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Metal Birds

/ My Third Eye Digital / 3 Comments

Air shows, present a wonderful opportunity to experience aviation up close and personal, to get familiar with some pretty cool metal birds in the static area between solo and team stunt shows in the skies. We get to see a little bit of everything, including war birds, home-built aircraft, ultralights and vintage planes. The exciting air displays combine military and civilian aircraft performing death-defying stunts, aerobatic passes by wing cats and dozens of aircraft-related demonstration. They look surreal and leave the crowd amazed & astounded. The skills of pilots and their amazing flying machines create exhilarating moves and stream across the sky in whirling, dizzy motions with color, sparks, smoke, fireballs, etc.

Air shows continues to redefine what is possible in the air and with a combination of precision, power and performance have thrilled millions of air show spectators.

Type: Aviation /Air Show Photography

Light Combat Aircraft - Tejas

EXIF: Aperture-f/9, Shutter Speed: 1/250Sec, ISO:100, Focal length:32mm Camera- Canon EOS Rebel T2i/550D

USAF Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker. In the background C-17 Globemaster III

EXIF: Aperture-f/8, Shutter Speed: 1/1000Sec, ISO:400, Focal length:18mm Camera- Canon EOS Rebel T2i/ 550D

IAF C-130J Super Hercules

EXIF: Aperture-f/8, Shutter Speed: 1/1000Sec, ISO:400, Focal length:18mm Camera- Canon EOS Rebel T2i/ 550D

Indian Air Force Sarang Display Team with HAL Dhruv

EXIF: Aperture-f/8, Shutter Speed: 1/500Sec, ISO:100, Focal length:250mm Camera- Canon EOS Rebel T2i/ 550D

The Breitling Wingwalkers

EXIF: Aperture-f/8, Shutter Speed: 1/500Sec, ISO:100, Focal length:250mm Camera- Canon EOS Rebel T2i/ 550D

The Breitling Wingwalkers

EXIF: Aperture-f/5.6, Shutter Speed: 1/1600Sec, ISO:200, Focal length:250mm Camera- Canon EOS Rebel T2i/ 550D

USAF Boeing C-17 Globemaster

EXIF: Aperture-f/5.6, Shutter Speed: 1/1600Sec, ISO:200, Focal length:154mm Camera- Canon EOS Rebel T2i/ 550D

Scandinavian airshow.se team Skycat Wingwalker's Grumman G-164A Ag-Cat Catwalk

EXIF: Aperture-f/8, Shutter Speed: 1/2500Sec, ISO:400, Focal length:250mm Camera- Canon EOS Rebel T2i/ 550D

Scandinavian airshow.se team Skycat Wingwalker's Grumman G-164A Ag-Cat Catwalk

EXIF: Aperture-f/8, Shutter Speed: 1/4000Sec, ISO:400, Focal length:250mm Camera- Canon EOS Rebel T2i/ 550D

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited LCH

EXIF: Aperture-f/16, Shutter Speed: 1/160Sec, ISO:100, Focal length:250mm Camera- Canon EOS Rebel T2i/ 550D

U S Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III

EXIF: Aperture-f/9, Shutter Speed: 1/250Sec, ISO:100, Focal length:32mm Camera- Canon EOS Rebel T2i/ 550D

Bharat Electronics Limited Display

EXIF: Aperture-f/8, Shutter Speed: 1/1600Sec, ISO:400, Focal length:28mm Camera- Canon EOS Rebel T2i/ 550D

Yakovlevs Display Team with Yak-50 aerobatic aircraft

EXIF: Aperture-f/8, Shutter Speed: 1/2000Sec, ISO:400, Focal length:55mm Camera- Canon EOS Rebel T2i/ 550D

switzerland Pilatus Aircraft PC-12 NG

EXIF: Aperture-f/5.6, Shutter Speed: 1/1600Sec, ISO:200, Focal length:250mm Camera- Canon EOS Rebel T2i/ 550D

Light Combat Aircraft- Tejas in flight

EXIF: Aperture-f/5.6, Shutter Speed: 1/2000Sec, ISO:200, Focal length:135mm Camera- Canon EOS Rebel T2i/ 550D

IAF Sarang Display Team with HAL Dhruv

EXIF: Aperture-f/8, Shutter Speed: 1/2000Sec, ISO:400, Focal length:250mm Camera- Canon EOS Rebel T2i/ 550D

Sukhoi Su-30MKI Tail Number: SB413

EXIF: Aperture-f/6.3, Shutter Speed: 1/1000Sec, ISO:200, Focal length:200mm Camera- Canon EOS Rebel T2i/ 550D

Above Photos were taken in Aero India 2015  “Asia’s Premier Air Show” @ Yelahanka Air Force station, Bangalore, Karnataka, India. For More photos, Please visit My Third Eye Albums

Tips & Tricks:

  • As Airshow happens mostly on sunny day, please carry drinking water, caps, sun glasses, ear plugs other than your photography kit (standby battery, additional memory cards)! Also be prepared to protect your gears from un-seasonal rains. Checkout the airshow web site for what is allowed to carry as many items are blocked for security reasons.
  • Try to visit on a working day as holidays & weekends are crowded. Plan to visit the show for 2 days so that you can use the first day for trial run… Get into the venue as early as possible to seat yourself in a best shooting spot & leave late!
  • Useful camera setting for such photography is 1/1000, f5.6/ f8, ISO-400. Use histogram to make adjustments required as these settings can be influenced drastically by the weather condition
  • Use fast shutter speed(~1/1000) is to capture the fast moving fighter jets and slow shutter(<1/125) is useful for propeller planes/ helicopters in flight. Slower shutter speed also gives background blur effect in aircraft landing or takeoff. Takecare of camera shakes in such slow shutter usage
  • Centre weighed/ spot metering mode is suggested for aviation photography as background will be grey or blue or white sky!
  • Select Auto Focus Point centre to focus the aircraft on the sky!
  • Turn on Auto focus with AI Servo enabled (in Canon) to enable you to track the flying object and keep them in focus continuously
  • Panning is another technique to be followed to shoot the aircraft on the move
  • Don’t loose the opportunity of clicking the crowd watching the moment or support/ground staff performing various activities
  • You may require, wide range of lens as wide angle are required to shoot the aircraft in static display area. Telephoto lens for jets in action! You may carry 2 camera bodies; one fitted with a wide angle lens and another fitted with tele-photo lens for variety of reasons
  • Protect your camera from dust, while changing lens
  • Practice makes perfect! You may experiment your skills by shooting the fasting moving objects before the show
  • Do post processing for sharpness, exposure correction, composition using crop & re-size the image if required

I’d love to hear what you think about this post. Let me know in the comments.