quick question on stills

[bogwarrior 0]

Hi, I use 1 19mm lens on a canon eos.

I am jumping as a contractor with the Irish Army shooting video , but am shooting a roll of film on 35 mm each jump also. I have had mixed results primarily as I am setting the apperture and speed based on light readings on the ground. To complicate things there a few ' prof ' photographers ( whuffos) who give me different advice each time.

I am aiming for depth of field and focus the cam at about three foot ahead of me. What is the slowest shutter speed you reccomend. 1/250 or 1/500 ? Would you reccomend shutter speed priority and letting the cam pick its speed or what . Its a canon Eos rebel 2000.

Thanks for all your advice to this point , it has help me come a looooonngg way !

David

[brentfinley 0]

For Tandems...

You can use 1/350 (rebel 2000 should be capable of that). This is fast enough for freefall where something is sitting in front of you. Focus for where you expect the subject to be. (or GASP.. use autofocus... but I never do). Let the aperture float.

Use iso200 film for tandem shots (nice balance between speed and grain).

If bright sunlight.. use ISO 100

Brent

www.brentfinley.com
brent@brentfinley.com

[quade 4]

Conversly, I almost do exactly the opposite of Brent in that I prefer to shoot Aperture priority (f8) and let the timing float.

At ASA 100 and in full sun two hours after sunrise until two hours before sunset, that works out to about 1/500th of a second. Obviously slower the closer the sun gets to the horizon.

Focus where you have to.

That said, I do not shoot tandems.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[SniperCJ 0]

If you choose shutter priority and let the camera choose the aperature, focusing at about 3 ft (tandem work range), is the depth of field going to be deep enough to get good exit shots? Those shots just after exit with the plane in the background (obviously farther away than 7 or 8 ft, which is what my lens says DOF will be at f11)?

Also, do you refocus or go to autofocus when you land to get landing shots (since youre farther away now that youre on the ground)??

Ive been setting the focus to give me a depth of field range covering about 3ft to infinity (about f11) and running into problems of the passenger or TM's hands getting closer than 3 ft and being fuzzy.

Or is it just a case of "you cant get everything, so focus on the freefall shots"?

Comments will be greatly appreciated!!

JC

[brentfinley 0]

Especially for Tandems... 90 percent of your pictures are of them... close up.

To try to balance the light, depth of field, and speed so you can get the perfect Exit shot (plane in the background 100 feet away in a dive) and them in focus is not really fair to the customer. (You are shooting this for the customer, right!)

Don't try to do too much here and focus on whats important. Then your shots of them will be spectacular instead of just OK.
Brent

www.brentfinley.com
brent@brentfinley.com

[YahooLV 0]

Hey,
I shoot tandems and formations as well. I tend to set the film speed at 500, and let the camera figure out the rest. I set up my camera just short of infinity, and it seems to create some pretty good still, either close up or from overhead.

(Tell them to smile, the pics look better)

http://www.curtisglennphotography.com

[quade 4]

Quote

I tend to set the film speed at 500 . . .

I think you mean you set the shutter speed at 1/500th of a second.

The film speed is fixed by the manufacturer.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[YahooLV 0]

uh....yeah. Thanks for the correction.

http://www.curtisglennphotography.com

[bogwarrior 0]

Thanks guys, i will try on one jump setting the f stop fo f 8 and let the speed float. I am using 400 asa film, which the pros who use this brand ALL swear buy it for superior grain , apparatley its about $10 a pop. Ill set the stop to f8 and let the speed float. On the other jump ill try the opposite and see what happens, i.e. set the shutter speed to 1/500th.

I used a hyperfocal lenght calculator at http://www.outsight.com/hyperfocal.html in order to get the hyperfocal lenght for this f stop and it suggests focusing at about 4.9 feet...which is about right for what im shooting....which is militaty jumpers in full kit , including weapons and packs strapped between their legs..... a nice break from tandems I can tell you!

Incidentally on exit shots we are using a CASA 235N and the run in speed is 160 kts... like a sledgehammer when you pop of the back! When I am still close enough to get a jumper coming out all of the plane , the whole plane wont fit in the frame and when it does the jumper has cut through the hill too much due to the amount of weight he is carrying. I went a little early on and did get a good shot though which will be ( i am told published ) on the cover of a mag that circulates to about 15000...ill scan it as soon as I can get my hands on it..another snag has been that the military brass keep robbing pictures for their wall collections before iI get to see them!


Anyhow, ill try those today and let you know how I get on tmrw.

thanks..
David

[bogwarrior 0]

when I have done tandems , what I have done is ( given im down before the tandem pair is change to auto focus and automatic apperture and speed. otherwise , partic if im below cloud on the deck the pics dont work out so well.

Check out the hyperfocal lenght article on the link on my other reply. While there is a certain amount of grain when you are outside the prime focus and its just DOF focus , I can not describe the results as " fuzzy".

hope this helps.

David

[brentfinley 0]

Well if you're using 400 asa film, then definitely use 1/500th.

You might even try 1/750

www.brentfinley.com
brent@brentfinley.com

[quade 4]

I personally don't see any reason to shoot anything in full sun with ASA 400 film. I have a small article about film selection with links to more in-depth stuff HERE.

I also have a short article about f-stops HERE.

Since ASA 400 film in full Sun at f8 is going to work out to around 1/2000th, I think if I was forced to use ASA 400 film (like it was the film being supplied by the client) I'd probably bump the f-stop down to maybe f11 or even f16.

