How to Shoot Airshow Photography
With LIMA airshow around the corner, it's time to brush away the proverbial cobweb gathering around the long lens and hit the sunny tarmac for some high flying action imagery. In this edition of Pro Tips, Sean Liew shares his experience in shooting the recent Thunderbirds airshow and tips on getting the best out of your camera in shooting such event.
I recently had my first experience shooting an airshow at the Thunderbirds show held at Royal Malaysia Air Force (TUDM)base in Subang, and boy was that fun. Getting there was a challenge, as it's a public event, so families looking for some quality picnic time came in droves to witness this rare opportunity of fine flying skills. The number of photographers that turn up did not disappoint too, anyone from point-and-shoot to the hunk sporting the longest lenses arrived early to claim the few precious spots.
I did some research on the topic of airshow photography and put them into practise, and as with everything in life, reading about it and doing it yourself can be two completely different matter altogether, but hey, I enjoyed the hell out of the experience, and having fun is the key thing here, right? So without much further ado, here are some tips and tricks on getting great snaps from airshows.
GEARS
1. Use long zoom lens. A good and cheap way is to start with the 70-300mm. You'll want the long reach so beg or steal if you have to, it's no fun getting small images of planes with plenty of background. Use a tele-converter ring if you have one too. The TC-17E II on the Nikon system is a great start.
2. Use lens hood to reduce flare, you'll be shooting them high up in the sky and the sun's going to get in the way of giving you flare, so using lens hood will help reduce that.
3. Remove UV filter to reduce flare. As mentioned before, UV filters are obsolete in the digital photography age, so lose it to get more contrasty images. If you're worried about lack of protection on your lens, use the lens hood. And speaking of lens hood, keep them locked tight because these babies tend to get loosen too easily and you will lose them easily if you are not too careful. I've found my fair share of other people's lens hood in public events.
FOCUS
1. Focus mode: use Autofocus Continuous - or manual focus if you've got quick hands and sharp eyes, never use AF-S.
2. Focus tracking with lock-on (a4 on Nikon menu) - set to Long, to allow for camera to keep same focusing distance when temporarily obstructed/distracted.
3. AF-C priority selection - set to Focus, to allow for shooting when in focus only. No use getting all blurry photos now is there?
4. Dynamic AF area - set to 9 points, because this mode is best suited for objects moving in predictable direction.
METERING
 - Use spot or center-weighted metering if you're shooting in Aperture or Shutter Priority mode, to avoid plane silhouettes, but silhouettes can make interesting photos too when is Matrix Metering mode.
- Use Manual metering if you're comfortable, you could get a feel of the A/S/ISO settings to use by shooting a test shot in P mode and fine-tune your settings manually from there.
OTHER SETTINGS
1. Use slightly higher ISO to allow you to shoot at higher shutter speed.
2. Shoot RAW format to get the best out of the scene, at time you'll need to crop later so RAW will give you best resolution and dynamic range when editing.
3. Shoot in Burst mode - no one will ever (need to) see your failures, except you, so shoot lots of photos, and only post the best shots.
FRAMING & OTHER TECHNIQUES
1. Watch for turns to capture cockpit/side of airplane
2. Include foreground interest: people on the ground to give sense of scale and movement.
3. Try panning and lower down shutter speed to show contrast between subject (panned) and background airplane (blurred).
4. Tilt your photos to give it dynamism.
5. Review photos when nothing is happening, don't miss action because you're deleting bad photos.
6. Leave some space in front and back of plane, i.e. don't frame too tight.
And remember to have fun!
When Sean Liew is not conducting classes at Nikonian Academy or writing Pro Tips, he can be found peppering his blog with bits of photography-related news.
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