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Hi Guys and Girls, I'm currently very nervous. I've been asked to shoot someone's solo flight (he is at a flight school and will be doing his first solo flight) this Wednesday. He gave me almost no notice, in fact he was going to do it tomorrow and I said no way, so he changed it to wednesday. I'm taking an RDO at my day job for this and I think I am more nervous than the pilot. I will not be going on a plane with him, btw . He told me to take his photos before, in case he is not coming back

The plane is a small propeller plane (mostly white).

The gear I have is pretty limited:

D70, the kit lens and Nikkor 70-300 G. Birdie sent me sb-800 this morning so hopefully (I am praying) I will have it tomorrow and with some limited practice will be able to use it in a limited way

70-300 G is a bit of a concern but I had some good shots with it when not at full focal length. Hopefully weather is OK so the lighting is not a problem.

Any suggestions recommendations: Do you think spot metering off the plane is the best way? I will need to take shots of him taking off/landing (luckily he will perform each several times). Then he will land for the last time and taxi to his flying school where I will take some shots of him with his instructor, friends, etc. (Hopefully with SB800).

What did I get myself into ??

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Alex

Alex, congrats on the shoot

Hopefully the weather will be great on the day. At this rate, it is predicted to be fine and sunny on Wednesday so the 70-300G can come out

If it's a nice sunny day, take a photo of your friend by the plane (maybe front on of the plane). Don't make him look into the sun as he'll end up squinting...but then again he may be wearing sunnies Tell him to go for the Top Gun look and wear nice big chunky Aviators If he is going to be backlit, use the SB800 or even just the onboard flash as a fill light.

The take off and landing, if he is going to be doing it a few times, I suggest planning a few wide angle shots as well as close ups. When the plane is moving, try AF-C and Continuous shots + shoot in raw. Then again since it's a single engine plane, it may not move that fast Use your better judgement and stay calm at all times.

When the plane is airborne, that gives you a chance to either take more shots or change lenses as he prepares for his landing.

If you are taking photos of him and his friends indoors and the ceiling is low enough, bounce the flash off the ceiling for a more natural look. Not sure how much ceiling colour will affect it, but should be alright.

For more ideas shot-wise, have a look at the posts that a few members took for VP day of the planes, etc. Obviously the plane for the solo flight isn't as technological as those on VP day, but you get the idea

Good luck and have fun with it. Look forward to seeing your pics.

Wayne,

Thanks a lot for the tips. Yes, I'm hoping and praying that the weather is sunny so that there is enough light for my 70-300 G and reasonable aperture f8-f11 to be sharp.

Does anyone know what shutter speed is good for propeller shots to have motion blur of the propeller would 200-300 be ok?

Thanks
Alex

Be aware that he could be extremely stressed, so take it easy on him! I have watched people come back from first solos completely white. Personally if I was the instructor I'd be advising him not to have the cheer-squad there as it will just increase the stress on the guy.

1/350 should get you about 10-20 degrees of motion blur on the propellor for landing. You can go faster when he is on takeoff because he will be at full throttle then. Remember to keep panning with the aircraft or else your shots will be too blurry.

Aircraft are typically highly reflective so I suggest you shoot raw so you might have a better chance of fixing your shots up later.

Discuss with the instructor where he or she will be. Often it is more worrying for the instructor than the student, so you could get some good shots of them. They often do a couple of circuits with the new pilot, then get out of the aircraft mid-field. You might be able to get some shots of the instructor looking worried as the aircraft does a touch and go behind them. See if you can convince the instructor to come back to the base and walk you out closer to the runway while your friend is doing touch and gos.

The wide open spaces of an airport are ideal for depth of field shots.

Shots of aircraft in the air are typically boring unless there is some context of spectacular lighting. I have taken thousands of air-to-air shots of helicopters while on my trips and while they were interesting at the time, they are just plain boring when you look at them later. Decent aircraft shots usually need a verb.

The most special moments in a solo are the exact moment is is airborne and the first landing. The instructor should be able to point out where on the runway the aircraft is likely to rotate (nosewheel off the ground) and become airborne. The instructor can also tell you where the aircraft is likely to touch down.

When the pilot is taxying back, make sure you get some shots of him through the plexiglas. He will look relieved, I'm sure. Go for a polariser on any shots through the plexiglas!

Good luck!

Hi Alex,
As Thadeus said, take it easy on him on both pre and post, he'll be appreciated what you are doing for him, he'll be fine and doing his best to earn his wing.
With your current gears, wish the weather fine for you and also for him, hope no strong crosswind for him.

All the luck to both of you.

I've been down that road on rotary and fixed wing, I got a cold shower with big bucket of cold water after my first solo and earned my wing, once I climbed out the cockpit from my colleagues and other times with the fire engine standing by at flight school.

Alex,

I suggest you get your friend looking a little more accommodating than this lot!


[Image deleted by author]

Cheers, and best of luck,

The 'special' moments of his flight will probably be the first touch'n'go landing and the final landing, as well as the inital takeoff roll. The aircraft will also be in a nice attitude just before and during the touchdown as well as at rotation speed (where the nose will be off the ground but not the main undercart). Id stick it in motordrive mode and snap off a series for each touchdown.

If you can, figure out which side of the a/c he will be on (probably on the left) try to get to that side of the runway (if you can) for the landing shots. This will depend on which way the wind is blowing (a/c land into the wind).

Get a shot or two of him sitting in the plane (try both his door and through the opposite door). Also, get a pic of him walking out to the flightline and maybe some of him pre-flighting the a/c (outside and in?). And then maybe a couple of shots of him in the cockpit after landing (wait till he turns off the engine ). Do a couple of posed shots by the a/c as well (sunglasses are the de rigeur here).

