Shutter speed

[eldon2101]

I am using a Canon Rebel XT, last year I got some great shots but you can read the writing on the props while they are flying by at 400mph plus. What is a good shutter speed to get a nice prop blur? Thanks for any help.

[T. Adams]

Re: Shutter speed

1/250 to start, then go down from there.

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Shutter speed

I am using a Canon Rebel XT, last year I got some great shots but you can read the writing on the props while they are flying by at 400mph plus. What is a good shutter speed to get a nice prop blur? Thanks for any help.

It really depends on the class... You can get acceptable prop blur at even 400 of the IF1 and Bipes since their props are moving pretty fast. UL's, particularly the "slow nose case" 3350's and even worse, the Super Corsair, are exceptionally hard to get good prop blur and as Tim said, start at 1/250th and go from there..

All of above is for on the course action. Taxi stuff and runups, as S-L-O-W as you and you or your tripod/monopod/VR/IS can take you...

Depending on how steady your hands are, you can ruin a lot of shots trying to get a "Victor Archer" shot... he's in another league.. .or Universe, depending on who you talk to... (Love ya Veektor!)...

Dominique Thirot, who used to come over annually got some of the best Reno shots I've seen and he never really bent the "rule" that far for prop blur... he got the shot, never stopped the prop but never really had the blur we all seek these days.. Did that make his shots any worse?

Heck no!

My point is.. shoot, have fun, get some good shots to share and remember and don't get too wrapped up in the "prop circle" syndrome.. ( been there, done that, ruined a lot of electrons in the process!)

See ya in a couple weeks!!

Wayne

[Skymonster]

Re: Shutter speed

My advise would be to start slightly on the high side and then work your way downwards with the shutter speed as the races go on. So whilst 1/250 and lower is very good advice, if you're not sure you can get sharp (i.e. no-shake) pics at that speed, start a bit faster and get some good pics, then once you're happy you've got some good pics in the bag start slowing it down a little and see how far you can go.

A

[Victor Archer]

Re: Shutter speed

Depending on how steady your hands are, you can ruin a lot of shots trying to get a "Victor Archer" shot... he's in another league.. .or Universe, depending on who you talk to... (Love ya Veektor!)...

Here's a visual comparison... Keep in mind that different aircraft are turning the props at different speeds and the ground shots are shot when the engines are run-up. Also shooting slower than 1/250 on flying aircraft introduces some issues in focus points.

1/320

1/250

1/100

1/80

1/50

1/40

[paintboy]

Re: Shutter speed

Eldon,

First of all you have to utilize a shutter speed that you feel comfortable with. If you have the capability, like some aliens that post here do, you can shoot a moving aircraft traveling at 400 mph, hand held at a 1/60 of a sec and have success. But if you want to ensure more keepers you should probably work in the 1/200 to 1/320 range, and see how that works for you. Or the other possibilty is to trade in your Canon gear for the much more reliable and sure fire Nikon equipment so many of us use. LOL! If, by some chance you are lucky enough to have mad skills like Victor, an alien lost in a human world, then by all means try the lower shutter speeds. Trial and error is the best way to accomplish things, and the best thing of all is pixels are cheap.............so use them all up.

Dave

[steve D]

Re: Shutter speed

On all those shots Victor what kinda different "F" stops are you using?
Thanks, I hope to glean skills learned here for the upcoming "SHOW!!

[jarrodeu]

Re: Shutter speed

On all those shots Victor what kinda different "F" stops are you using?
Thanks, I hope to glean skills learned here for the upcoming "SHOW!!

He is probably shooting shutter priority so the camera chooses the apeture for him.

I usually take a few at 1/250 so I have some sharp ones then I may move down from there
Much easier to get sharp pictures and prop blur when they are taking off than when they are flying.

Jarrod

[Skyracer]

Re: Shutter speed

Much easier to get sharp pictures and prop blur when they are taking off than when they are flying.

Jarrod

Even easier when they are sitting still.

[BillA]

Re: Shutter speed

Here's a visual comparison...

Thank you for that lesson. Everyone here enjoys your snapshot skills.

I have a few questions. Does the size of the lens makes any difference?

Is there an ideal shutter speed for a given lens, or is it the size of the lens that makes the difference?

Again, thanks for sharing.

[wingman]

Re: Shutter speed

Prop blur is determined by how far the prop turns during exposure -- the blades will move farther during a 1/4 sec than during 1/400 sec. So the lens length should make no difference at all.

Neal

[BillA]

Re: Shutter speed

Prop blur is determined by how far the prop turns during exposure -- the blades will move farther during a 1/4 sec than during 1/400 sec. So the lens length should make no difference at all.

