Airshow Photography Tips & Tricks

How many of you have ever gone to an Air Show and gone home disappointed with the photos you took. Here’s some tips that I learnt that will help you take the photos that you want at any Airshow, whether they’re fighter jets or old WW 2 planes.
This tutorial is to help photographers new to aviation photography by giving some tips and some tricks to use to get the best shots possible at any airshow.
Social media Links!
Facebook: bit.ly/39TcPEO
Photography Gear used:
Nikon D7500
Tokina 80-400 f4.5-5.6

[@conchmk]

Good tips. If you think a C17 is big you should see a C5 Galaxy!!

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Yes, the Galaxy is even bigger, but we early see that plane in Australia

[@sov6620]

When the sky is totally white, do you make a + correction of 1 aperture? Which light measuring do you use? Spot? Thanks for the great video & greetings from good old Germany 🇩🇪!

[@CharlesNPhotography]

I use centre-weighted for just about all my airshow photography. Spot Metering would be best when the plane is in front of the sun and it is silhouetted, but has the plane flies away from the sun the background would be over-exposed, so I stick to centre-weighted

[@sov6620]

@@CharlesNPhotography Thank you fpr the answer!

[@coastalartistlivingonislan8395]

Also depends on the color of the plane. For a dark plane sometimes I am up to +2.7 sometimes +3 with white sky and or cloudy grey sky. Generally I am at +1.7 to 2.3 with dark plane. Nikon body. Center weighted.

[@leonkirkbride6559]

Great tips Charles , the nice thing using mirrorless for slow shutter speeds , you don't get that mirror slap . Presume you using mechanical shutter for the Z6ii when shooting props to avoid rolling shutter ?

[@CharlesNPhotography]

I set the Shutter type to Auto and let the camera choose which is best and I've found that 90% of the time it gets it right😉

[@geoffscott5066]

Thanks Charles perfect timing for the Pacific Airshow. Your photos from your first show aren't too bad. I shall look out for you at Surfers 😊

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Please do! and have fun.

[@demiqshots]

When I seen this in the recommendations I thought "huh funny how I see this video when there's an airshow this weekend" until you started talking about SEQ 😂

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Yes! Funny that!😆

[@JosephJones24]

Should i use auto focusing? Due to the fact my lens has bad auto focusing

[@CharlesNPhotography]

I'd say yes, even if your lens isn't that good at auto-focusing as trying to manual focus fast moving planes is near impossible.

[@marshalltravis3217]

My wife and I attended the Toronto International Airshow yesterday and it was amazing. My first time seeing the Red Arrows. I shot a Canon 70D with a Sigma 150-600 contemporary lens, on shutter priority. The propeller planes were shot at 320 shutter speed to have a bit of motion blur. Great tips btw.

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Thanks for the feedback and glad that you had a great time at the Airshow and that my video was able to give you some tips & advice for getting great photos of planes at an Airshow. 🙏

[@d53101]

Good information about shooting stills of propeller driven aircraft. Then there is the problems of shooting video of them. Shooting video of spinning propellers introduces the problem of “rolling shutter” unique to digital video sensors. It makes it appear the blades are curved as well as they are rotating at extremely slow speeds or sometimes stopped entirely. A very unrealistic video of an aircraft in flight. Your camera needs to allow complete manual control over the video settings. Video frame rate must be set to 24 or 30 fr./sec and the shutter speed at 1/60th sec. That will eliminate “rolling shutter”.

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Thank you very much! I try my best with what I have 😀

[@jeffball9657]

Riat 24 coming up. Woo hoo.

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Good luck 💯

[@JamesPeeling-e2x]

Fantastic video and so informative. The main thing I’ve taken away from this having tried jet photography and been disappointed with the results is the aperture you shoot at. I’ve been using f6.3 & f7.1 so i will be trying an aperture of more like f10 next time. Thanks for the excellent video.

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Yes, I've found that at the minimum I use F8 to give me the depth of field that I need to have the whole plane inn focus

[@leric4205]

Finalement, le Nikkor z 24-200 mm aurait suffit pour ce reportage ? Finally, the Nikkor z 24-200 mm would have been enough for this report ?

