RIAT 2007 - Fairford Airshow

[John Harper]

Hi There

Well the Airshow season in the UK is in full swing and this weekend sees the "Royal International Air Tattoo" at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.

It is billed as the biggest military airshow in the world, and this year one of the themes is the 60th Anniversary of the USAF.

The event is always well supported by the USA and this year they have sent both the "Thunderbirds" The USAF aerobatic display team and a pair of F117A "Nighthawk" Stealth Fighters. This is liable to be the "Nighthawks" last visit to the UK as they are due to be retired starting next year.

So after 3 days at the event and some 2000+ images i have to start the major process of looking for the shots worth saving.

I have picked out 4 shots to give a taster of the aircraft at this event, more will follow if people are interested, let me know your views

John



Shot 1 P51 Mustang EOS 1DMKIIN EF 500mm F4L 1/200 @ F18 ISO 400

Shot 2 F15E Strike Eagle EOS 1DMKIIN EF 500mm F4L 1/2500 @ F4 ISO 400

Shot 3 F16 "Thunderbird" EOS 1DMKIIN EF 500mm F4L 1/2500 @ F4 ISO 400

Shot 4 F18 Hornet EOS 1DMKIIN EF 500mm F4L 1/2500 @ F4 ISO 400

 

[Asher Kelman]

Thanks again for bring us these fine machines in flight. I wonder if the speed realtive to your camera is faster than when tracking birds in flight? In any case, there seems no limitation by the cameras focus tracking. How did you set up focus and how many focus points did you use?

What percentage of shots were out of focus?

I notice you went to the trouble of lowering the shutter speed in the first picture, quite rightly, to get the propeller to show.

In Shot# 2, the Strike Eagle, could the plane be "S-curved" and selectively sharpenned, perhaps to bring it out more from the sky, or would this spoil the image? I do like the roaring jet engines. Very impressive.

Shot # 3 is so clean and shows the artistic lines of this superb plane. The little head of the pilot, add a dimension of the size of the aircraft! I love the picture.

The smoke from the Hornet comes from what?

Thanks for sharing these 4 impressive pictures. We are now getting to rely on you for a regular dose of airframe photography.

Asher

 

[John Harper]

Hi Asher

I will try and answer the points you raised below

Thanks again for bring us these fine machines in flight. I wonder if the speed realtive to your camera is faster than when tracking birds in flight? In any case, there seems no limitation by the cameras focus tracking. How did you set up focus and how many focus points did you use?

Following on from Dons advice on setting up the EOS 1DMKIIN for my bird in flight shots i have the focus set using custom function 4-3 so that focus is activated by pressing the * button on the rear of the camera. I set the focus mode to AI Servo, when i wanted to take a picture I activate the focus first by pressing the rear * button, this gives the camera time to track the plane. When it is larger in the viewfinder i then fire off a sequence while keeping the * button pressed to keep focus tracking.
Should something appear in the viewfinder that is either closer or further away that the camera might prefer to focus on you can lift your finger off the * button and tracking stops but you can continue to press the shutter release without the camera trying to reacquire focus. It is quite strange to use the camera this way at 1st but i feel its better for these type of shots.

Reference focus points i was using the centre one only but had CF 17 set to 17-2 Automatic expand (max 13)

What percentage of shots were out of focus?

Well now that is a good question, i suppose it depends on what you mean "by in focus".
My personal aim with flight shots is to get it looking "tack sharp" when viewed at 100% on the screen. Using that yardstick out of some 2000+ shots i would think about 400-500. However of those more than 50% would have the tail cut off, the nose cut off, someones head in the way, that sort of thing. So taking those out i am left with something around the 150-200 mark

I post below 2 shots of an Hungarian Airforce F18 Hornet coming into land showing what i mean on the focus front.

Shot 1 is not quite on the money, but i consider shot 2 to be OK.

At full frame 800 x approx 600 size images they both look OK

However showing a 100% crop of each you can hopefully see what i mean on the focus front

Both images are straight out of the camera with no sharpening added. I am always aiming for a crisp shot like the 2nd on here but get a lot like the 1st one.. just slightly off

I notice you went to the trouble of lowering the shutter speed in the first picture, quite rightly, to get the propeller to show.

Yes on the prop jobs i am trying to shoot at around 1/200th of a second to get some blur on the prop. To get the rest of the plane pin sharp at that speed is certainly a challenge to see how good your panning technique is. IS on the lens does help but it really is a numbers game.. just shoot lots of frames and hope you get a good one

In Shot# 2, the Strike Eagle, could the plane be "S-curved" and selectively sharpenned, perhaps to bring it out more from the sky, or would this spoil the image? I do like the roaring jet engines. Very impressive.

Probably but i am afraid my Photoshop skills are not up to that task. If anyone wants to have a go post a message and I will see about sending over the RAW file

Shot # 3 is so clean and shows the artistic lines of this superb plane. The little head of the pilot, add a dimension of the size of the aircraft! I love the picture.

Thank you

The smoke from the Hornet comes from what?

OK on this one its not smoke, but condensed water vapour. When the pilot performs a high G pull up you often get water vapour condensing out of the air on the wing leading edges. If its really humid you also get it above the main wing too. I was following him in the viewfinder waiting for him to pull up. Out of a sequence of around 13 shots only 2 had all the plane in and were sharp enough

Thanks for sharing these 4 impressive pictures. We are now getting to rely on you for a regular dose of airframe photography.

Asher

You are most welcome, its because of the help and advice that i get around here that keeps me on the path to hopefully better pictures.

John