North American P-51D Mustang
Pilot: Filip Gerhardt
Pilot: Filip Gerhardt
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Feb, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken from a Cessna Caravan somewhere above central Sweden.Time
The plan was to get some nice shots with evening sun on this Mustang and also a Spitfire. As we lifted off the weather was cloudy and so were our spirits since the conditions looked rather bad. Luckily we had an experienced pilot on our photo ship. He suggested we should go on top of the clouds to see if we could get some good light.Lighting
As we broke through the clouds the light was stunning. We got pictures both with direct light on the planes and also some nice backlight pictures (for example: http://www.viewbug.com/photo/42114731). After awhile the clouds disappeared and we also got some nice ground back drops with beautiful light (examples: http://www.viewbug.com/photo/42114781 and http://www.viewbug.com/photo/47161331 )Equipment
On air to air photo shoots I always have two cameras with different lenses with me. The reason is that I never know what the pilots will be able to do and how close they will fly. It is also not advised to try to change lenses in the air since it usually is very little space in the photo ship. More important though is that if you can fly with an open door or canopy you don't want to drop gear out of the plane. This time I had a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV with a 16-35 2.8 lens (I know that especially the Spitfire pilot is awesome on this kind of photo shoots and he sometimes flies really close to the photo ship so with him I need that kind of wide angle.). I also had a Canon EOS 5D Mark III with a 70-200 2.8 lens, which I used for the Mustang photo.Inspiration
I am lucky to have friends - both some exceptionally good photographers and some truly amazing pilots - that sometimes invite me to join them on this kind of adventures. Their photos and flying and never ending enthusiasm and great knowledge of flying planes, cameras and every combination thereof inspires me to try to catch pictures of the feeling of flying.Editing
The only post processing needed on the pictures from this shoot was some adjustment of light and contrast.In my camera bag
Except from the equipment mentioned above I use a Canon EOS-1D X and a 300 2.8 lens and sometimes also a 2.0 extender, but that lens and extender are for ground to air shots. I actually tried the 300 lens on my last air to air photo shoot and got some nice results. As I had the 70-200 on the other camera that time I had some trouble when the planes came to close though – I can tell you that the Finnish air force with their F-18 Hornets are no cowards regarding flying close to the photo ship – but that is another story ;)Feedback
As for the technique of taking pictures of propeller planes in the air I only have one thing that I feel is important. That is that the propeller shall have as much motion as possible, which requires long exposure time. The one of the Mustang is shot with 1/60. It is of course a bit tricky to hold still and get sharp shots some times when there is turbulence (or when you stick your lens to far out and the wind catches it) but as they say – practice (and some luck) makes perfect. If you have not yet had the opportunity to take air to air pictures you should know that it is a lot easier than taking ground to air pictures since you don’t have to pan all the time. That is at least true if the photo object flies with the photo ship and keep about the same speed and do not play around and do tricks like some pilots do – then you have to know your panning. Other than that my advice is – find your feeling for the photo object – whatever it is - and go with that – it will show in your pictures.
