Which Setting to use for Movement

dragonlite · #1 2011-06-24, 9:26am

I have a question about taking pictures from a moving vehicle. I have been asked to take some aerial photos of a few oil field rigs and I am not sure about the shutter speeds or which setting to use to get the best possible shot.

I have a Cannon EOS 35mm.

Any info would be greatly soooooo greatly appreciated!!!!!

Mike Jordan · #2 2011-06-24, 6:36pm

It depends on a number of things. How high are you going to be? The higher you are, the less movement and shutter speed isn't as critical and something around 1/250 or faster should work just fine. If you are down on the deck, you are going to need a very fast shutter speed, maybe 1/2000 or faster and that might not be enough if you can't pan as you go by. It also depends on your lens. With a zoom you can be up higher, with a wide angle, you will need to be closer, depending on how much detail they want. Do they want it from an angle or right above it? The air quality comes into play as well. If it's hazy from dirt, clouds, or moisture in the air, that is going to affect the picture. The air quality should be better in the early morning or right after a rain shower if you can do it then. Having the sun behind you is also good to give you light on the oil rigs and reduce the change of lens flare.

Also, are you going to be shooting through a window or open door? If a window, one way to reduce issues from the window is to get a rubber lens hood that folds back on itself. Fold it back so there is just a ridge of rubber sticking out in front of the lens. Then you can hold that right up to the window and reduce window reflection and be cushioned from the window vibration. This trick works good at aquariums also.

Make sure and talk over with the pilot before you go up, what you need and what he can do. He may be limited to what he can do or where he can place the plane (if it's a plane and not a helicopter) because of FAA regulations and safety rules. It's better to work out all of this while you are still on the ground than when you are up in the air. If he banks the plane for you as he goes around the rigs, be sure and be ready for it. If you are use to flying in small planes you know what I mean. Most of my experience is shooting out of C-130's and C-123's and a few smaller planes that were both low wing (hard to shoot from) and high wing (much better visibility). Once out of a Huey helicopter, but the doors were closed and the visibility really wasn't that good as the trip wasn't part of a photo shoot.

If you can take a couple of runs, you will have a much better idea on the 2nd and 3rd trip as to what you need to do.

Mike

dragonlite · #3 2011-06-24, 6:45pm

Thank you soo much Mike! I am a pilot myself and I have a high wing. Cessna 150 so I will be opening the window.

And as for the banks...lol well I know what ya mean

I am going to be taking a few session shots of the rig at multiple times throughout the day. I have a 75-300mm lens I was planning on using.

fjbremer · #4 2011-06-24, 6:50pm

To get the best results use a fast shutter speed. I would use at least a 1/500 sec and 1/1000 would be much better. Let the camera control the aperature for you.

Set your camera to TV (fixed speed -- camera will calculate aperature [f-stop]). Then set your speed to 1/1000. At that speed any blur caused by vehicle movement and/or hand movement will be pretty much eliminated. Of course speeds higher than 1/1000 are even better.

Then do a test focus (shutter button 1/2 way down). If the light is so low that you can't get an f-stop that is in the range of your lens you can bump up the ISO (film speed). Usually an ISO of 400 will do the trick. ISO 100 is even better. The lower the ISO number, the better the resolution of the picture will be. But the higher the ISO speed the lower the light you can shoot in. Since you will be doing aerial work I'd be suprised if you have issues with low light.

Just remember the exposure triangle:

The faster the shutter speed the better to stop blur in the picture.
The higher the f-stop the better the depth of field focus.
The higher the ISO the lower the light can be.

In aerial photography low f-stops are not much of a depth of field focus problem because you are so far away from the subject.

Higher ISO numbers (over 800) tend to make "grainy" pictures. This counts most if you intend to enlarge parts of the picture by cropping.

This is getting too wordy. Start with TV, 1/1000 and ISO 400

dragonlite · #5 2011-06-24, 7:16pm

GREAT INFO you guys I just learned more in the last twenty mins about my camera and how to get a better pic than I knew about the thing this wholetime I have had it...lol about 6 or so yrs...lol

Thank you a million!!!!!
I will take the shots and post them for you to critique

fjbremer · #6 2011-06-25, 3:48pm

Had a couple of thoughts if you haven't taken the pictures yet. You may want to get a couple of lens filters.

A good filter for eliminating atmospheric haze is a UV filter. They run about $25 or so. A lot of photographers just keep on on their camera all the time as they don't significantly reduce the light comming into the camera. Basically a cheap lens protector.

If you have any problem with glare or think you might then pick up a polarizer filter. They work similar to polarized sunglasses. They have two filter glasses that you can adjust to cut out the glare. They also run in the same price range as the UV filters. They do reduce the amount of light comming in but the camera computer will compensate.

Based on your comment about the lens you intend to use you probably need 58 mm lenses.

Looking forward to seeing your results.

Conrad Hoffman · #7 2011-06-26, 8:35am

+1 on the UV filter, or even the slightly warmer salmon colored "skylight" filter. Small planes vibrate like heck, so you don't want any part of the camera or shade touching the window or any part of the plane. You don't need any depth of field, so run the lens at its optimum aperture, usually 1-2 stops down from wide open. That goes nicely with the need for the highest shutter speed possible. 1/250 might be OK, or not, but 1/500 or higher is much better. Focus carefully. Many lenses don't come to infinity exactly on the stop, but go a tad further. You can prefocus and put a piece of gaffer/duck tape on the lens so you don't have to worry about it in the air. Last advice is to consider a larger format if possible. A 2 1/4 camera like an old TLR will run rings around 35mm, especially for aerial, where super detail makes all the difference. (you said 35mm, so I'm assuming film here- if you've got a digital it will autofocus and you can just set the ISO as needed. Set it just high enough to get the needed shutter speed at the desired aperture. You can use shutter priority mode and let the aperture fall where it may, or aperture priority and keep it near wide open, letting the shutter fall where it may.)

Cosmo · #8 2011-07-01, 5:50am

One of my graphic design clients is a commercial real estate company. In the past year I've started to a lot of the photography for them as well. A good bit of that is aerial photography. For sites that are close to us, we use a helicopter, and for sites farther away we use a private plane. I don't know much about planes or helicopters so I can't tell you what kind they are, but the plane is one where the wing is on the top of the cabin.

For most of my aerial photos, I use this lens (no, I didn't pay that much for it) and my Canon 7D. Out of habit I put UV filters on all my lenses. I also carry a circular polarizer and a range of ND filters as well.

I generally shoot at f-stops from 2.8 to 4. Rarely do I go higher. I like to shoot at as high a shutter speed as possible, and for the jobs I design (some are poster-sized) I need to use a low ISO to get the best image I can. I generally shoot at 200 unless I have to shoot at something else.