Im not sure if they will make him do a full preflight right before the solo. Normally the instructor will take him for a few circuits and then land and jump out and let him go do it.

For prop speed, I found this on the net:

You want the prop to blur, but not too much. That's why I suggest not using an extremely high shutter speed. Example: Say, the plane's prop turns 2500 rpm. That's 41.67 rotations per second. (2500/60). Say, you shoot at 1/500th of a second. 41.67/500 is .0833 ... so, you'll get 1/500th of 41.67 rotations, or .0833 of a full rotation. In degrees, that's .0833 x 360, which is 30 degrees. That's a nice amount of blur.

The sort of a/c he will be using will be doing ~2500 RPM on takeoff, about 2100-2250 on cruise in the circuit (probably too far away for you to get any decent shots), and around 1500 on finals, coming down to ~1200-ish just before crossing the threshold and coming down to idle as he crosses the threshold and touches down, figure between 600 and 800rpm.

So, yeah, I reckon 1/125-1/250 will get you a bit of blur on the prop (40-20deg of rotation) on landing. This will mean that you are going to be panning, so if you can, Id get there early and get some practise in on other a/c. A laptop or somewhere you can look at pics on a screen would be useful here.

HTH
Rob.

G'day mate,
There's a heap o' tips offered by others here, but yell out if the 80-400VR would be of any help for you. You're only around the corner from me, so yell out if you'd like to borrow any bits etc. SB800 if you don't have one by then, 12-24 if ya wanna try it etc...

Cheers.

Thank you every one for taking their time and effort to reply. Your pointers are very useful. Thaddeus and Rob, yes, like you said, he told me he will do a few circuits with the instructor and then drop her off and fly solo. I was particularly interested in what access (how close) to runway I would get and he couldn't exactly tell me, but hopefully his instructor will be able to clarify it. Thanks for the recommendations on the shutter speed, etc. Do you think I should use AF-C rather than AF-S, dynamic or single area focus?

Birdie - Thank you for the flash. Arrived today. Very timely. Sorry can't post write too much I need to get stuck into SB800 manual. Hopefully I will have something decent to post after tomorrow.

Thanks again to everyone participating in this thread.

Cheers
Alex

Sheetshooter,


A great looking photo. Thanks for your wishes.

Alex

Hi Andrew,

Thank you very much for the offer (just noticed your post). I got SB 800 from Birddog this morning and already took a few shots with it, seems OK.

You are very generous, but I am worried borrowing somebody elses equipment and I think I should be OK with what I have the weather is supposed to be sunny tomorrow so hopefully 70-300 G will be useful.

Cheers
Alex

Alex
I personally would not use spot metering unless you know how to interpret the tones you are metering off. My choice would be matrix metering. It usually is very accurate. Get there early and take a few test shots of the plane before the event. Check your histogram to verify exposure.

Out of interest, where abouts is this taking place?

If it's at Moorabin Airport let me know. I might need to find the nearest bombshelter in a hurry if I hear the kamikaze sound approaching the factory

kipper wrote:Out of interest, where abouts is this taking place?

If it's at Moorabin Airport let me know. I might need to find the nearest bombshelter in a hurry if I hear the kamikaze sound approaching the factory

kipper,
Behave yourself and be nice

Hey that is me being nice

Matt. K wrote:Alex
I personally would not use spot metering unless you know how to interpret the tones you are metering off. My choice would be matrix metering. It usually is very accurate. Get there early and take a few test shots of the plane before the event. Check your histogram to verify exposure.

Thanks for the tips, Matt.

Alex

Hi Darryl

It is Moorabbin which is very closer to my place

Leaving in 1 hr to attend.

Unfortunately, I found out from him that the closes I will be allowed to the runway is about 50-70 m We'll see how it works out. Just bought an extra 512 flash card. Speaking of which you can get them near Monash Uni for $105 1 Gb and $65 0.5 gb, but the brand is suspicious

Cheers
Alex

Good luck

I should go up the road, I'd probably see them

In that case kipper, i bags your 70-200VR

Alex, how did it go? Show us your pics

Thanks for your help again guys, it was certainly very helpful.

The experience was a bit disappointing I'm afraid. I was not allowed to go on air field at all. The closest I got was from an open area adjusted to the bar which was separated from the airfield by a fence (not high enough to abstract photography, luckily). As a result of this the closest I got to the moving plane would have been 50-70 meters if lucky! So none of those 'rotation', take off/ landing shots could be done. It's a pity!

The only time I got close to the plane was before and after the flight (they allowed it while it was parked and the engine wasn't running). So I did shots of his pre-flight checks, posing with flight instructor, etc. He wasn't wearing any flight gear so it was pretty standard.The sun was a bit harsh too, but not too bad.

Oh well, I'll post if there is anything worth looking at.

Cheers
Alex

I would of got pre flight check shots, asked them which runway and which direction they were taking off, also asked for which runway and from which direction they were landing and got in a car and drove to vantage points for those locations.

Centre Dandenong, Boundary and Lower Dandenong Rd would have been all suitable positions to get take off/landing shots.

kipper wrote:I would of got pre flight check shots, asked them which runway and which direction they were taking off, also asked for which runway and from which direction they were landing and got in a car and drove to vantage points for those locations.

Centre Dandenong, Boundary and Lower Dandenong Rd would have been all suitable positions to get take off/landing shots.

Darryl,

Thought of that too, but unfortunately there wasn't enough time to do that and he told me he would taxi quite close to the area, but he wasn't allowed to.

Alex