Shooting aircraft from a distance

[donaldjledet]

Shot a few aircraft yesterday and was trying to get the props showing movement.
If shooting from close to same distance what settings will be needed to get
the movement and plane in focus?

 

[donaldjledet]

 

[donaldjledet]

Now see how this one is out of focus a little bit
is it because of the f- stop used or some other reason?

 

[FastGlass]

To me all the images show the props having movement. As far as the focus goes, what focus mode are you using. F-stop has nothing to do with the focus issues. Of course the smaller F-stop the narrower DOF.

 

[donaldjledet]

I was using af-c mode

 

[STM]

To stop prop blades with some blur, you should probably be around 1/250-1/500 sec. Anything faster will just stop the blades

 

[pedroj]

To get get the plane sharp and the props moving you might try panning

 

[donaldjledet]

So the distance from aircraft won't have an effect on focus or prop blur?

 

[Rick M]

Whats up with the small aperture? f25, f29 is way to small. It's slowing the shutter too much and introducing diffraction.

 

[Hiway]

I shoot at Airshows when I can and try to get prop blur. A frozen prop looks unnatural. Use shutter priority and let the camera pick the f stop. The speed suggestion that was given by STM work very well. You can adjust up or down to get the amount of blur you want. The faster speeds will make it easier to get a sharp picture.

 

[STM]

So the distance from aircraft won't have an effect on focus or prop blur?

Those props are going to be spinning at the same RPM regardless of how far you are from the aircraft. However, the farther you are away, the more difficult it will be to see the individual blurred blades due to limitations in resolution.

 

[donaldjledet]

Whats up with the small aperture? f25, f29 is way to small. It's slowing the shutter too much and introducing diffraction.

Rick I shot them in shutter priority.camera pick f stop.

 

[gqtuazon]

So the distance from aircraft won't have an effect on focus or prop blur?

Donald - with this type of prop aircraft, the ideal shutter speed is 1/360. For helicopters is around 1/160. When shooting with good light, try using a ND filter or CPL filter to cut down the light and so that the camera doesn't go ballistic with the aperture.

Also, use base ISO (ISO 100 or 200) instead of ISO 400. There is no reason to use ISO 400 with good light unless you want to increase the shutter speed or Aperture but I don't think that is the case here. That will help with the aperture issue a bit.

 

[donaldjledet]

Thanks Glenn will use filters next time.
had ISO set at 400 my bad.

 

[Lee532]

I shoot shutter priority at around the same speeds that Glen suggests, I then adjust ISO to get the aperture I want depending on the light available rather than auto ISO. On the D610 I use Af-c 9 point as you can normally get an aircraft such as this in the centre of the view finder.
For my model aircraft shots the props are blurred at around 1/600 due to higher revving engines.