iWantWings
Pre-takeoff checklist
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Photos of planes at local airport
- Thread starter iWantWings
- Start date
Actually, yup, as far as photographing technique that summs it up well.
iWantWings
Pre-takeoff checklist
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2011
- Messages
- 437
- Location
- Southern California
- Display Name
- wingsIwant
- Home Airfield
- Uncontrolled
Thanks everyone for the comments on the photo.
For whoever might be interested in doing a photo collage of a plane (their own, rental, someone else's), I wrote some rules of thumb below related to photographing airplanes (or cars, if they happen to fly). It's a long and dry read, might be a little bit interesting to some.
Take photos of the static airplane.
1. Park the airplane, if possible, in a place where it is not closely surrounded by other objects that might clutter the image (like other planes, or hangars, parked cars, etc.). This is probably easier said than done. The intent is to prevent other objects to be "competing" with the main subject: your plane. When one looks at a photo there should be no doubt what the photo is of: is of the this plane, or the other plane next to it, is it a photo of the brightly coloured hangar...
2. Take lots of photos from different angles/perspectives.
a.) from multiple angles: not just eye-level, but from low to the ground with the camera's lens angled upwards, as well as from high above looking downwards.
b.) walk around the airplane and at every "corner" take photos, again, from different angles.
c.) It's unlikely that you'll park the plane on an island where it is surrounded by nothing that is too close by, that is, from some lateral angles there will be other objects in the photo that will clutter the image. Not much you can do about that, other than to park "the best side" of your plane such that when photographed from a particular angle, there isn't much clutter in the background (or at least stuff is farther away and can get out of focus).
3. Take lots of close-ups.
a.) both exterior and interior, take close-ups of dials, kowbs, handles, instruments.
b.) Shoot close-ups at wide angle: that is, get as close as you want, or possible until you can still focus (there is a minimal focus distance with lenses), while the lens is at its widest focal lenghts (i.e. completely "zoomed out"). This will make the focus point sharp and anything else nicely out of focus, but still visible, giving some perspective.
c.) shoot clsose-ups at a more narrow angle": for example, instead of taking a photo of the entire instrument cluster, take a photo of one instrument guage in particular and compose the shot such that the guage fills the entire image frame, sually head-on (no side angles). There's no "perspective" view here, just a head-on, bold sort of view of an instrument. Work is usually done in post-processing to make this type of shot stand out, for example, by increasing the contrast, saturation, etc.
4. Consider Lighting
a.) There is so much to say about lighting (ambient natural light, as well as flash-generated light) that I will simplify it by saying this: Try taking photos early in the morning or maybe 1 hour or so before sunset. However, if it is overcast, then daylight hours are perfect.
b.) Lighting for indoor photos: if an interior photo that you will take includes in the same shot portions of the windows with outside view, as well as portions of the interior, then generally these sections of the photos will have very different lighting that will exceed the dynamic range of teh camera's sensor. What does this mean? The camera will either properly expose the view seen through the windows and will underexpose the rest of the interior (thus making it look totally dark). Or, the camera could properly expose for the lithging on the interior while overexposing the outside view as seen through the windows. There are also settings in the canera's expsoure metering mode to average the exposure of the view seen through the windows (brlightly lit) and that of the interior (dimly lit) and work some magic. There are some ways to deal with tis...
i. Try to take the photos on a day when the sky is overcast. That way, if your interior photo will have sections of the windows, the outside lighting will not be too different from the inside lighting.
ii. Use flash, but use it in this way: manually set the camera's exposure to the external light as seen through the windows and then use a camera flash (in manual or auto mode) to provide fill light for the interior. This should make the flash light up the interior to the point where the lighting inside the airplane will "equal" that of the lighting outside
5. Post Processing
a.) you can make photos more interesting or salvage them in post processing. If one ends up with jpeg files, take it easy on the post processing, that is, don't go wild pushing sliders left and right to the maximum 'cuz you will likely bruise the pixels and make the photo worse.
b.) if you have a camera that shoots "raw" photos, shoot in that mode and you have more lattitude in post editing/post processing before.
Take photos of an airplane in flight
1. From the ground
a.) STart easy by taking normal, high-speed shutter (no panning) photos. This will help you get an idea of teh compsition of teh photo. Do not just take a photo of the plane and blue sky, but include ground references like background features or runway. Put the airplane into perspective, if possible.
b.) Try panning. But for this to work, you need a background other than a blude sky - not much relative movement can be shown with a plain background.
2. From the cockpit
Note: this is still about taking photos of teh airplane, not outsdie landscape
a.) This could be a photo of the pilot, or of the instruments, or controls, or just each separately.
b.) More advance stuff would let you do slower shutter to show movement in the controls, or guages (such as a VSI needle being deflected in something like 2 or 3 secconds).
3. Can also do a slow shutter photo that is focused on the interior of the aricraft while capturing movement outside through the windows (the plane could be banked to get a view of the ground).
4. Air to Air: cool stuff, never done it, lots of examples in magazines.
1. Park the airplane, if possible, in a place where it is not closely surrounded by other objects that might clutter the image (like other planes, or hangars, parked cars, etc.). This is probably easier said than done. The intent is to prevent other objects to be "competing" with the main subject: your plane. When one looks at a photo there should be no doubt what the photo is of: is of the this plane, or the other plane next to it, is it a photo of the brightly coloured hangar...
