Advice on how to take pics of aircraft on Canon 350D ?

[andy15star]

Hi, i'm new to the forum so here goes!.

Just recently bought a Canon 350D and love it!. Got a Tamron 55-200 lens which works perfect on it.

I'm hoping to go to the Sunderland Airshow next weekend and wanted a bit of advice on aperture/shutter speed for taking pics of aircraft in flight.

I can always remember my dad telling me (on his old AE1 program) to open up the aperture a step or 2 more than it wants to so that when you take a picture of a plane in flight it doesn't turn out too dark. Just wondering if this theory is correct and if it stands for digital imagery too ?

What would you recommend setting the camera to when taking pics of planes in a white sky and in a blue sky without the plane turning out too dark ?

Best Regards,
Andy

[xion911]

First, I would meter for the ground, or something that is the same brightness as the plane. If you have a polarizing filter, use it to darken the sky a bit. As for aperture, I would use a 5.6 or 8 just to make sure there are not any focus problems. For ISO I would use 400 so the shutter can be fast.

Just looking outside today and it is sunny, my camera is saying ISO 400, F 5.6, shutter 1/1000 which should be fine for moving aircraft.

[bartonflyer]

This is worth a read
http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/air-show-photography-a-guide-for-beginners/

Cheers
Ian

[BTS]

Opening up a stop above what the camera meter indicates is sound advice.

One tip, if you photograph a flying aircraft with propellers eg.. a Lancaster, Spifire or any Helicopter DONT go mad on ultra high shutter speeds, more important to pan with the subject. If you set much over 1000sec you will freeze the propellers & it will look rather 'wooden'. A bit of blur works best.
Jets are another matter & travel faster, anyway:coffee: