Filter for Planes

[ARD]

Hello All

Not been on for quite a while, had a few set backs, lost my Mum unexpectedly, then my gallbladder gave out so had an operation to remove that.

Any way, don't want to bore you to tears with tales of my woes.

Over here in the UK, the Lancaster Bomber from Canada is over, and flying with the Lancaster we have over here.

I have chance to go to an air show this weekend, where the two will be flying.

I want to capture the props with slight blur, but owing to the bright skies etc, need to look at a filter.

Not sure whether to go with ND, or polariser. As this is a one shot deal, thought I would ask to see if anyone has had success with either, or, something different.

Many thanks

[Ellis Vener]

Polarizer over an ND. Depending on the weather, low ISO and reasonably deep aperture should get you your spinning props.

[ARD]

Many thanks for the reply

[BernardLanguillier]

I would think that the right shutter speed is probably around 1/125 sec, right?

I would think that if you have access to a D810, then ISO64 and f11 should get you pretty close if the conditions are a bit overcast.

A PL will eat away 1.3~ stops, so that would enable you to deal with sunnier conditions at roughly the same settings.

Cheers,
Bernard

[ARD]

Bernard, many thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

[mahleu]

At least it's not a helicopter, you have to go very slow with those, I got nice shots at 1/60 but that's not nice to handhold with a long lens... A polariser will give you a nice sky (assuming it's not raining), if it's still too bright then stack with an ND but try that out beforehand to make sure your camera will focus happily.

It's still worth burst firing so you can pick the best.

[Misirlou]

I've been in that airplane. Fantastic.

In fact, I once flew into an airshow in Canada in a friend's Mustang. Landed right behind that Lanc. It was a foggy morning, which enhanced my sense of being in another time and place.

Anyway, I'd go with a polarizer and your lowest possible ISO. It's quite a dark colored beast, so you'll want as much help darkening the sky as you can get.

[mahleu]

I've just had a look though some of my photos and you can get a bit of blur (head on) at 1/350, the ideal is to get 'full discs'.

[Colorado David]

If anyone has one of Paul Bowen's Warbirds calendars handy, he give the exposure specifics for each image.  Look through the calendar and find the smooth disc prop images and read the specifications.  My memory is a little fuzzy right now and I don't have one of the calendars in front of me, But I'm willing to bet there are none shot faster than 160th.  His shots are mostly from the tail-gunner position of a B25 in fairly close formation so he's not dealing with  long lens. I know other guys who use the Kenyon Labs gyro.