Photography inside Flight

[adiyeri]

Hi All, I am a beginner, could you please advise me to take photos outside the aircraft which is in the sky.

To get advantage in sunset colors what are the major settings for D 3000.
Preferable seats.
Thank you

[navcom]

Easy! As a pilot, I can tell you the best seats. The two up front!

But I digress. Unless you are just looking at documenting your trip, on commercial airliners, there aren't too many spots for you to take photos with much "wow" factor. A couple factors contribute. First, in order to decrease stress on the airframe from compress/decompress cycles, the windows on airliners are designed more like ship portholes making your field of view extremely limited. Second, this makes most compositions pretty boring as we've all seen them before.

For normal documentation shots, I would try to find a seat that doesn't sit over the top of a wing or beside an engine (fuselage mounted). Otherwise, they are pretty much all the same.

If you want some aerial shots with more wow, I would recommend going to the local airport and renting a plane and pilot. A small aircraft offers wonderful compositional opportunities. It has much larger windows (some don't have any or can be removed) with a much larger field of view, flies at a lower altitude, and cruises slower so you can have more time to get your shots.



Hope that helps!

[OsmosisStudios]

If you are going to get a seat on a small plane, bring a circular polarizer: you get some very weird reflections based on the shape of the glass.

[Storky1980]

Since you're a pilot, perhaps you can answer a question for me....

I regularly travel on choppers to work (offshore oil rigs), now we are not aloud ANY electrical devices to be carried on our person for the duration of the flight, so seriously, can cameras, regular ipods with no wi-fi, etc, do they really mess with the navigation or controls?

Cos i would love to get some ariel shots sometime

[navcom]

The main reason personal electronic devices are not allowed is their possible interference with navigation and communication equipment. It's an old rule that's been around for many years and has been updated and changed many times with the advent of new technology. It applies mostly to IFR flight (instrument flight rules which most commercial operations fly under) versus VFR (visual flight rules...being able to see where you are going at all times).

Between you and me, there is nothing that your Ipod or camera can do that will interfere with any aircraft equipment. Cell phones are another matter. I have had instances where I've forgotten to turn off my cell phone. Someone tried to call me and static filled my headset from the interference. It messed with the communication radios. But it does depend on the cell phone. Analog calls are much more prone to interference than digital ones in my experience. Also, most aircraft these days have shielded equipment that is much less susceptible to interference. I haven't had this happen for years.

The fact is, there are so many devices out there and so many new ones being created every day as well as so many difference aircraft and different equipment variations that the FAA can't test them all thoroughly, so they issue blanket rules that apply to "all PED's". Some of it is left to the carrier to decide as well these days. Your chopper company just makes it mandatory to limit all devices for safety's sake. I can understand their reasoning even if it is a bit extreme.

[Storky1980]

Yeah, that is kinda what i assumed, when i worked in West Africa the pilots seemed a lot more lenient about things like that and..... well they never got lost yet, despite a full chopper all listening to ipods.
Here in Australia and back in the North Sea they are extremely strict about it so i was just curious about that.
thanks

[jdepould]

Originally Posted by Storky1980

Yeah, that is kinda what i assumed, when i worked in West Africa the pilots seemed a lot more lenient about things like that and..... well they never got lost yet, despite a full chopper all listening to ipods.
Here in Australia and back in the North Sea they are extremely strict about it so i was just curious about that.
thanks

West Africa tends to be a lot more lax on a lot of things though.

[DigUpHerBones07]

Here's a photo I took a few years back. It's Mt. Fuji. I was in a C-130 taking photos out of the jump door. I was an avionics (communication and navigation equipment) mechanic, we all used our phones and electronic devices with the ok of the pilots (some were a little more old school about it) I've never seen any interference personally, lord knows we tried! But I agree with slower flying planes being the best for photography. I tried to take some photos out of a C-17 and they turned out crappy. (C-130's are much slower than C-17's)

[mcguireuk]

My contribution taken last year somewhere over Spain. Taken with a Samsung D860 point & shoot and tweaked in ACDSee pro 3.



Samsung D860
Exposure 0.006 sec (1/180)
Aperture f/8.4
Focal Length 6.3 mm
ISO Speed 80
Exposure Bias +0.3 EV

[srottas]

This shot was taken from a window seat just forward of the wing in a 737. It is the only "keeper" and not so great at that I have ever gotten from the inside of and aircraft. At the time of this shot I was only a "vacation shooter" at best (not much better now but at least I am more serious now).
Nikon coolpix 8800
5.7mm
f 5.6
1/600
ISO 64
(APS CS4)