The Blades Stunt Pilots
Jun, 2014Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photograph was taken at the Dartmouth Royal Regatta in 2013. It's a great weekend where visitors are treated to many fly-by's and aerobatic displays from the red arrows, typhoon, helicopters and of course, The Blades Aerobatic Team.Time
The shot was taken late afternoon in the summer, at ground level from the channel waterside.Lighting
Strong late afternoon sunlight helped to keep the ISO at around 400. I knew I'd have to crop quite heavily in post so was keen to maintain a good sharp image.Equipment
Due to the distances involved, I used my 400mm f5.6 IS USM L lens mounted on a Canon 5D MkIII.Inspiration
To be honest, I'm not a massive fan of air displays but was simply practising with different settings and waiting for the Red Arrows. When I saw how close they were flying to each other though, I knew I'd get a dramatic shot, made even more impressive by the lens compression shooting at 400mm.Editing
There was no object manipulation in post, but I do always shoot RAW to give more flexibility when processing. There is minimal sharpening and clarity but quite a bit of playing around with noise reduction due to the heavy crop.In my camera bag
I love my Canon 5D MkIII, it's really motivated me to shoot more action photography and has helped me to deal with challenging lighting when trying to capture action shots. I'm not a specialist photographer so I'm always on the lookout for new subjects and situations. With this in mind, I'll normally have 3 lenses in my bag. A stock 24-105mm, 18-35mm and my trusty old 100-400mm, all Canon L series. I'm not a fan of studio setups, and will normally select outdoor lighting conditions which I can modify with reflectors as opposed to resorting to flash. I also never go anywhere without an ND-10 filter and lens brush.Feedback
Practice, practice, practice - You will rarely come across a perfect situation and so will have to compromise somewhere. By shooting lots and trying different strategies you'll always have some tricks to deal with the situation in front of you. Learn to find things in the environment to help. Lean on something or press the side of the lens against a lampost or tree. I've also found that pressing the eyepiece tight to your face and then lean the back of your head against something solid. Anything to get help you gain an extra 1/2 stop. In this shot for example, If I couldn't get the shutter speed high enough, I would have underexposed by a couple of stops and then fixed it in post. Another reason for shooting RAW :-) Don't think that you have to shoot as fast a shutter speed as possible. Sometimes a slight indication of movement adds to the shot and brings it to life. Always remember that some things in the image are moving faster than others, so practice with different shutter speeds to find that 'sweet spot' to show movement but still keep the main subject sharp.
