Chinooks (help needed)...

TheNissanMan

TheNissanMan

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Ryan
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My first attempt at trying to take photo's of something in flight, not quite as succesful as I had hoped!

I tried a few different things as I got closer to getting the craft in focus but wasn't happy that the rotors looked stationary, the more blur I got on the rotors the further out of focus I got!!!!

All shots were with a 500D, 70-300mm at full reach on AV with different settings to see what would happen, what I could do, as you can see none worked :(

chinook4.jpg


chinook1.jpg


chinook2.jpg


chinook3.jpg


How do you guys get crystal sharp images!!!
 
get a Nikon :LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:


yeah ok, theres people with a point & shoot who could probaly get better pictures than us :p we need much more practise. would like to meet you someday. Just rememberd I have some pics of Chinooks with my old Fuji S7000. Will dig em out :)
 
You'd be surprised how low a shutter speed is req for rotor blurrrrrr
 
ooo a MK3 Chinook aswell!! One of the new ones! Rotor blur on them big chopped is hard work.
 
Chinooks are probably the hardest of the helicopters to get as you need a very low shutter speed to get any motion in the rotors as they are much larger and rotate much slower than ordinary choppers heres one of my better attempts but still not a cracking one I will dig the exif out for you

DSC_0459.jpg
 
Just looked at the exif and I got this at 1/160 iso100 f10 ev-2 using the D200 and a Sigma 170-500f5.6 at 175mm hope this gives you some idea.

Pete
 
AtomicRooster said:
get a Nikon :LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:


yeah ok, theres people with a point & shoot who could probaly get better pictures than us :p we need much more practise. would like to meet you someday. Just rememberd I have some pics of Chinooks with my old Fuji S7000. Will dig em out :)
Click to expand...

I'm off every Wednesday and alternate Sundays and always out and about snapping something, drop me a pm when your free, I'm always up for taking photo's or a pint, or both lol!

As for get a Nikon, pfft :D
 
Dangermouse1964 said:
Just looked at the exif and I got this at 1/160 iso100 f10 ev-2 using the D200 and a Sigma 170-500f5.6 at 175mm hope this gives you some idea.

Pete
Click to expand...

Hmmm I was trying down to 1/15, no wonder I couldn't get the dam things to look straight! Told you I was a noob :)

It was a case of snap a couple, change the setting trial and error mode, unfortunately as you can see more error!
 
TheNissanMan said:
Hmmm I was trying down to 1/15, no wonder I couldn't get the dam things to look straight! Told you I was a noob :)

It was a case of snap a couple, change the setting trial and error mode, unfortunately as you can see more error!
Click to expand...

1/15 is probably too slow as you have found out I do have some shot at 1/60 if I can find them and the rotor blur is just the same so I would try to stay at around 1/125 for them to avoid any camera shake and have aperture set between f9 f14 depending how bright the sky is to get some definition in the clouds and the 300 lens you have is very capable of getting a good shot of one just persevere and you will get one(y)
 
Thanks for the advice, will be back out there again next week if the weather is better...

It's quite a handy place to go as it appears nice an busy so don't have to wait to long :D

Next time I will be walking around the field to get closer to the action which should help a bit as well :)
 
This shot at 1/50

4441644684_acfb076a0c_o.jpg


This shot at 1/100

4441644868_ce3b388f23_o.jpg


This one also at 1/50

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I have to use a monopod when I'm using a long lens at slow shutter speeds, I get far more keepers than when I hand hold.

As DM says Chinooks have a relatively slow rotor speed, I shoot Sea kings at 1/160 and get decent blur. This one is at 1/320 and is OK because of the relative closeness of the aircraft.

4440867251_368528026e_o.jpg


cheers
Kev
 
Could be an excuse to get the tripod out as I have yet to use it lol :D

Didn't even think of that although it's always in the boot !

Looking at these images reminds me of my old school books....

"Must try harder"

:D :D :D
 
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Can be buggers to shoot at times.
Here is one at 1/80"

DSC_9788b.jpg



and one at 1/125"

DSC_0554.jpg


and 1/100"

DSC_0525.jpg


So basically anything from 1/60" to 1/125" should sort you. ;)


Kev.
 
The first thing I would change is shooting in AV.

when shooting aircraft, I ALWAYS use Tv mode. That way I can quickly adjust to a faster shutter for jets and lower it for anything with rotors/props.

then if the camera is under exposing I can use the exposure compensation thingy :D

Practice practice and a little more practice :)

IF you live near an active chinook base then why do you have time to be away from it? :LOL:
 
Unfortunately I get every Wednesday off and then every other Sunday so not to much time to get up there although it's around 20mins from the house...

At the moment I'm still enjoying learning so taking photo's of absolutely everything so not sticking with one subject :)
 
the good thing with Chinooks is they give plenty of thump so you got time to grab your gear as soon as you hear one (y)
 
Can pop over to the base at any time as it is just around the corner :) :D :)

Will wait until we get some good weather then pop on over and try and grab some decent shots :)
 
Ok, i haven't really read the other replies; this seems to have become a 'look at my Chinook pictures' thread - not a bad thing you understand. The Chinook is probably the hardest heli to get prop blur on because the blades rotate so slowly-about 140 rpm. Correspondingly your shutter speed needs to be very low, in the magnitude of 1/100th of a second. Your second issue seems to be the quality of your lens, giving a soft feel to the image. The old adage of spending money on glass instead of the camera body is still valid. Apologies if this has already been said - i'm reading a writing this on my mobile and the interface is a bit tedious.

All the best,

Cheesy
 
lens quality?

I have the Canon 70-300mm F/4-5.6 IS USM which I was led to beliebve was a very good lens, would probably be more the lack of skill/knowledge than the equipment surely (ie me not knowing what I'm doing which is true :) )...

Or have I been misled on the Canon lens ?
 
apologies, I didn't realise it was an L. I thought it was one of the old black canon lenses. I made the point because i used to have a canon 100-300 4.x-5.6 and it produced images of a similar softness. No offense implied, and as I said in the originsl post, I really should have read all replies before wading in.

Cheesy
 
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Well they say practive makes perfect and today I got the best shot of a Chinook I've personally taken...
C+C Please....



















chinook.jpg
 
Will have a go at them moving lol, must find batteries :D

Was at my folks over the weekend and saw it and thought of my old post lol.
 
With two dogs and two cats in the house...

Well spotted, probably not the best idea to try and get a motion shot without the zoom on, just in case lol...
 
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