Photographing airshows is one of my most favorite activities. I have been involved in the aviation industry for forty years now. I know aircraft and I am FAA licensed to work on them. It is one of my loves to photograph aircraft in flight, on the ground or whatever. It doesn’t matter, I just love photographing them.
So, how do you approach airshow photography? It’s a good question, but it has many answers. First, airshow photography with in-flight aircraft has everything to do with panning. Panning is a skill you need to practice and practice a lot if you want sharp images of the aircraft in flight, especially the older warbirds. So practice it. How do you do that? Well, there are many ways. Practice photographing cars as they drive by. Go to a local airport and practice on small aircraft that fly in and out of them. Start with a higher shutter speed on prop aircraft at around 1/125 and work down. Many times you will need to stop down quite a bit to obtain those shutter speeds. Try to get to 1/60th or so. You want the prop to show motion. The last thing you want to do is freeze the propeller on a propeller aircraft. That is a critical mistake because it makes it appear that the aircraft is frozen in flight and falling out of the sky. Huge mistake, so please don’t make it. I would recommend repeating this process with each performer so that you can get some acceptable images of each of them. Jet aircraft are a whole other story. Here you can open up and increase your shutter speed as high as you need. Look for vapor trails off of the wings or aft fuselage that will accomplish the look of the aircraft in motion. I should also note that I use auto-ISO and exposure compensation. I have tried other methods but these aircraft are moving so fast in many cases that it just doesn’t work for me. Pay strict attention to the histogram and adjust as needed.
The challenge here is that you will be well below the recommended focal length rule for shutter speed. Remember, that rule states that your shutter speed should be equal to the focal length you are photographing. I typically use a 500mm lens for airshow photography so going that low in shutter speed is a real challenge. You will find many garbage images, but there will likely be some in the run that are acceptable. You will be shooting in a continuous shooting mode while photographing in-flight aircraft. I will also use a 200mm lens as well, as I will use two camera bodies for the event. I often find it’s better to hand-hold the camera for these events as the aircraft can get too high overhead for the reach of event the best gimbal mount on a tripod. However, I did successfully use the tripod/gimbal mount while photographing the Pensacola Beach airshow in July 2021, so it can be done. You will just have to try to see if it works for you. If not, go hand-held and practice that panning.
On airshow day I will show up as soon as it opens to select the spot I want to shoot from. For example, at St. Louis Chesterfield Airport we will typically select a position along the fence. We are there as soon as the gates open and go directly to that spot. We usually select a place to eat breakfast at and go directly to the airfield after that. Bring lots of protection from the sun and apply it liberally. The sun is what will sap you of your energy. Unfortunately, you cannot bring your own drinks or food in. They want you to purchase that there but there are plenty of locations to do that.
So now for the nitty, gritty details of airshow photography. When it comes to the older warbird propeller-drive aircraft you are going to have to stop down…say f/22 or something along those lines in order to get your shutter speed down as well. You should really examine your sensor and consider getting it cleaned prior to the event. Spots will show up if you don’t and they exist. Also, if you can run more than one camera body it will help you avoid lens changes where dirt can occur. If you can avoid changing lenses you should, otherwise perform that task is as shielded an area as you can find.
Photographing static display aircraft in an airshow environment can also be challenging. Unless you can obtain special access when the display aircraft are closed to the public you will have to put up with people in your images around the aircraft you are photographing. However, in a lot of cases you never know when you will be able to see these aircraft again so you may as well photograph them. In the crowded environment of airshow static displays you might want to focus some images on the unique aspects of the aircraft itself, like the engines or markings or other interesting parts of the structure. The crowd will not likely affect shots like this as much as the overall aircraft shot.
If you get the chance you really want to speak with the pilots of the aircraft. Developing relationships like this can lead to great opportunities. Moose Petersen recommends providing free prints to these folks to help with that. You might develop friendships with these folks that can lead to special access closed to the public opportunities and even air-to-air opportunities that these pilots really love. I definitely try to tag them or their organization on all social media posts. Whatever you can do to develop friendships with these folks you want to do if you really want to get some spectacular images.
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