Aviation Photography tips

[Ethantr2]

I'm new to aviation photography. I'm keen to improve and I try everything I can. But I have one question. How do you maintain and get full focus on the whole of the plane in the frame. Sometimes I get the cockpit in focus and the tail I don't, or overall it's crap. I've looked everywhere but not one plane photography tutorial mentions focusing on the plane.

[Jake Oesterreich]

In aviation photography, the only subject you are typically photographing is the airplane itself, so there is nothing else to focus on generally speaking. It is implied that you need to focus on the plane; try shooting with a faster shutter speed to ensure that the whole plane is sharp.

[Ethantr2]

Do you recommend certain focus points or focus settings?

[LuftSpotter]

Not a screener, here is what i do

Ai Servo or AF-C depends on your camera. i.e. focusing all the way for each pass. burst shot. let go. burst shot.
I prefer 9 point AF on the head area
If your target is a jet, 1/640 to 1/1000 sec is good.
Aperture f8-f11. If it's 90 degree side view, f5.6 should be fine. If it's 45 degree angle shot, choose smaller aperture.
Pick the right ISO for the correct exposure.
If your camera has back focus button, use it.

If what you said still happens,

Sometimes I get the cockpit in focus and the tail I don't

It could be some heat haze in the tail while it's clear around the cockpit area. Pick other photos.

[Ethantr2]

Thanks. I remember going out spotting and got 3 aircraft, all of which I was using ISO 200, Shutterspeed 1000 and aperture 6.4 or something. Over the span of the three photos they had extreme quality and focus. My guess is that I was using an Auto Focus Point Area for it, I don't remember adjusting the focus point at the time. These were both propeller planes and jets. After watching a few, tutorials, I've kind of lost my touch to say the least. But I will try these settings on a nice day to come, hopefully.

[B7772ADL]

Having had a DSLR style camera for the last 15 years, when they first appeared on the scene there were far less focus points to choose from and the AF systems were far less reliable. For this reason I tended to choose the centre point only and I have continued this through today on my 6D2. I experimented using more focus points but found the results to be less reliable as it would choose some random point on the aircraft leaving other parts blurry. I seem to get much better results using center point only.

But that's only part of the deal. It's important to keep the shutter speed up (unless you are aiming specifically for motion blur shots), so I mainly shoot in manual mode at f8 and 1/500 on a nice sunny day. Shooting raw can allow for some post production exposure adjustment. If the light is a little inconsistent, I might switch to AV mode and shoot at f8, and sometimes if I'm feeling really lazy I might even switch to P. There's no harm in letting the camera do the work for you whilst you enjoy the view rather than stressing over if you got the settings right.

In addition, for ISO, the 6d2 is quite forgiving with noise so I've actually found setting the iso to Auto with a range of 100-400 works very well. Again shooting raw allows me to do noise reduction in Adobe Camera Raw before I import to Photoshop for editing.

[Ethantr2]

Thanks all. I've had someone tell me that when using manual focus points I should direct them toward the cockpit to ensure the full plane is in focus. Is this true?

[mahagonny]

I believe that you must first concentrate on the study of general photography and learn the principles of the interaction between shutter speed - aperture - iso - focusing system. This will also bring you many advantages in aircraft photography.
You will hear a lot of tips here, but if you are not mastered the basic techniques the results may not be great.
A lot depends on the quality of the optics you use.
But, I repeat, if you are not master of the basic techniques you could always have poor results.
sorry my bad english.