General Photography

OGroteKoning said:
Wait ... what was ... please do explain
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Sorry :o those are the innards Cameratek replaced in my 70-200 f/2.8 IS II after I dropped it. It took them a month so it must be really complicated… :rolleyes:

Oh, and it had to go back because the focusing was so, so, so very bad.

Want to take a guess at the bill?
 
bwana said:
Sorry :o those are the innards Cameratek replaced in my 70-200 f/2.8 IS II after I dropped it. It took them a month so it must be really complicated… :rolleyes:

Oh, and it had to go back because the focusing was so, so, so very bad.

Want to take a guess at the bill?
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R5.5k?
 
mmmig said:
How is it that some "pro" photographer's have years of experience yet still have really crappy images?
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It's not only 'pro' photographers with years of experience. A lot of people overrate their own work.
 
OGroteKoning said:
Oh dear! That is the price of the fairly new 70-300 f4!
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It wasn't cheap thats for sure - you can understand why I'm going to keep sending it back until it's tack sharp!
Randhir said:
Please tell me insurance is covering it?
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Yeah - I'm sure they're happy they're recouping some of their loss already since I have to insure the loan unit as well.
 
Speaking of planes got any tips? I'm supposed to shoot one during takeoff today at a private airfield, a mustang, and it's been a while.

(Post them in the General thread if you don't mind - I dont want to derail this thread )
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Since it is a Mustang I assume that it is this one:

IMGP0884_2_smaller.jpg

IMGP2691_smaller.jpg

It seems like aircraft photography is a subset of sports photography, so you should be well set up.

The big thing with shooting a prop plane is to have as long an exposure as possible to get an appealing blur from the prop in order to give a dynamic appearance. If you can get below 1/500 it would be best, and 1/200s even better. The problem is if you are shooting hand-held with a long focal length then you may want to go faster. The photo above was shot in aperture priority at 1/1250s due to using a 500mm focal length to get it. Since it was side on the prop blur did not matter too much.

Exposure correction can depend on your camera. You will be shooting against a bright sky so maybe the best would be to expose for highlights to avoid anything being blown out and then recover the image from RAW.

The current fashion in these photos is heavy colour saturation with a rich blue sky. Think of the landscape colour mode in most cameras. The actual photo will not be like this if you shoot neutral colour, but this can also be recovered from RAW.

There is also a bit of a fashion for close crops on the aircraft, e.g. cutting the wings or tail off. It is very difficult to get this framing while panning a moving aircraft. Best thing is to shoot it a bit loose and crop afterwards.

Since you will be shooting this on take-off there is very little time to fiddle with the camera. If you are going to be including the landscape behind the Mustang then get your AF points sorted out early.

As for lenses I normally use a 500mm zoom because I have it. Most people do fine with a 300mm. The aviation photography pros really like the Canon 70-200 and 100-400 lenses. This is a photogenic aircraft on the ground, so take a normal lens as well.
 
Thanks for that - I managed to read it while I was standing at the end of the runway just before take off and made a few adjustments. :)

And no - this mustang's name wasn't Sally :)

There was another plane as well - a Sea Fury - and does that thing howl when it screams overhead…

RH1D4763.jpg
 
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Nice opportunity, hope that the shots came out well.
 
garyc said:
Nice opportunity, hope that the shots came out well.
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I just edited my post above. Weather sucked here but did the best I could given the circumstances. :)
 
Awesome shot - looks like a day well spent.

And as for the howl from the Sea Fury. That is an 18 cylinder 54 liter supercharged engine and makes the type of sound people go to airshows for.
 
garyc said:
Awesome shot - looks like a day well spent.

And as for the howl from the Sea Fury. That is an 18 cylinder 54 liter supercharged engine and makes the type of sound people go to airshows for.
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Thanks - it was fun :) Next time though I'll probably leave the 400 in the car and use the 70-200 with a 2x teleconverter. That combo is plenty sharp and it will give me much more flexibility.
 
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