This one came overhead a couple of times while I was near a park. My histogram was in the middle only, nothing left or right, so basically incorrect exposure,
My shutter speed was 1/2000, aperture F6.3 and auto ISO came out 250 and 320. Do you think I should go for 1/1000 next time or even less to fix the exposure? And do you think I should stop down to f7.1 or f8 or is f6.3 enough?


Airplane2 by Merlin 5, on Flickr


Airplane by Merlin 5, on Flickr

 

[jpgreenwood]

When shooting from a distance, if you want the fastest shot possible, then open aperture as wide as you can get it. For jets, as there are no moving parts (prop blur) then I try and go for 1/1250 as a minimum. Auto ISO to be safe, but if the ambient light isn't changing, try a few test shots in manual mode first at varying ISO's and if you can get it at 800 or less then you should get a nice, crisp shot. You did well with these I would say.

 

[Merlin5]

When shooting from a distance, if you want the fastest shot possible, then open aperture as wide as you can get it. For jets, as there are no moving parts (prop blur) then I try and go for 1/1250 as a minimum. Auto ISO to be safe, but if the ambient light isn't changing, try a few test shots in manual mode first at varying ISO's and if you can get it at 800 or less then you should get a nice, crisp shot. You did well with these I would say.

Thanks Jason. F6.3 is the fastest I can get with my lens when at 350mm which is fully zoomed. I definitely should have gone lower on the shutter speed as you've suggested. Here's a screenshot of one of my unprocessed plane shots. You can see the histogram is bang in the centre. That's not good, right? Do you think putting my shutter speed to 1/1000 or 1/1250 would have spread the lighting across the graph more evenly? Because with the histogram as it looks in my screenshot, it's missing darks and lights and exposing noise when I process the images. I kind of salvaged the ones I posted with a little noise reduction but it's not ideal.

 

[Box Brownie]

Aviation photography with the aircraft against a bright sky.

As the primary subject is the plane and the sky, especially in your example, is plain and bright.........add between +0.5 to +1.0 exposure compensation. That will emphasise and improve the exposure of the plane i.e. little to zero noise in the shadow areas of the fuselage.

PS not all cameras when using Auto ISO will utilise EC adjustments.

 

[Merlin5]

Aviation photography with the aircraft against a bright sky.

As the primary subject is the plane and the sky, especially in your example, is plain and bright.........add between +0.5 to +1.0 exposure compensation. That will emphasise and improve the exposure of the plane i.e. little to zero noise in the shadow areas of the fuselage.

PS not all cameras when using Auto ISO will utilise EC adjustments.

Thanks Box, I like that and will try it. I think I was in manual mode. Would it have been better to be in aperture priority and increase the EC? But if in manual, just increase the ISO until my exposure meter is showing a little to the right of the centre?