Camera Labs

I am going to have the opportunity to do some shooting out of a small plane of some properties. Here is my gear: Nikon D90, 35mm 1.8 prime, 18-105mm kit lens, 70-300mm vr with active and normal modes. I'm told that he can fly pretty low and slow. I assume the fastest shutter without jacking up the ISO is best. Is app. much of a concern or should I use shutter priority? I don't want to get up there thinking I'm going to use the 70-300 only to find that it's too close and have to change lenses wasting time. Should I go with my fast 35mm or use the 18-105? Is the normal/active setting going to make or brake my shots? Thanks for any advice!!

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Nikon D90 18-105, 35mm f1.8, Nikon 70-300mm
Nikon SB-600
Panasonic FZ28
Canon SD750
My Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/37592444@N03/

Well aperture will be pretty irrelevant as the lens will be focussing on infinity, but I'd recommend keeping your shutter speed as high as possible to reduce the effect of vibrations from the airframe.

Depending on the aircraft, you may be able to have a door removed, or maybe it is fully open. If open in some way then a 70-300 will be useful for picking out details in landscapes. If the aircraft is closed then length of the lens may be an issue if you're strapped in.

Personally, with your lenses, I'd go with the 35mm and 18-105. The 18-105 will have most of the focal lengths you'll need covered and won't be too big. The 35mm will be handy to keep your shutter speeds up at f2.8 rather than around f4.5 for the 18-105.

I found that shutter speeds above 1/500th rendered sharp shots, pushing below this could get you into trouble, but the 18-105's VR may get you out of trouble.

If you're flying in good light then keeping the lens around 1 stop down from wide open will give you the best results. Maxing out at ISO 400-800 on the D90 will still get you good quality is you want to set up auto ISO in the menus.

Thank you for the advice!

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Nikon D90 18-105, 35mm f1.8, Nikon 70-300mm
Nikon SB-600
Panasonic FZ28
Canon SD750
My Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/37592444@N03/

I went up yesterday. It was a tiny two passenger plane with the doors off. Thank goodness for seatbelts. I started of with my 35mm but switch to the 18-105. Most of my photos were kinda blown out because it was so bright. I was on aperture priority 1 Supp down from wide open and it was shooting at least 1\2000 and sometimes it just said HI for shutter speed. Not sure what that is about. I was using iso 200. Glad I shot in raw. After some PP they look great.

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Nikon D90 18-105, 35mm f1.8, Nikon 70-300mm
Nikon SB-600
Panasonic FZ28
Canon SD750
My Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/37592444@N03/

Thanks.I will try it

Well presumably you were getting HI with the 35mm, if you were shooting at f2.5! Either that or you were photographing the sun! HI registers because the camera doesn't have a fast enough shutter speed for the aperture selected. I.e. 1/4000th wasn't enough and those shots were probably a little over exposed.

Anonther person finding the benefits of RAW - let's see the results then!

That is what I was assuming was going on and would explain the over exposures. I will try to post some pics. I don't do it very often so I have to figure out how to do it again.

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Nikon D90 18-105, 35mm f1.8, Nikon 70-300mm
Nikon SB-600
Panasonic FZ28
Canon SD750
My Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/37592444@N03/

Here are a few of the shots I took.

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Nikon D90 18-105, 35mm f1.8, Nikon 70-300mm
Nikon SB-600
Panasonic FZ28
Canon SD750
My Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/37592444@N03/

Arial photography is one of the most important types of photography. People should have artistic skill to take such kind of photos. One should take lots of photos of a particular object and should frame and compose the photo properly to get a best quality photo.

Filters are very handy for the aerial photography, I always use them.

Try to pre focus on something before your "target" is in view, obviously you can't stop in a plane so always try to plan at least a minute ahead. On a bright day I find f8/f10 work well on the D90.

Nice shots!

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Nikon D90 + AF-S 18-55mm + AF-S 70-300MM F/4.5-5.6G IF-ED