[@CharlesNPhotography]

But I don't have the 24-200mm 🤔

[@davidmclennan1994]

Would you shoot in shutter priority then at Airshows?

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Definitely 😀, and use auto-iso

[@davidmclennan1994]

@@CharlesNPhotography perfect thank you for the useful information 🙂

[@mrgone658]

Pause @ 7:41... The thrust dumping jet wash turned out to be the incidental object of this photo, IMHO.....awesome!

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Thank you so much 🙏

[@mikebartow9415]

Very good advice! Do you you really need a ball head on a tripod? I have a L-bracket on the Z9 and the ability to screw it directly to the monopod. Would this work?

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Yes it would work, but because it's fixed if you have to shoot upwards, then you have to tilt the whole Monopod, with this tilt-head I can keep the monopod level and only the camera tilts upwards

[@zediogoamareleja]

very informative..Thank you

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Glad it was helpful! 😀

[@57sapke]

Love the video. Last week I went to an airshow and indeed all planes had frozen propeller. It was a very bright day, but next time I reduce shutterspeed and increase aperture.

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Yes, and it's great that you found this tutorial that will help you for the next time you go out to an airshow 😆

[@sexysilversurfer]

Take a 4 stop Neutral Density filter if the light is too bright.

[@shaunconnolly6552]

Great information Charles

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Glad it was helpful!🙏

[@MondoRockable]

Are you shooting jets in aperture priority mode or shutter priority mode? Do you float your ISO?

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Most of the time in shutter priority mode and auto-iso

[@WalterRitchey]

Very helpful video and incredible photos! I just photographed my first air show with a 70-300mm on full frame. I learned a ton. A lot of throw aways, but about a dozen shots that I awed myself with. I want to try more now. We only had a couple propeller planes, but the shutter speed tip is great and I can’t wait to try it!

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Glad it was helpful!, and thanks for letting me know that this tutorial helped you out.

[@ath3263]

Excellent video & advice

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Glad you liked it, and thanks for letting me know 🙏

[@ClearVista]

Off to Duxford Airshow tomorrow in the UK for VE Day. Going to be lots of WW2 aircraft. It's my first airshow for 35 years and my first after starting photography. Thank you for the tips!

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Your welcome, just remember to keep your shutter speed below 1/320sec to get propeller blur.

[@Supercar_TV]

I have a Canon 4000d with 300mm lens but my photos are coming out quite blury and grainy even though I’m using a high shutter speed, I just want a high quality image

[@CharlesNPhotography]

I'm not sure how you take your photos, but even at a high shutter speed I still have to follow the aircraft as it moves across the sky. 🤔

[@NikonJohnny]

Enjoy the air show. I hope you get lots of shots and great footage. J

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Thank you, I really hope so.

[@johngadsby3881]

Great video Charles, I may see you there on Friday. I am on the beach.

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Sounds good!

[@stevemcmillan2213]

My skies always look washed out, or the wrong colour, why is this?

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Are you shooting in raw or jpg? Also colour can be affected by the White Balance you choose.

[@anthonyhershko]

I got the R5 along with Sigma 150-600 mm. Recently, after updating to the latest Canon R5 firmware (2.0), all of my pictures come blurry . I wonder, should I change something in the settings? Can you do a video about what's the best settings for aviation photography? Like, what's the best case? Case 1 or 2? Should I change something? Should I some Customize buttons or so? I've shared the whole KZbin, and there's nothing. I'm simply hopeless... Thanks

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Many times if your image is blurry is because the shutter speed is to low. At 1500mm you'd want at least 1/250sec, f5.6, Auto-ISO and VR switched on. I'm not familiar with Canon cameras. But you could start by trying to take photos with your camera on a tripod and have VR switched off, and photograph a stationary subject in daytime at 1/200sec, f8 and Auto-ISO to see if your image is in focus and not blurry.

[@anthonyhershko]

@@CharlesNPhotography Thanks.

[@CharlesNPhotography]

@anthonyhershko You're welcome

[@privatepylesm14]

Thanks for this mate, Ill let you know how well this works tommorow

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Please do, and good luck 🤞

[@privatepylesm14]

@@CharlesNPhotography Worked well, I won $1000 from my photo. Thanks alot mate.

