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| General RC Aircraft Discussion Discuss anything RC related |
Topic Review (Newest First)
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| 05-05-2021 12:08 PM | ||
| cicopo |
Re: Aviation Photography 101 You have the perfect plan there. Panning has far more to do with this than most realize. It's like the golf swing teacher telling the student to follow through after hitting the ball. I always had trouble for the first event (or even 2) getting back into a really smooth pan after hiding indoors during winter. As for a lens upgrade you have a lot more choices now than when I wrote the article. Things have really progressed in the Zoom lens line up. |
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| 05-05-2021 11:42 AM | ||
| Park |
Re: Aviation Photography 101 Cicopo: Thanks for your detailed response and recommendations. I'm staying with my current gear for now, because I think that what I need first is a refresher on techniques, and practice! Until I max out ME I won't be upgrading my camera gear. I really would like to get my "ME body" upgraded though. LOL. Maybe I'll stand beside 401 and practice shooting "flying" objects (getting sharp bodies with wheels slightly blurred. Further away than with model aircraft, and No background clouds. ) |
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| 05-03-2021 06:31 PM | ||
| cicopo |
Re: Aviation Photography 101 No doubt many of us want to get back out there and do our thing whether it be to fly or to photograph what's flying. As a Canon shooter I have been asked to set up a few different models of the Rebel series camera bodies & I can say they can do the job nicely but at a slower frame rate than higher priced models. Before you think about upgrading the body it may be wiser to think about just what you'd like to capture & what lenses will be needed. Camera manufacturers & 3rd party lens makers offer a huge variety of lenses these days & many people shop by price rather than specific lens specs. Shooting action (a flying model aircraft) depends on a few factors that aren't considered by lens tests conducted by review sites. Lens sharpness is important but in action photography a fast Auto Focus mechanism & Panning style Image Stabilizer (some lenses have IS (or VR etc) that must be turned off when panning & if it isn't it will cause blurred photos. Action like this is best done hand held using a smooth panning motion & a zoom lens that again may get poor reviews using the old theory that they are a compromise trying to do the work of multiple focal length lenses. Worse yet "Superzooms" (lenses ranging in the 10:1 & up range like an 18-200mm or so) instantly get thought of that way yet they have evolved into very useful tools in this field of photography. We have planes taking off & landing, doing low passes as well as others in other areas of the circuit & the only way to get photos of all of them easily is with a superzoom lens. Without knowing what lenses you have it might be good to think about them before upgrading the body but at the same time we all have a budget which dictates what we can afford & if you're already spending money of this hobby Photography may be lower on the priority list. Photography is my main hobby plus while I was working I used it in my day job & could write off some of the costs. Photography also let me combine two great hobbies and make a lot of new friends in this hobby. PS if you're a Facebook user you can find lots more of my event photos here. https://www.facebook.com/lar.ing.14/photos_albums |
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| 05-03-2021 12:18 PM | ||
| Park |
Re: Aviation Photography 101 Thanks everyone - excellent information, obviously from people who really know how to DO IT (witness the phots included). My bag is Canon Rebel T4i, nice but not top end, and I'm now inspired to get out there nce again with it, once COVID restrictions are lifted around in my area (Durham region). |
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| 08-07-2018 01:25 PM | ||
| cicopo |
Re: Aviation Photography 101 I think it's time to bring this thread back to life. there are a lot of new photographers at the events & I'm sure some really don't understand how to set up their cameras for action photography. I'm also hoping to inspire a few new people to get into covering the events they attend by making up nice professional looking albums organizers can use to reward sponsors or to help in getting new sponsors. |
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| 11-03-2015 06:24 PM | ||
| cicopo |
Re: Aviation Photography 101 Thanks Jeff. David I haven't had the time to fully explore all your on line albums but you have some great photos there. Looks like you get to attend a lot of big meets. Nice idea with the album of published stuff too. Larry |
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| 11-02-2015 08:23 PM | ||
| jnidd |
Re: Aviation Photography 101 Amazing pictures and also thanks for sharing the camera settings. |
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| 09-21-2015 01:59 PM | ||
| Dwhart24 |
Re: Aviation Photography 101 Cool thread. I haven't been on this site in a while and just ran across this thread. A lot of good advice here. Here is a link to some of my photos if you're interested in seeing them. Most of the in flight shots you see of mine were done with a 70-300mm lens. I'm a Nikon shooter. I have found that a good shutter speed for RC prop planes is 1/750 - 1/1000. These speeds would be comparable to a full scale warbird at 1/320. I also like to have my ISO set on auto. I haven't read through every post here, but post processing the photos correctly can make a huge difference. I just bought my first quad copter (DJI P3P) to add to my bag of tools. https://www.flickr.com/photos/46202366@N07/albums |
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| 09-05-2015 07:21 PM | ||
| cicopo |
Re: Aviation Photography 101 Keith thanks ever so much for your excellent contribution. That information will help a lot of photographers & even me although I rarely get down low because it may take some help to get me back up. On the note about backgrounds I've had 3 events this summer where the sky became a perfect background but many photographers don't realize just how much certain types of clouds can change a photo. At our Zone event I saw the nice puffy clouds start to form just above the forest across the field & I quickly instructed pilots to do their low passes in front of them. Needless to say the results were perfect & I'd bet I got many cover worthy photos from the day. Similar clouds were available at Scale over Ottawa for a while & at the Giant Scale event in Kingston. I made 17 X 22 prints of the first 2 photos & most find it hard to believe they are R/C models. Clouds can be your friend, put them to good use. |
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| 09-05-2015 12:17 PM | ||
| Morison |
Re: Resolution woes Quote:
Here are a couple of tips I have that I regularly give photographers. (I worked as a photojournalist for a decade before taking on MAC Magazine.) Most of these are static specific, but can be applied to action to some degree. - The background makes a good picture great. When you can, pay close attention to what is happening in the background. Particularly with static shots, work to get a clean background... not a bunch of guys with their backsides to the camera. - Watch the edges Particularly when I shoot tight, I quckly run my eye around the edge of the viewfinder to see if I'm cutting anything off or if anything is sneaking into the frame. - Shoot a bit loose Leave a bit of room around the subject so it can be cropped for various uses. (8x10, 5x7, custom, cover, two page spread, header...) - Get down This is sort of tied to watching your backgrounds, but when you're taking static pictures of models, get lower to the ground and avoid just 'standing over' them. For a 'realistic' perspective, if you know the scale of the model then if you put the lens at the 'scale height' for 6', you'll get great results. (1/5 scale, 1'3") You'll also want to use a fairly small aperture for a deep depth of field. - Shoot Details When you see a model that is really well done, take some time to shoot some tight detail pictures of the well done bits. This might mean a macro lens, but shooting higher resolutions, you can crop down to the details and still get nice tight details. - Shoot Raw Once you get a bit familiar with things, shooting raw can really help you pull details out of the shadows and 'fix' exposure and white balance 'issues.' Programs like Adobe Lightroom are fairly easy to use (although I worked in Photoshop for 20 years before opening Lightroom) |
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