DSM-2/6/2013-Air Austrailia A320

[nssd70]

This former Air Austrailia A320 came in from KGYR(Phoenix Goodyear) landed in Des Moines for refueling before going to Keflavik,Iceland for more fuel,and then to Cairo,Egypt.

DSM 2/6/2013 by Doug Lambert, on Flickr

Doug

[heeshung]

Wow, interesting catch!

[nssd70]

Wow, interesting catch!

I had never heard of them until tonight. I found out that they ceased operations in 2012 and had five airplanes.

Doug

[JDANDO]

Wow! A rare catch indeed! What were the shot settings?

[MarkLawrence]

Very rare and great catch Doug!!!

[nssd70]

Wow! A rare catch indeed! What were the shot settings?

Settings were f/18,10 second exposure,ISO 800,and focal length 33mm.

Doug

[nssd70]

Very rare and great catch Doug!!!

Thanks,Mark.

Doug

[gonzalu]

Doug, great shot, but I have to ask, why f/18 and such a high ISO? I assume you did not have a tripod? or were there other circumstances

[nssd70]

Doug, great shot, but I have to ask, why f/18 and such a high ISO? I assume you did not have a tripod? or were there other circumstances

I don't know what I'm doing when shooting at night! What settings would you have used? I did have it on a tripod on top of my minivan.

Doug

[JDANDO]

If you had the tripod and the plane was not moving, I would go ISO 100 or 200, F7.1 and let the shutter speed go to what ever.

Here are a couple from a dark msp.


30 second exposure to get the blur of the de-icers



8 second exposure

[nssd70]

Thanks for the tip,Jeremy. Do you shoot night shots in AV,TV or another mode?

Doug

[gonzalu]

To get the very best night shots, my formula is as complicated as follows (sounds worse than it really is)

If you can't use a tripod, go with the highest ISO your camera will handle, prop your camera on whatever support you can, brace it as hard as you can, largest aperture and whatever shutter speed will yield a bright enough image.

Now, if you have a tripod:

--Select as solid a support base as possible. Your truck will likely not work out for you unless you're OFF of it and let the oscillations die down (at least 5 minutes)
--DO NOT use any feet or collars on your lens if possible. If you must, use a Spalding handball or a tennis ball to squeeze between the body of the lens and the foot/collar if possible. Basically as little in between the glass and the support. If you do not have a very large ballhead or three way head, remove it altogether and mount the lens directly to the top of the plate on your tripod. You want as few a coupling as you can between glass and support. If it were up to me, camera bodies and lenses would be SQUARE and surrounded by small pins of large diameter to make it easy for the rig to find a spot to rest on a large flat solid surface. Nothing worse than thin tiny collars on cheap tripods. Do NOT use your extended center column if you have one.
I know real diehards that use MERCURY FILLED ballast to weigh down the rig... you want to reduce very small micro vibrations... they are the resolution and sharpness killers.

--DO NOT use the self timer. If you can't afford a proper remote release or intervalometer, you have no excuse... they are very affordable nowadays.
--Use any of the great iOS or Android apps to help time the shot in the event you don't have an intervalometer and have to do it all by hand ...
--Camera on Manual
--White Balance on Tungsten unless you can do a proper PRE-SET off a pure white or gray surface NEAR or NEXT to the subject (of course if the subject can help, by all means).
--No Filters. At night, reflections will kill contrast and worse, introduce flare ...
--Select a well made lens, preferably one without many elements. Simple prime lenses work best, albeit inflexible for framing.
--Lowest ISO
--Find the smallest aperture your camera sensor will handle without introducing diffraction and set it to that. This is also important to get the star effect on point sources without a star filter which is really cheesy and silly. ANOTHER reason to have as stable a support is to NOT ruin the effect by introducing minor vibrations. A 5 second exposure introduces at least a few thousand micro vibrations to ruin your image. Imagine how many will be added in a 20 or 30 second exposure.
--Set the shutter speed to whatever time will yield enough detail in the shadows without blowing the brightest highlight you want rendered as almost pure white. Lights can go pure white, who cares (unless critically important)

I adjust the shutter speed and ISO and Aperture for the given conditions. If I have not much time to work with, I will set the shutter and then adjust the aperture and if still not enough light, increase the ISO but that should be the order...

TEST TEST TEST TEST ... if your desired shot can wait, play... if it can't, try out your settings BEFORE the shot is to be made. At JFK you sometimes have to work quick because the planes may be still for only a moment between pushback and disconnect from the tow.

On this note, know your subject. A 747 will take a long time to prepare and turn on all four engines to get ready to roll on its own. You have a lot of time between pushback and roll under its own power. But not too fast. It is very big and heavy and likely a bit old (unless it is a 748) and the shocks are old and it will bounce up and down a bit before settling. Also wait until the crew and tug have been out of the way for a bit.

Any of the local regional jets, GOOD LUCK... they push and roll so quick, there better be lots of light on the ramp or else, you will be challenged! A380 is also very quick turning on engines and rolling.

That's about it... LOWEST ISO, SMALL APERTURE, TIME TO TASTE (get enough details in shadows, white whites, bordering on blown out)

Good luck...

[gonzalu]

Doug, your image shows a lot of vibrations played with your exposure and caused your point sources to go soft and almost a ball. Not that it is bad, it is all subjective, but you will find that star like point sources work great on night shots.

Dark subjects should be dark (thanks to Fred and The American Airpower Museum) It helps when you have a willing and stable subject!


Almost got it right.. still the rig moved a lot due to high wind!


This is what I am always after. This was a tough shot... windy as hell (see above) but this time I literally SAT on top of the camera and the plane helped by staying perfectly still!!


Even though this shot looks sharp, the FOG was so intense, the diffuse photons killed any chance for a star effect...

[nssd70]

Manny,thanks for the tips. I hope to be able to do some more night shots this week. I keep wanting to brighten all of my night shots,I brightened some railroad pics too much. I was standing on top with the camera and between the wind,and me they van was moving. I picked up a remote yesterday. I have a cheap tripod,so maybe I should look at a better one.

Doug