Reccomendations for Aircraft Photography

[LukeMJ]

Just wondering if anyone knows some good settings for Shutter speed, Aperture, ISO etc, when photographing aircraft - particually on overcast days.

Cheers,

Luke

[Doug Sundseth]

In flight or on the flightline? Jet or piston engine? Do you want to freeze the aircraft for crisp detail or blur the aircraft, prop, or background to give an impression of motion?

The answers will depend on what you're trying to do.

[LukeMJ]

Whilst taking off/landing and they will be large comercial jet aircraft (at Sydney Airport). I would firstly like to get clear crisp images with as little blur as possible, but i am also wondering how to get a crisp image of the aircraft with the background blurred to give the impression of motion.

[Doug Sundseth]

In general, aircraft in the sky are far enough away that you'll get enough depth of field even with the lens wide open, so:

For frozen details, choose your largest aperture, then set your shutter speed to "fast enough". How fast is fast enough will depend on the length of the lens and the distance, but usually anything in the 1/500 sec or faster range should be plenty. (You might get away with something less than that, since aircraft landing and taking off are generally flying fairly slowly (around 150 mph/240 kph). Then set your ISO on the lowest number that will give you a good exposure, though you don't want to go below your lowest native ISO number.

Blur takes practice and experimenting. Again, distance and length of lens are important, but I'd start with a shutter speed of 1/60 sec. and chimp (look at the back-camera display). Depending on lighting, this might require a smaller aperture, but since everything is likely to be in focus anyway, that shouldn't be a problem.

For panning technique, see this tutorial:

Panning: Motor sport

It's for motor sports, but the speeds tend to be similar.

[RichardTaylor]

Have a look at some of the panning shots in this photo stream stream (not mine).
Exif data is available.

Flickr: Adam Kirk - BNA-Photo's Photostream

[ccting]

Buying good tripod that support panning does help me a lot in panning. It helps stablizing my trembling hands.. I wander a monopod can as effective in eliminating trembling hands in panning..

Even people can see my hands are shaking (shaking like an very old man)...when taking their pics..