Air Show London Report back

Air Show London 2018 is over and despite the weather, it was a great day out seeing planes and aerobatics and taking photos. Now I've got over 1800 images, a bunch of video footage and 3 rolls of film to sift through! Hang on - film? In 2018? Seriously? Well, let me back-up a bit and start from the beginning.

Two years ago I went to the air show and I rented the XF100-400mm lens for the weekend. This is a great lens and was perfect for the job. But since then, my gear has grown and I now have the awesome work-horse XF50-140 F2.8. 140mm is a bit short for getting decent close-ups of flying planes, so I needed more reach. I got Fuji's 2X tele-converter. I love macro work and since the XF80m can also take advantage of this modifier, it seems like a sound purchase. Especially since it's a quarter of the price of the 100-400!

So armed with my new tele-converter, I now effectively have a 100-280mm F5.6 which is adequate on the crop-sensor of the X-T1. Sure it doesn't have the reach of the 400, but looking at the EXIF data on my photos from the previous show, most of the focal-lengths were around the 300mm mark, so now I was good to go for the flying displays. For the static aircraft, the trusty XF10-24 F4 is perfect for some super-wide images.

I've been wanting to experiment with video for a while and wanted to do something a bit different from the last air show. So I took my GoPro along. My plan was to get some footage of walking around the planes on the apron. Wasn't expecting much use for the aerobatic displays, but I did try capture some video of the Snowbirds formation flying.

So why the film? I enjoy doing some old-school film photography every now and then. The pace is different. It's slower, more considered. You're restricted to 36 shots on a roll, so you can't just snap away and cull later. You have to consider your composition more carefully and only squeeze the trigger when you're completely happy with it. And using film would be different to what I did before.

And that's the key. If you want to improve, you need to keep doing new and different things - get out of the comfort zone and experiment. And most of all - have fun.

Now it's time to go back to processing all those images. In the meantime, here are a handful of moody images from the static displays at dawn:

Three Quick Tips for Airshow Photography

Airshows are exciting spectacles of planes and aerobatics. There is lots going on and many things to photograph. Here are some quick tips to help get the best images you can.

1. Overexpose by 1 to 2 stops.

When you are taking photos of flying planes, you are shooting them against the sky. And the sky is bright. Really bright! And the meter in your camera is not very smart. It will try make the very bright sky a neutral grey and this will turn your planes into silhouettes. To counteract this, you will want to increase your exposure by a stop or two. I usually shoot in either aperture priority or shutter priority mode, so I just roll the exposure compensation dial up to +1 or +2. You can pull the highlights down again in Lightroom to recover the sky, but at least you will have the details in your subjects.

2. Use continuous tracking auto-focus

You’ll be trying to focus on fast moving planes. Let your camera do the work for you. Set your camera's auto-focus to continuous tracking. Half press the shutter and the camera will do it's best to keep your subject in focus. Pan with the plane, trying to keep it centered in  your view and only fully press the shutter when you want to take the shot. While your camera will do its best, some cameras have better tracking than others and this won't guarantee all your shots will be in perfectly tack sharp focus. So this leads us to the next tip.

3. Shoot in high speed continuous burst

Gone are the days of 36 shot film and motor-drive attachments. Digital storage is cheap and almost all cameras have a burst mode. So make sure you have a big, fast memory card and burst away! Half press the shutter to get your auto-focus tracking going and pan with the plane as it approaches and then gently squeeze and hold the shutter to shoot a continuous burst as it passes. Keep your movements smooth, no jerky motions, and release the shutter when the plane has passed, or you've lost track of it. Afterwards you will have hundreds of images to go through, but you will have a better chance of getting at least a few good ones from each fly-by. Keep the good ones and delete the rest.

The most important thing to remember is to just go out and have fun. Hopefully these tips should help you come away with some great shots to remember your day.

And one final parting tip: remember to bring a hat and use sunscreen! It is never pleasant to come away with a bad sunburn.