How to questions

As a newbie to taking pix of planes some questions have come up:

Plane approaching - 3/4 front shot -

1. What focus setting is best, full , partial , single point?

2. Where do you aim on the plane?

I'm getting some sharp pix with single point auto focus putting the plane dead center with aps running from 6.3 to 8. But these are my guesses based on my results,so, always looking to learn.

I'm also trying to figure out why some of the pix are fuzzy at the edges while others are sharp while using all the same settings.

Outside of using this same 70-210 lens 20 years ago to take sports pix of the kids I have almost no experience using telephoto lenses.

BTW, I've got it coupled to a D7000. I'm using the lens for general photography to help bring myself up to speed with it. The results are excellent in that realm. And, I'm figuring some things out. But moving planes? It's hit or miss.

THX!!!

TJC,

With the advent of digital photography, photographing planes has become an exact science. Most of your sharp shots will be at f/8. I used to own that 70-210 when I shot film and got decent results with it when I stopped it down, but it might be a bit softer than some of the more recent teles you can buy today. I know you didn't ask for it but, if you ever consider upgrading that lens, I highly recommend their 70-300mmVR. Very sharp, and a great deal for the money without having to break the bank on a professional lens.

I use single point AF on my Nikon for airliners, after experimenting with the other modes and not finding them to be as consistent(I use the dynamic AF at airshows). Unless you're trying to be creative with your composition by including other elements like ground objects or the Moon, I would keep the plane right in the center(that's where your lens is sharpest). For the 3/4 front shot, I aim for windows between the cockpit and wing leading edge.

Several things can contribute to 'soft' areas of a subject with a lot of depth(like an aircraft), if you stick with f/8 or slightly higher, maybe f/11, you should get most of the plane in focus. Atmospheric distortion can be another factor leading to soft areas in your image, if the plane is traveling over a surface that is radiating a lot of heat from the Sun you'll end up dealing with differing amounts of heat distortion depending on where the plane is over that surface, relative to your position. Camera shake would lead to the entire image being out of focus, as would motion blur.

Hope that helps

William covered all of the basics... I will only add my own points (which many here will tell you border on insanity LOL)

1- Find out the sharpest aperture for your lens at all focal legths. Don't discount this step. It can be time consuming (if you do it yourself) or not (if DxO already reviewed it) This will let you set that aperture and forget about it... be happy :)

2- I use AF-C (for CONTINUOUS, NOT AF-S or SINGLE) with Dynamic Group AF d9 on my D800 and D3. This means your focus point is HUGE and FAT but not too fat :) The center sensor will be used for first lock on and then the surrounding sensors will be used to track in case the subject moves (which it is).

3- Don't worry if your lens has a sweet spot at f/5.6 Depth of Field at over 100 yards is usually at infinity for most lenses anyway so everthing is in focus from that to infinity anyway ... ONLY if you're shooting really close should you worry about DOF. And no, f/8 is NOT the sharpest of all lenses. It is a nice trick in dasys of old but nowadays, with higher resolution sensors, you need to know what is the sharpest. Also worry about DIFFRACTION... your SENSOR is limited at around f/11 and anything higher is going to seriously deteriorate the image quality, especially fine detail.

4- I aim to FILL THE FRAME. It does not matter what angle the plane is in. FILL THE FRAME... center Top To Bottom as much as you can. If you are worried about the composition, zoom out a bit to give you room to crop.

5- Practice TORSO panning. Lock your elbows into your chest/ribcage and rotate your entire torso as one unit. Do not use your arms to follow the plane while your trunk stays still.. .sure bet for shake.

6- Your eye brow is a huge solid wall, use it. I usually leave an imprint of my eyepiece on my eyebrow. Force the eyepiece to your eye and hold it steady.

7- Don't stab the shutter, roll the finger over it to shoot.

8- Use the highest shutter burst mode you can use. Shoot in three shot bursts. If you're not perfectly locked with the plane's speed as you rotate to track it, one of the three shots in the burst will likely be perfect. Toss the others...

THX for the input guys! This is a big help. I was interested in the 70-300 but read reviews that knocked it's sharpness over 200mm. Otherwise the reviewers love the lens. My only reason for buying it would be the reach from 200 to 300. Yet, most of the user reviews are very positive. So a little analysis paralysis on how to proceed. At this point, I'm going to rent one, along with a few others candidates and see how they perform for me.

As a side note here on the 70-210 - when i first decided to try this I seemed to remember a tele lurking in one of my old camera bags. I pulled it out and started shooting with it not knowing what to expect. I use primes all the time and this lens holds its own in the sharpness department. I was really surprised. And happy that i didn't immediately have to shell out dough for a lens to give this a try. That said, i do not doubt for a moment that many of the newer teles could give me better results . So renting may give me the answer.

You lost me on finding the sharpest ap on my lenses? How do i do this?