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Q. Eos 1 Settings Please.....
Asked by Alan Shore
(K=0) on 9/8/2004
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Hi,
I would like to take some photos of the Red Arrows when they come over my island.
Could you please tell me what would be the best metering to use,shutter speed and focus mode.i have just brought an Eos1 film camera...
Any help much appreciated...
Regards, Alan...
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Timothy Kemp
(K=208) - Comment Date 9/14/2004
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Alan,
I loved the Red Arrows as a kid. I grew up near HMS Heron (RNAS Yeovilton) and the annual air day was a treat.
What lens do you have? You'll need something with a fairly long focal length (around 200mm) to have any hope of filling part of the frame with a shot of the planes. Any shorter and your opportunities are limited to waiting for low, overhead flybys. A 70-200mm zoom will allow you to capture formations close to the ground and, if you're lucky, some closeups. The head-on, high-speed pass would be an awesome photo!
You're going to find exposure pretty tricky. Because of the very bright sky behind the relatively small planes (much worse on a high-haze or light overcast than blue sky day) evaluative metering might underexpose the aircraft. I suggest you try spot metering on some slower moving aircraft earlier in the display and note down the exposure readings you get, then use these for the Red Arrows. Err on the side of overexposure as it's much easier to correct.
Use 400 or 800 ISO negative film so you can set your shutter speed high enough to freeze the action (at least 1/500).
As for focusing, any autofocus camera is going to have a hard time with a fast-moving subject. If you pan while the planes travel across your field of view (keeping about the same distance from you) then you'll be OK. You're relying on having sufficient depth of field to keep the plane in focus, which means a smaller aperture and hence that fast film.
Do a Google search on "action photography" and you should come up with some more hints.
Hope this helps a bit, maybe others here will have alternative suggestions which I'd appreciate too!
Regards,
Tim
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Alan Shore
(K=0) - Comment Date 9/14/2004
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Hi Tim,
Thanks for the information above?but unfortunately they have been and gone now. I had done basically as you said, I used my 70-200mm 3.5 EL lens, Fuji sensia 400 films along with a shutter speed of 1/1000th sec just to be on the safe side?and let the Eos 1 decide the correct aperture.
Unfortunately where I was standing?was out of their flight path due to new health and safety regulations they are not allowed to fly over the harbor, or the castle I was standing on. This ended up with only about a third of the frame filled.
I manage to focus all of the photos by panning like you said?but a complete waste of time due to the size of the plane in the finished photograph?nervermind I tried eh. I?m
Going to purchase a 400mm lens in the near future, and try next year when the red arrows come over again.
Any help greatly appreciated on what 400mm lens to purchase, not a prime lens thou, something like 100-400mm f3.5 will do.
Thanks for your time Tim?
Regards, Alan
In Sunny Guernsey, Channel Islands
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Timothy Kemp
(K=208) - Comment Date 9/14/2004
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Alan,
Sorry to hear about the H&S lawyers ruining everyone's fun. Haven't been to a show in over 15 years but they were right overhead during the events I attended as a kid. I remember one overhead Concorde flyby where I could count the rivets on her underside and could have touched the gear with a window cleaner's pole.
The fastest (actually, the only) 100-400mm zoom I know of is the Canon f4.5-5.6 L series Image Stabilising lens. Sigma or Tamron may have some but I know nothing about their quality. That Canon is pretty expensive though (about £1,000 UK) and very heavy. Unless you're going to use it all the time it may be better to rent one (if you've a dealer on Guernsey) when you need it.
Just curious, why not a prime? Better optical quality, faster and lighter. Zooms give you a lot of flexibility of course, but they add an extra step to taking a picture: choosing a focal length.
1/3rd frame isn't so bad. You could crop & enlarge from that on 400 ISO film. Scan it in and do the work in Photoshop then send the result off to a digital photo printing lab. Shouldn't be too grainy at all. Post the results!
Regards,
Tim
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Alan Shore
(K=0) - Comment Date 9/15/2004
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Hi Tim,
I know what you mean about H&S?I used to stand on top of castle cornet when I was a kid, which is at the end of our harbor mouth, and when the Red Arrows did a fly by you could actually see the pilot and his air mask ?incredible? to say the least.
Now due to H&S spoiling it, they are not allowed to fly over land no more?which intern make it rather difficult to fill the frame unless you have about a 400mm lens with you. You asked me why not a prime lens?, my answer to that is I don?t see the point in spending that much on a prime lens, when you could have a zoom lens for roughly the same price?which to me seems more versatile.
I?ve attached one photo for you because I?m only allowed to post one, not being a donor, this photo I have just scanned it?and have not made any adjustments at all.
Thanks for your time Tim.
Regards, Alan.
In Sunny Guernsey, Channel Islands.
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Timothy Kemp
(K=208) - Comment Date 9/16/2004
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Yeah! That's good to see. Great picture with the pastel sky behind the jets. Thanks for posting that.
TK
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