2. Take lots of photos from different angles/perspectives.
a.) from multiple angles: not just eye-level, but from low to the ground with the camera's lens angled upwards, as well as from high above looking downwards.
b.) walk around the airplane and at every "corner" take photos, again, from different angles.
c.) It's unlikely that you'll park the plane on an island where it is surrounded by nothing that is too close by, that is, from some lateral angles there will be other objects in the photo that will clutter the image. Not much you can do about that, other than to park "the best side" of your plane such that when photographed from a particular angle, there isn't much clutter in the background (or at least stuff is farther away and can get out of focus).
3. Take lots of close-ups.
a.) both exterior and interior, take close-ups of dials, kowbs, handles, instruments.
b.) Shoot close-ups at wide angle: that is, get as close as you want, or possible until you can still focus (there is a minimal focus distance with lenses), while the lens is at its widest focal lenghts (i.e. completely "zoomed out"). This will make the focus point sharp and anything else nicely out of focus, but still visible, giving some perspective.
c.) shoot clsose-ups at a more narrow angle": for example, instead of taking a photo of the entire instrument cluster, take a photo of one instrument guage in particular and compose the shot such that the guage fills the entire image frame, sually head-on (no side angles). There's no "perspective" view here, just a head-on, bold sort of view of an instrument. Work is usually done in post-processing to make this type of shot stand out, for example, by increasing the contrast, saturation, etc.
4. Consider Lighting
a.) There is so much to say about lighting (ambient natural light, as well as flash-generated light) that I will simplify it by saying this: Try taking photos early in the morning or maybe 1 hour or so before sunset. However, if it is overcast, then daylight hours are perfect.
b.) Lighting for indoor photos: if an interior photo that you will take includes in the same shot portions of the windows with outside view, as well as portions of the interior, then generally these sections of the photos will have very different lighting that will exceed the dynamic range of teh camera's sensor. What does this mean? The camera will either properly expose the view seen through the windows and will underexpose the rest of the interior (thus making it look totally dark). Or, the camera could properly expose for the lithging on the interior while overexposing the outside view as seen through the windows. There are also settings in the canera's expsoure metering mode to average the exposure of the view seen through the windows (brlightly lit) and that of the interior (dimly lit) and work some magic. There are some ways to deal with tis...
i. Try to take the photos on a day when the sky is overcast. That way, if your interior photo will have sections of the windows, the outside lighting will not be too different from the inside lighting.
ii. Use flash, but use it in this way: manually set the camera's exposure to the external light as seen through the windows and then use a camera flash (in manual or auto mode) to provide fill light for the interior. This should make the flash light up the interior to the point where the lighting inside the airplane will "equal" that of the lighting outside
5. Post Processing
a.) you can make photos more interesting or salvage them in post processing. If one ends up with jpeg files, take it easy on the post processing, that is, don't go wild pushing sliders left and right to the maximum 'cuz you will likely bruise the pixels and make the photo worse.
b.) if you have a camera that shoots "raw" photos, shoot in that mode and you have more lattitude in post editing/post processing before.
Take photos of an airplane in flight
1. From the ground
a.) STart easy by taking normal, high-speed shutter (no panning) photos. This will help you get an idea of teh compsition of teh photo. Do not just take a photo of the plane and blue sky, but include ground references like background features or runway. Put the airplane into perspective, if possible.
b.) Try panning. But for this to work, you need a background other than a blude sky - not much relative movement can be shown with a plain background.
2. From the cockpit
Note: this is still about taking photos of teh airplane, not outsdie landscape
a.) This could be a photo of the pilot, or of the instruments, or controls, or just each separately.
b.) More advance stuff would let you do slower shutter to show movement in the controls, or guages (such as a VSI needle being deflected in something like 2 or 3 secconds).
3. Can also do a slow shutter photo that is focused on the interior of the aricraft while capturing movement outside through the windows (the plane could be banked to get a view of the ground).
4. Air to Air: cool stuff, never done it, lots of examples in magazines.
Print it: Do a photobook. Print BIG 
(I highly recommend www.blurb.com).
Most Important: One can total ignore all of the above and just take photos. I once read this: "The worst photo is the one you do not take".
These are just a few rules of thumb (lots more to consider). (I highly recommend www.blurb.com).Most Important: One can total ignore all of the above and just take photos. I once read this: "The worst photo is the one you do not take".
I'm not a professional photographer so what I wrote above might not be correct
Rules of Thumb in photography are meant to be broken (results vary).
I took some photos of the blurb book that I made, to get an idea what it looks like in print.
Last edited:
snowbird
Pre-takeoff checklist
I found a great image of my plane by googling the registration. The photo was taken on short final to a grass strip. When the time came to sell the plane I contacted the photographer and asked his permission to use the image in my ad. The photographer was delighted by my asking as he often had complaints from pilots regarding his publishing images of their planes.
The plane sold in two weeks for the asking price. I am sure the great "action shot" got my ad more visibility than the usual static views.
saulico
Pre-Flight
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Awesome shots, great panning!
Your tips are great, and thanks for the blurb pointer, I really want to try them out!
Your tips are great, and thanks for the blurb pointer, I really want to try them out!
....
Interesting.... I just went to Google, entered N801BH clicked on images ........
Found a pic of the toy at OSH I have never seen before......
http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/000370730L.html
Sleepingsquirrel
Pre-takeoff checklist
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marcoseddi
Cleared for Takeoff
Great picture thought it was a take off first glance
gismo
Touchdown! Greaser!
And it's pilot was caught in the act of planting it on the nosewheel. If that was me I'd pay to have all copies of the picture destroyed to save my ego.
Dav8or
Final Approach
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Agreed! However, I do have to give a bit of a nudge to the Mooneys. No bias at all. None what so ever.
Speaking of Mooney shots, I have some similar ones from a fly in straight out of my old camera-
