Specs for spotting at night?

[oscarderpilotB747]

In about 5 days I will go spotting at Leipzig/halle airport with my new canon 2000d with my main goal being to get photos of A300/757/IL76/A124 at night so what specs do I need to make night photos that I can upload to jetphotos?
Thanks

[JamesDC152]

Without lens info no one can give you an answer how well the photos are likely to come out.

[oscarderpilotB747]

Oh sorry…
it’s a 18-55mm lens with EF-S IS II 1:3.5-5.6

[newton606]

A tripod is a must. Use f stop of around 6.3-8 if possible which ofcourse requires long exposure times.

[mahagonny]

Oh sorry…
it’s a 18-55mm lens with EF-S IS II 1:3.5-5.6

I assume you'll be very close to the subject with that lens.
Anyway. There are a lot of night photos here and by consulting the EXIF data you can try to figure out what settings to use.

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/11524865

[Julian S.]

For night shots it's almost impossible to give universal specs to take photos.

The key is (more than in daylight photography in general) to know what will happen if you modify the different values of your camera.

For objects that are standing still - parked and lit up aircraft for example or airport buildings you can easily use a smaller aperture, low ISO and a long exposure to create nice effects of light sources around the object you want to photograph.
For a starry night a shorter exposure with higher ISO and open aperture is a good choice to have also details like the milky way or aurora in the sky.
For moving objects in the night even higher ISO (Camera with good ISO performance suggested) and lenses with a wide open aperture of 2,8 or less are mandatory to gain good quality for your photo.

But keep in mind that in the end of the day your photo does not have to please everyone - you must like the result. Also It doesn't have to be the very expensive gear - you can also archive very good results with cheaper cameras.

Feel free to browse our database for night shots. There you will find tons of ideas and photos with settings.

Happy spotting

[Brenden S]

You can see my Flickr photos here with camera, lens and exif information. Night photos is very much trial and error. While there are many night shots I have had accepted, I have had just as many rejected. Those end up on my Flickr, or Instagram.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/32794028@N03/albums/72157679772832613/with/53951292668