[@SAVAGEAVIATIONYT]

Great tips!

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Glad it was helpful! 🙏 I am going to try and do an updated version of this video by the end of June to coincide with the Pacific Airshow on the Gold Coast.

[@SAVAGEAVIATIONYT]

@@CharlesNPhotography sounds great! Just got my first camera, went to an airport yesterday and got some nice pictures. If you do upload an updated one that will be very helpful because I plan on going to a couple airshows.

[@WilliamHenryAlbert]

Thanks for all this advice Charles. I will be going over the weekend and shooting videos with my Sony A6700 and Sony 18-105 lens. I will be shooting with a DJI Ronin RS3 gimbal. I would appreciate your advice on settings. I’m wondering whether to shoot in continuous autofocus, would you recommend this. Thank you and enjoy your weekend, it will be an amazing spectacle. I’ve been hearing and seeing the planes all morning from my home in Broadbeach Waters.

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Yes! definitely shoot in continuous auto-focus. My Nikon Z6II records in continuous auto-focus by default. Enjoy your weekend as well, I'm sure it'll be a great airshow.

[@WilliamHenryAlbert]

@@CharlesNPhotography Thank you Charles, I'll be looking forward to your videos of the weekend.

[@Auroralover9797]

Great shots Charles. Thanks for the information.

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Thank you 🙏 Thanks for watching! 😉

[@simonleonard8154]

Looking forward to the Gold Coast's Pacific Airshow - I'll try keep an eye out for you. Thank you for takinng the time to sharie your knowledge and your art with us.

[@CharlesNPhotography]

We'll be there quite early on Friday

[@simonleonard8154]

We will be outside the precinct just doing recce on Friday - Saturday gen adm, with the knowledge gained the day before. Sunday plan is to head to Amberley and catch the mil jets takeoffs and departures hopefully... Disappointed to hear about the USAF withdrawals, but still excited to see the best airshow we've had in Qld for YEARS... @@CharlesNPhotography

[@CharlesNPhotography]

@@simonleonard8154 That's a good plan, we'd thought of going to Amberley as well, but my mate works on Sunday

[@simonleonard8154]

@@CharlesNPhotography don't tell anyone but there happens to be an open day at the museum on Sunday so we've booked there to make sure we get on base for it. Not sure if they'll let us take photos from there but you gotta be in it to win it they say!

[@alwaysinout]

Great video ... beautiful shots

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Glad you enjoyed it 😉

[@sithexasure]

Would you reccomend the canon sx50 or the panasonic fz2000

[@CharlesNPhotography]

I really can't advise you on these two cameras has I'm not familiar with either one. 🤔

[@sithexasure]

@@CharlesNPhotography Oh ok its fine and thanks for the video it helped

[@CharlesNPhotography]

@@sithexasure I wish that I could have helped you out, but I can't

[@Toasty-hj2bo]

What airshow is this? Where is it? Love your videos.

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Gold Coast Pacific Airshow

[@liv-aviation]

Hello, i currently have a 25-250 mm lens and i will be going to an airshow soon. I was thinking of buying a 2x extender, bug im not sure if kit would be overkill. Thoughts?

[@CharlesNPhotography]

I've just looked and the only 25-250mm lens I could find is a Canon lens for videography. IF your caemra is a crop-sensor camera then 25-250 would be enough. IF you have a full-frame camera you could use the crop mode in your camera. A 2x tele-converter will make your auto-focus much slower and the images will not be as sharp.

[@myfakeguuglaccount8307]

Haven't been to an airshow in years, but you're motivating me to try my amateur photography chops at one! Charles, do you have a link to that monopod mount?

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Airshow Photography is a lot of fun Here's the link: www.amazon.com.au/LEOFOTO-VH-10S-Monopod-Compatible-Comfort/dp/B08L74RRQ3

[@laurelb8372]

Really good advice, wish I had known this when I went to the Avalon Airshow earlier this year. It was so exciting seeing (& hearing) the F18 and that huge plane come through. I loved shots with afterburners. 👏✈️

[@CharlesNPhotography]

Glad you enjoyed it! and there's always next time 😉