Blurred blades

Got any good tips for that killer aircraft pic?
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helothere
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Blurred blades

Postby helothere » Fri Jan 27 2006, 10:31

I've been mucking around with the shutter priority function trying to get a good blur on the main rotor but still a nice sharp body. I am static IE standing on the ground shooting heli's taking off and landing. I have found 1/50 to 1/160 to be pretty good, depending on the lighting.

This shot was taken at 1/50, on short finals so moving pretty slow

Image

This one was a bit quicker, but shot at 1/500 and still a slight blur
Image

Can anyone give me and my fellow novices some solid advice as to how to go about getting a good result? I am interested in moving on to air to air shots later as well.
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phugoyd
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Thats Lovely

Postby phugoyd » Sat Jan 28 2006, 02:30

Well done, although you should be flying, get back to work!!!!!
Heli-Ops
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Postby Heli-Ops » Mon Sep 4 2006, 03:30

You will find on average that you should always use 125th of a second or less when shooting helos. That way you get good depth of field as well as getting the blade movement.

On the ground I try to play around the 30th of a second area as it results in some great shots. Air to air I can shoot down to about 30th when needed thanks to the new image stabilised lenses by Canon.

Ned
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helothere
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Postby helothere » Mon Sep 4 2006, 06:26

Thanks Ned, I shall work around with those settings. Let me know if you are chucking out any of your image stabilised lenses!

BTW, love your work!
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black duck
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Re: Thats Lovely

Postby black duck » Thu May 24 2012, 05:22

phugoyd wrote:Well done, although you should be flying, get back to work!!!!!

Quite agree. Beautiful weather for it too, a lazy 40kt easterly gusting to 50 last night. Heres an Idea! Why don't you get the pilot to slow the rotor speed down!!Thatud' work :roll:........I'll go now :?
"It's wabbit seathon! It' duck seathon! I dare you to shoot me now!"
Big Unit
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Re: Blurred blades

Postby Big Unit » Thu May 24 2012, 07:41

My advice is buy a very good tripod and gimbal head such as this;

http://www.tripodhead.com/products/wimberley-main.cfm

Then once you take all the hand shake out of the shot and start to pan at the same rate of speed as your target..Keeping it in focus and sharp is SOOOO Much easier...

Even though this image was taken above 1/60th you'll start to get what I mean about panning to keep it sharp.
Image

This one was taken at 1/60th and you get the blades blurred and the helo sharp.
Image


Unless you have the steadiest hands in the market a gimbal head is the answer..

JC
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Re: Blurred blades

Postby Rattlegun » Thu May 24 2012, 11:09

I'll agree with Big Unit on this one, though I managed to snap this one free hand of the RACQ NQ Rescue BO105 at their last open day:

Cannon 50D, 1/50 sec, f/29
Image

Rattlegun

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