Fleet Week

[norbs007]

For the photo experts, Blue Angels are in town (San Francisco) and would like to take some shots. Never tried shooting anything at high speed, I'll be armed with a 40D and 70-200 IS. At what speed and aperture should I be starting at? Monopod or tripod recommended? I don't want to experiment out there as I might miss some good opportunities. Thanks in advance.

Edited October 10, 2008 by norbs007

[rtr]

Set the camera to shutter priority, for jets put the shutter at 1/800th of a second or 1/1000th, change the metering to spot metering, set the exposure compensation to plus one, shoot away and adjust based on what you get.

For prop planes try the same except set the shutter around 1/320th

With an IS lens you shouldn't need a tripod or bipod.

[norbs007]

Right on...thanks rtr!

[rtr]

No problem, might want to check out others photos to get an idea of what seems to work by looking at the exif data.

www.fencecheck.com has lots of pictures, also has a thread on this particular show.

My flickr has some pictures I took at an airshow this past weekend that will give you some idea of what the suggestions I gave you did for me.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13662836@N02/

Have fun and post your photos so we can check them out.

[D.Hayden]

I went today for the practice session...

Where are you going to be?

One cool place to get some nice phots would be on the Marin headlands.. I could see a line of cars.. you'd get the jets flying over the GGB.. looking down on them..

We were at Pier 39... when they strated flying at 3.. the sub was already far enough to the est.. you'd get a lot of glare as they came/went over the bridge.

Also. heard today.. all the ships are delayed until Monday... some storm in the Pacific ??

[norbs007]

I went today for the practice session...

Where are you going to be?

One cool place to get some nice phots would be on the Marin headlands.. I could see a line of cars.. you'd get the jets flying over the GGB.. looking down on them..

We were at Pier 39... when they strated flying at 3.. the sub was already far enough to the est.. you'd get a lot of glare as they came/went over the bridge.

Also. heard today.. all the ships are delayed until Monday... some storm in the Pacific ??

Thanks for the info Dave, thinking of hitting Crissy Field and hang around there. I saw a lot of people out on the rooftops in the Financial District; that would have been perfect. But looking down on them...that'll be awesome, was going to rent a 400mm at Calumet but they're all reserved since last week. Might pick up a 1.4x extender instead.

rtr, you got it. Thanks again.

Edited October 11, 2008 by norbs007

[norbs007]

I was able to rent a 100-400mm but the I think the unit they gave me was junk. Can't seem to get a good clean shot even at ISO 100. Most of the shots were at ISO 400; hence, the NOISE! Much harder than I thought; I took a whole bunch with about 10-15% keepers. I read from another forum that it's best to keep it at ISO 100 and adjust the shutter speed; it's the only way to get clean shots. I think part of the problem is I used a Circular Polarazier filter. Anyway, here are some that I liked.

Edited October 14, 2008 by norbs007

[norbs007]

Some still shots.

And the only ISO 100 I've taken.

[rtr]

Cool pics.

What did the 100 ISO pics look like?

Not sure if using the filter was part of the problem, but you shouldn't need it.

[XRe]

CirPol won't cause noise... if you used it, you hopefully had it set to make sure you were getting less glare off the planes and nice deep colors... It wasn't necessary, but (as long as you had enough light) it shouldn't have caused any additional issues....

The 100-400 is a lens that's either good or bad... How sharp are your images? I ended up using a 70-200 + 1.4x TC on my trip (still working up my shots). Even with a 1DMkIII, focus tracking is tough - esp. w/ an f/4 lens (effective). With a lens that's slower than that, autofocus can be dicey on fast moving subjects.

I ended up using my "usual" settings for action for most stuff - Av and f/8 (remember, w/ the TC I wanted to insure the best performance), and generally had over 1/1000 @ ISO 100 or ISO 200. I kept an eye on the shutter speed, though. For props and helos, I either bumped the aperture up a bunch (to pull shutter speed down), or switch to Tv and 1/200th or so (to avoid stopping the prop and having an unnatural look to the shot). I shot eval meter tied to focus point - it didn't do bad, but I found myself adding in +2/3 exposure compensation to account for the clouds/sky. Spot meter w/ +1 would've given me a little more exposure, but in my shots, would've ended up with a lot of blown highlights, too (on my camera). For my first time shooting planes, though, I'd say not bad. I have some ideas to try for next time... (like, a fast, long prime, for instance ).