Prop photo, shutter speed

[niklas]

Hi!, i'm struggling a bit to get a nice round prop when taking Pictures of...propeller Aircraft. When i choose a shutter speed of 1/100 - 1/250 im happy with the prop circle but then im getting motion blur on the fusilage, not good enough with panning. Whats your techniques? Any secrets?

/Niklas

[Arie]

Do you have a Image stabilization on your lens?

[xkekeith]

There's a trade off with lens size as well, the longer the lens the higher risk of blur at slower speeds. A lens with decent IS will help, at the weekend I was using a 100-400 with IS at the following speeds AN-2 1/160, C-47 1/200 or 1/250 and 1/320 for fast flypasts from Hurricane / Spitfire. Even then I failed with the polished metal Beech C-45 at 1/200 and had to go faster - camera struggled a bit with the highly polished metal finish. A rule of thumb without IS is the shutter speed should be no lower then the mm length i.e. 1/400 at 400mm.
Also practice, practice, practice etc....

[niklas]

Yes i do

Do you have a Image stabilization on your lens?

[niklas]

Do you use a monopod or just freehand?

There's a trade off with lens size as well, the longer the lens the higher risk of blur at slower speeds. A lens with decent IS will help, at the weekend I was using a 100-400 with IS at the following speeds AN-2 1/160, C-47 1/200 or 1/250 and 1/320 for fast flypasts from Hurricane / Spitfire. Even then I failed with the polished metal Beech C-45 at 1/200 and had to go faster - camera struggled a bit with the highly polished metal finish. A rule of thumb without IS is the shutter speed should be no lower then the mm length i.e. 1/400 at 400mm.
Also practice, practice, practice etc....

[xkekeith]

Freehand as I want the flexibility to follow the path of the aircraft and only use a tripod on night shoots etc. I have seen people using mono pods at airshows but have not tried it myself.
The final point about practice is key plus making your technique is as good as possible, good stable stance and one hand taking the weight of the lens. Take an hour at your local light airfield photographing anything on circuits, take 50 shots of the same training aircraft, the 50th will be better than the first!
Go home have a cup of tea and delete the first 49 shots....

[niklas]

Thanks

[Andy_99]

Practice Practice Practice & also get a bit more practice in before the airshow season kicks into full swing.

I have a monopod (not head on it though) & from advice given on here it's great for shot's where the movement is broadly in a single axis (taxing, Take Off Run, Landing run, Level flypast) but as soon as the aircraft starts moving in multiple dimensions it all gets a bit of a faff so freehand is best.

Reminder to self must get up to the local (NCL) this weekend or one evening next week to get my hand in ready for RIAT.

As to shutter speeds for Prop blur depends on the subject Osprey's Chinooks etc really difficult even down at 1/125 you'll be lucky to get a full disk, Herc's A400's etc 1/125 or 1/250 will see you getting some results, 1/250 will normally see you in the right ballpark for the smaller prop driven stuff.

[trotsenstein]

1/320 or 1/250th usually for me. If you're panning, try doing a burst of 3 shots, tends to be the middle one is useable.

Also using the centre point AF, try and fix on a point (canopy etc) and follow that.

[Punkrunner62]

I try for as low a shutter speed as possible 1/125 or 1/160th with camera set on Tv.Thats on a Canon camera.I have many years of experience, the more practice you get the better the results will be.
Cheers.

[BlackDragonU2]

I'm struggling to get it on my canon what do I have to do?

[Punkrunner62]

OK,on the dial on the top left hand side set it to Tv,this should allow you to set the required shutter speed using the dial on the front right next to the shutter release button.When you rotate the dial looking through the viewfinder you should see the shutter speed change on the bottom left hand side.Set it for what you want from that with an apropriate aperture.
Hope this helps and good luck.

[reheat module]

I'm a monopod user too, and find it useful when the movement is basically parallel, as said earlier.
I place the monopod centrally about 2-3ft ahead of my legs, so that the monopod forms basically the third leg of a tripod for stability.
If you are using a lens with IS, ensure it is set for stabilisation in the correct mode.
Oh, and by the way, Practice! - it may have been mentioned earlier.