Again, all of this is subjective (except the grain issues in the higher speed film).

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[brentfinley 0]

Paul... he did say he was in Ireland.

Full sun up there is different than for us.

Brent

www.brentfinley.com
brent@brentfinley.com

[quade 4]

Good point.

Do they even have Sun up there?
Actually, the difference in the amount of sunlight you'd get at noon does vary a bit with geographic latitude and also depends on the time of year, but I don't -think- it would vary more than about one f-stop from summer solstice to winter solstice in Ireland and at Perris.

Of course, I have nothing to really back that up. Maybe later when I have some time on my hands I'll do some research on it.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[bogwarrior 0]

I am in Ireland and a few pros I met whilst working in Empuria Brava Spain did mention that Irish conditions would generally require faster film or larger appertures. Also on some really sunny days I was using a polarzing filter in order to enhance the deep blue of the sky and bring up the clouds ( which I must say worked very well on a few shots ) ..I only did this on very bright days. I tried some asa 100 today without filters and on apperture priority.

Thanks

David

[VideoToaster 0]

Hi
Have you thought of using a fill flash with your 35mm
camera?

[quade 4]

Well, a polarizing filter -definately- will eat up a lot of light. On the order of 2 to 2.5 f-stops depending on how it was made.

The thing about polarizing filters is that to get the maximum effect, you really need to be pointed in the right direction and the filter has to be aligned the right way -- however, it still eats up the light even if you're not getting the maximum effect.

For artistic shots, they certainly would have their use, but for everyday stuff, I think they're a bit impractical because you can't count on things like jumprun direction and the sun angles being just right.

I -don't- usually have a lot of clouds to play with in the background. They're a rarity in my part of the world. I'm usually trying to get nice deep blues and I can usually get what I need through film selection.

http://futurecam.com/skydive/020705/index.htm

These were all shot on ASA 100 Fuji Provia -- no color corrections have been made.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[quade 4]

Sunlight at Different Latitudes Links

http://www.hs.washington.edu/dan/solar.html

http://www.squ1.com/index.php?http://www.squ1.com/solar/orientation.html

http://k12.ocs.ou.edu/teachers/lessons/overviewofsolarrad.html

The upshot of all of this is it depends on the time of year you're going to be talking about. At the summer solsitce both Perris and Ireland receive almost the exact same amount of sunlight! As the year moves to winter solstice, Ireland loses a bit more light than Perris, but it doesn't look like they ever are more than about 1 f-stop apart.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[bogwarrior 0]

Thanks for the info. Regrettably cloud is a fairly common feature in Irish Skydiving and in particular the military will go through just about anything once the base is above 1500. I do appreciate that the filter in skydiving can be more of a hinderance , but I am employed only to shoot video , but supplied with film and a lab and techs. to develop the pics. The choice of film was not mine primarily , I have now secured stocks of 160ASA which I think will yield better results. I have noted , as I felt I would that the 400 despite being high quality is a little grainy and has made it difficult to see exacltly how well im doing on depth of field...is it a circle of confusion or a grain due to the film speed ? etc.


Its a learning curve , for the moment .. I have a break as we are now concentrating on night time tactical stuff.... Im working on a chest mounted IR bulb .. They are afraid to let me shoot stills with Flash in freefall in case I kill the soldiers night vision...something I can understand. Do you have any experience here ?

We move to Spain in three weeks then to Arizona so looking forward to getting the daytime stills going again at that point.

David

[quade 4]

Quote

. . . Im working on a chest mounted IR bulb . . .

Very cool!

I have no information on this at all. I've never tried to shoot night IR -stills-. I know a few folks that have shot stills with strobes at night and IR -video-, but I've never heard of anyone shooting IR -stills- at night.

My guess is that if you do this, -YOU- will be one of the experts in the field!

You'll have to tell us how that goes.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[bogwarrior 0]

I had not though of shooting IR stills, but i do believe I can lay my hands on some IR film as pics are taken at night by some units.

I more reffered tp the video, is it as simple as flood the target with IR and film in night vision? Thats my guess anyhow.

David

[quade 4]

Quote

I more reffered tp the video, is it as simple as flood the target with IR and film in night vision? Thats my guess anyhow.

Essentially.

Sony makes some IR emitters that work pretty well out to a distance of maybe 50 feet (they advertise 100, but that's pretty optimistic if you ask me).

I have two HVL-IRM units that I've used on the ground, but I haven't jumped them yet.

http://www.sonystyle.com/home/scat.jsp?scatid=9693&startid=1&hierc=9682x7078x9693

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[bogwarrior 0]

Thanks,

I will see about this , but i might see about getting some sort of traditional lighting system that can be used as both white light and then puta filter on it for conversion to IR/

David

[AndyMan 7]

Quote

I will see about this , but i might see about getting some sort of traditional lighting system that can be used as both white light and then puta filter on it for conversion to IR/

Such a thing exists....?

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[ernokaikkonen 0]

>>some sort of traditional lighting system that can be used as both
>>white light and then puta filter on it for conversion to IR/
>
>Such a thing exists....?

Sounds weird to me too. I would assume that just about any traditional lightbulb would emit some amount of IR as well, and that one could maybe have a filter that filters out all visible light, but I don't think that would be a very efficient way of producing IR light.

Erno