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Aerial photography discussion and brag thread


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My wife thinks it is worse than computers as a consumer of countless hours!

Next best thing is sitting here reading and typing stuff about aviation. My better half has just walked past and looked in accusingly - I've only been here a couple of hours:augie:

Pud

 

 

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Hi Justin,

 

I am very interested in aerial photography but have virtually no experience with professional cameras like yours. I fly an aerochute which is a perfect platform for photography and have taken some photo’s but just with cheapie cameras and phones. Not really good results so I bit the bullet the other day and bought a Canon EOS 60D with an EF 70-200 f4L IS USM lens. All I need now is to know how to use it. I have been playing around with it and seeing what it can do but these are some complex pieces of equipment. Can you let me know what mode you shoot in and what effects you look for so I can have some idea as to where to start. Do you use the full auto settings like sport setting or just go full manual. Do you use auto focus or just set the lens to manual and leave the focus on infinity so it does not chase focus on everything but what you want. Hard to find any info about this style of photography on the internet, Most photographers use a nice stable platform or tripod. Being on a moving platform must limit some of these setting.

 

John

 

 

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all depends on the situation mate... i usually shoot in Tv or Av, which is shutter or exposure priority. focus is a personal preference, but aerial shots it would be most likely auto, as most lenses will be at maximum focus anyways. Nice lense by the way, L series lenses are very nice... might want something a little wider angle though if you are going the landscape pics, say a 50mm lense, and step it right out to about f16, unless you are doing some close in stuff and you want to create some depth of field

 

 

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Thanks for the input Hongie,

 

One of the guys on the American PPC forums recommended I get this lens. I figured that if I find that I am needing a wider angle lens then I would get something like the 24-70 in the L series and then cover the majority of the spectrum. Although I do not know too much about this gear yet I agree with you about the L series quality. I have not read a bad report about them. They are expensive but I thought why buy a great camera then use a cheap lens. There is a huge amount to learn but I am enjoying the ride.

 

John

 

 

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Thanks for the input Hongie,One of the guys on the American PPC forums recommended I get this lens. I figured that if I find that I am needing a wider angle lens then I would get something like the 24-70 in the L series and then cover the majority of the spectrum. Although I do not know too much about this gear yet I agree with you about the L series quality. I have not read a bad report about them. They are expensive but I thought why buy a great camera then use a cheap lens. There is a huge amount to learn but I am enjoying the ride.

John

Definitely need something like 28mm wide angle for best landscape effect....

 

Keep the shutter speed at least 250/sec to stop blurring due camera shake.

 

There's something mysterious about aircraft, flying nice and steady hands off, but as soon as you look through the viewfinder they act up like a rough horse.......

 

Study light and composition, far more important that camera and lens quality for final viewing effect.

 

JG

 

 

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Guest davidh10
There's something mysterious about aircraft, flying nice and steady hands off, but as soon as you look through the viewfinder they act up like a rough horse.......

The wider the lens angle the less it is noticable. Hence the GoPro cameras give a good steady movie, but narrower fields of vision tend to jump around a lot. For stills, I shoot in Av with manual focus. If you are trying to capture a lot of sky, there's nothing for auto focus to work with, so yes, it will continually hunt, or focus on the wrong depth. It depends what you are photographing as to whether you want focus set at infinity or not...same as in the terrestrial case. I'd aim to keep exposure down around a 400th of a second or less. Not as critical if it is wide angle, but remember that a one degree angle change in the camera is going to be a big movement for something a few miles away.

The disadvantage with wide angle lenses is the distance distortion, and with extreme wide angle, the fish-eye effect. As with terrestrial photography, it all depends what you are trying to capture.

 

I've found that video is much harder than stills, but even with stills, you get a lot of duds and just a few really nice shots.

 

 

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When I had my Aerochute I had a pistol grip for my camera. Shots taken with arm extended using the camera like a hand gun worked very well in the aerochute.

 

For the 3 axis aeroplane I want a camera

 

1....that has a remote control ( or cable release ) that works when operated from behind the camera

 

2....that will, when woken up, have the lens set at infinity.

 

The later is hard to find in cameras consting less than the $2000 + needed for a higher end DSLR. My Olympus E510 will do so but has suffered some trauma and needs replacing.

 

An aperture priority setting facility allows you to set a wide aperture thus allowing the camera to select a fast shutter speed to lessen effects of vibration. Wide aperture lessens the depth of field however if there is something less than 50metres away then you have more to worry about than mking pictures.

 

Davidh

 

 

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If a man still prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall say to him, "You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of the Lord." When he prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall thrust him through. (Zechariah 13:3 NAB)

 

 

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Thanks for the compliments guys! Appreciated 001_smile.gif.2cb759f06c4678ed4757932a99c02fa0.gif I use Sony cameras... they haven't been edited at all other than down sized.

 

The circle crops are because of a centre pivot irrigation system (basically a big sprinkler that is fixed in the middle and drives around in a circle).

 

When I get the chance I'll find some more photos of them which should show more detail.

That kills my 'alien' theory.

 

 

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If a man still prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall say to him, "You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of the Lord." When he prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall thrust him through. (Zechariah 13:3 NAB)

And in the last days, the son shall forget where he put his fathers hammer he borrowed just the night before.......(Life Of Brian)

 

 

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So lying and deceiving false prophets need to be dealt with you feel? Works for me but hucksters like Flannery and Gore might be less keen on adopting such laws of Judaism....

 

Probably time to drift back to topic however, those interested can read the whole prophecy for themselves to get the context rather than just the single verse.

 

 

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[ATTACH=full]15815[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]15817[/ATTACH]

 

Camera, cheap and nasty Samsung Digimax S800

Doug, You been flying around Bowhill I see. do you mind if i pass that on to the property owners in the pic?? They're good friends and almost neighbours of mine.

 

Cheers,

 

Acky.

 

 

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80knots, yes and yes. Up the valley running due north of Callington if I remember correctly.Acky, be my guest, go ahead.

That's right up in the Bremer Valley. I remember being set free to go find this during my training out of YMBD. That was so very exciting for me at the time (still is). I always take pax past here to show them where Jesus lives!

 

 

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haahah, no, i blame the auto correct on the ipad, in the first shot, the low thin cloud on the mountain top on the horizon was rapidly engulfed by the storm front cloud in the second shot as i watched it. while turning around back to Wollongong. the cloud came over it like a big breaking wave, full of lightning flashes behind it.

 

 

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