Neal

So its just as easy to shoot a prop blur picture with a telephoto lens as it is with a wide angle? All I have to do is slow my shutter speed down to 1/4 of a second? That's all there is to it?

I'll be trying it this year at Reno.

Thanks!

[AirDOGGe]

Re: Shutter speed

Prop blur is determined by how far the prop turns during exposure -- the blades will move farther during a 1/4 sec than during 1/400 sec. So the lens length should make no difference at all.

Neal

It depends on the size of the lens too, does it not? The more "Zoom" you have, the shakier the image, thus requiring a faster shutter speed to maintain sharpness.

Also, a longer (read that as higher magnifying) lens will require more light (larger aperture setting), and so be more susceptable to blurring due to a shorter focal range.

The old general rule with a HAND-HELD 35mm SLR was, match the telephoto size to the shutter speed (250mm=1/250th sec., 400mm=1/400th sec. and so on).

Of course, with a monopod, tripod or similar steading device you can go slower.

Then again, this guideline isn't intended for freezing a fast-moving aircraft sharply WHILE AT THE SAME TIME maintaining enough shutter slowness to blur it's spinning propeller. It's just good place to start from for experimentation.

[wingman]

Re: Shutter speed

Most of what you point out is unfortunately very true, AirDOGGe. There are many handling and shooting issues with long lenses, and they are challenging for all the reasons you give. The question was limited to their effect on prop blur in the final product and that is what I was trying to address. The amount of prop blur depends only on the shutter speed.

One point though -- Telephotos do not really require more light, but they do have progressively less apparent depth of field as the focal length gets longer. So if you want everything to look sharp over a longer range of distance (from your shooting point) you need a smaller aperture which means a slower shutter speed which means more problems with "shakiness" etc etc etc...

Also note that longer lenses are not really "more shaky". What they do is actually just magnify the shakiness that we all have all the time(except Victor, of course). Shake that might be unnoticeable with a 28 mm lens will be totally unacceptable in a 400 mm lens because the latter magnifies any shortcomings in technique just as much as it magnifies the image.

Neal

[BuckyD]

Re: Shutter speed

Going way back to my earliest years as a rookie 35mm film shooter, regarding one's choice of shutter speed for a specific lense, my starting point was using the old photo rule of thumb to compensate for normal handshake during handheld shooting: "pick a shutter speed that is the numeric equivalent - or greater, than the numeric value of the mm of the lense focal length used for the photograph" (Which has been noted in the previous thread posts - i.e. for taking a shot at a lense magnification of 200mm - use 1/250th sec., etc. - if you have time to look at your zoom lense index after composing in the viewfinder, before taking the photo, note the focal length mm numeric value & pick the shutter speed that comes closest to being equal to or greater than that)

The steadier you feel you are in un-assisted hand-held shooting, including action panning, the more you can get away w/bending the rule by shooting at slower shutter speeds less than the lense focal mm index. Using a steadying device (gunstock mount, monopod, tripod w/fluid head or swiveling V-lense support, etc.) should allow you to 'bend the rule' to an even greater degree for even slower shutter speeds.

Of couse, w/today's 'IS' (image stabilization) technology designed for lenses, and some camera bodies as well - really slow shutter speeds can be attained to get those long-sought 'full-disc' shots we enjoy seeing by the professionals and amateurs alike. 1/60th sec., or slower, was generally the shutter setting used for full-disc prop effect for photos of flying aircraft at power. Taxi shots called for much slower shutter speeds, obviously, to get a full-disc.

Sometimes an excessively-rapid rate of lense panning ('swing') will be too much for the 'IS' operation to keep up with, and photogs will turn off their 'IS' - on lense switch. At any rate, 'IS' is a great photo techno advancement for attaining faster light gathering & slower shutter speeds. For air-to-air work, expensive camera gyro mounts are no longer a must for getting those nice prop disc effects in a photo.

Whether film or digital - 'driving the film' in rapid advance helps get those desired prop arc results by increasing the law of averages in the photographer's favor.

I think most of us can attest to losing countless great photos during our prop airplane shooting experiences in the difficult quest of attaining the 'Holey Full Fan' prop shot in the past. Some prop blur is necessary to help convey the motion & energy of an airplane, and endow the photo w/the correct aesthetics of aviation photography. Fast shutter speeds to the point of depicting stopped props is the big 'no-no', except possibly, when shooting a moving prop aircraft in direct profile (In that situation, I personally don't care about stopped props, especially if I get a very sharply defined plane).

Sorry, if I've been somewhat redundant to some of the excellent previous post response points made in this thread, and great photo examples offered by the other airplane shooters... DBD