Tips for landing photos?

[aykay 0]

Searched and couldn't find anything...

Anyone have good tips for getting good landing/swoop pics. Camera is a 400D with probably a 18-55 kit lens.

Preferably taken from the side with a little bit of blur in the back ground.

Any help will be much appreciated!

[dragon2 2]

I'd use more tele lens (easier to get fullframe pics, easier to get blur, even at 55mm you have to be pretty close to the course, autofocus is no use esp with a slow lens like that),
go stand further back, much easier to get good pics and it's safer too,
use manual focus, set it to infinity,
if lens has OS turn it off,
shoot at shutter-speed priority, at least 1/the lens in mm or quicker, depending on how much blur you want, how much stoppping power you want (water drops? sense of speed?) and what f-stop you want to end up with,
pan with subject (this takes practice) if you suck use a very fast shutter speed (1/400 or faster) for now,
click

Of course there are tons of ways to get good shots, good shots are also subjective, you can also try to get unusual shots like just the face, or whatever. But this'll get you started.

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[Springbock 0]

To get the Blur in the Background you don't want to set the Camera to a short shutter speed, e.g. don't use the Sport Program.

When the Jumper passes by you need to move your Camera with the Jumper. By doing that the Jumper will appear sharp while the longer shutter speed blures the Background.
It's not easy so and expect to do some shots before you get a picture coming close to what you aim.

Martin

Take care up there!

[pilotdave 0]

Auto focus works fine for landing shots with that lens.

You won't get a whole lot of background blur. Like someone suggested, it's possible to lower your shutter speed and get some motion blur in the background, but that's a different effect. To maximize background blur, use a wide open aperture (though expect more out of focus shots doing that). Be close to your subject and far from the background. Use as much zoom as you've got.

Some 18-55 landing examples below... For better background blur, ya really need a longer lens or one with a wider max aperture.

Dave

[dragon2 2]

I guess the autofocus works better or worse depending on who you shoot And on how close you are. Shooting 90o to the course up close with people like the PD boys shooting by, I'd rather have a better lens. With stilettos, shooting from a distance and at a smaller angle, sure. But that was not what I was picturing when I think about a swoop course.

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[pilotdave 0]

corey_18mm.jpg is a swoop on a Velo a few feet from me. It's not a great shot... just included because that's probably the most background blur I got with that lens. But that's autofocus as he came by me at close range.

A better lens is better... no argument there. But to say that you can't use autofocus to take landing pictures with that lens is just wrong. It might just be my mission in life to convince you that the canon 18-55 lens isn't so bad.

Dave

[dragon2 2]

You won't suceed bwahaa

Even our most I'm-not-interested-in-photography cameraflyer has admitted his new 350d + 18-55 is nowhere near as good as his previous (borrowed) D70s + sigma 15mm and his before-that eos 500 series + canon 24mm after using his new "hey it came with this lens so I'm using it" eos 350d for only a week or two. It's impossible to shoot good autofocus with the 18-55 (we tend to not have very good/bright weather a lot of the time which makes this worse) and the pics are just not as sharp as the sigma 15mm of his girlfriend/my 16mm/everyone elses 15mm canon/... Trust me, if even HE can see the difference

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[Laszloimage 0]

It's pretty hard to take nice landing shots with the kit lens.
If you're trying just take a random landing shot then you definitely need a fast AF lens.
If you want motion blur in the back ground the longer zoom (like 200mm) is very helpful combined with slow shutther speed (1/125 or slower) and IS (image satbilizer) Yes optical image stabilizer helps in a PANNING MODE!
Or blure in the back ground because of the shallow DOF again requres a longer zoom with lower aperture.
Manual focus works if you know where exatly the person going to land. The lowest f value on the 18-55mm lens is f5.6 at 55mm. Using that and calculate Depth of Field ( http://photoinf.com/Tools/Don_Fleming/Depth_Of_Filed_Calculator.html ) and making sure the person lands within that focus range you can get some blured back and fore ground.
For motion blured back ground use slower shutter speed also withe maximum 55mm zoom while you're panning in a steady straight path without any jerky movment (it's pretty hard though).
Ultimately a good lens is the real solution.
I use the Canon 70-200L f2.8 IS for $1700.
(that's why I charge money for my shots....)
-Laszlo-

a few examples:
http://laszloimage.com/March_2008_NEW/pages/March_24th_08_MG_2010.htm

http://laszloimage.com/March_2008_NEW/pages/March_24th_08_MG_2010.htm

http://www.laszloimage.com/March%202006%20New/pages/March_30th_2006_Randy.htm

http://www.laszloimage.com/RanchSwoop%2006/index.htm