Got roasted by a retired pilot for my camera settings at the runway

He told me I was shooting way too slow a shutter for landing planes and now I actually get sharp pics instead of blurry streaks, anyone else had an old pro call them out and change their whole setup?

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julia921mo ago

Funny thing about those retired pilots, they actually have a good reason for why they want you shooting faster. I was next to a guy at Oshkosh who had been doing airshow photography since the 70s. He told me the problem with slow shutter isn’t just blur, it’s that you lose the whole shape of the plane when you’re panning. The wings turn into a smear and it looks like a bad watercolor. He had me bump up to 1/500th and my keeper rate went from maybe one in ten to about half the shots being usable. Now I’ll drop it back down to 1/125th for prop blur, but only if the light is good and the plane is coming straight at me. Those old guys have been doing it long enough to know what actually works for the final photo, not just what feels cool in the moment.

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ward.piper1mo ago

Wait, was that 1/125th only working for prop blur on head-on shots or side passes too?

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