Looking to shoot air show photos? I go to the Cleveland Air Show every year with front-row box seats close to show center (thanks to the Cleveland Photo Society). Here's what I've learned about shooting air show photos.
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Air Show Camera Gear
I've shot the air show with the following:
- Fujifilm X-T4, X-T5, and X-H2s with the Fuji 150-600mm/5.6-8 lens (225-900mm full frame equivalent
- Fujifilm GFX 100s ii with the Fuji 500mm/5.6 lens (400mm full frame equivalent)
- Sony A1 ii with the Sony 300mm/2.8 and 1.4x Teleconverter
- Sony A7R vi with the Sony 100-400mm/4.5 and 1.4x Teleconverter
As you can see, I've shot the air show with everything from mid-priced (Fuji X-T5 with 150-600mm) to high priced (Sony A1 ii with 300mm/f2.8) to Medium Format (Fuji GFX 100s with 500mm). I've shot with APS-C, Full Frame, and Medium Format. In general, I like higher megapixel bodies (so I can crop) with faster frame rates (so I can try to get the "jets crossing" shot), but...
You can still get great shots at the air show without spending a whole lot of money. You just need some basic gear - a long lens, decent (but not amazing) camera body, and lots of memory cards and batteries.
Lens with some reach - 300 to 600mm
The most important piece of equipment is your lens. My favorite lens is a lightweight zoom with a max reach of 400mm to 600mm. Most systems have a 100-400mm lens, which is great, and a 200-600mm is even better.
I've also shot the show with 300mm and 400mm (equivalent) fixed lenses, but I found them limiting. On the 300, I shot almost all the shots with a 1.4x TC attached to get to 420mm, and 400mm was great for a lot of shots, but up close the planes would get too big for the frame.
Another advantage to the zoom is finding the plane. Lifting a long lens to your eye and finding a plane is a skill that needs practice. (Even with years of practice, I'm not perfect at it.) With a zoom, you can zoom out to find the plane, then zoom in again to get a tighter shot. Also, as the plane gets closer, you can zoom out to make sure the plane still fits in the frame. Now, all this zooming in and out takes some practice. At my first air show, I kept getting caught up in the excitement. "Plane! In focus! Shoot, shoot, shoot!" And…I would forget to zoom in. I got lots of shots with a tiny plane in the middle of the frame. Or, I would forget to zoom out between passes, and struggle to find the frame with the lens zoomed all the way out to 600mm. But, eventually, I got used to the dance. Find the plane, zoom in, shoot…zoom out to get ready for the next one. Repeat.
Another key point about lenses at an air show is: You don't need the fastest and most expensive lenses for air show photography. Don't let Gear Acquisition Syndrome write checks your savings account can't cash. (Sorry, couldn't help myself. I've had the Top Gun Anthem running in my head the whole time I've been writing this. Yes, I was a teenager in the 80's, how can you tell?)
You'll be shooting in bright conditions, and you'll be hand-holding the lens all day. I would pick a slower (but lighter) lens over a faster (but heavier) lens, and my arms will thank me at 4PM. And, luckily, a slower lens is almost always a cheaper lens.
If you've got an APS-C body, I'd look for a 70-300, 100-400, or 150-600 zoom. If you have full frame, a 100-400 is good, but even better is a zoom that can reach at least 600mm.
Some lenses I've tried and liked for air show photography:
If you're in the Fujifilm X system, the Fuji XF 150-600mm lens is the best one for air show photography, with a 225-900mm full frame equivalent. The Fuji 100-400 and Fuji 70-300 are also good. (The 70-300 is a little short at a 450mm equivalent, but it good enough at the price if you're just starting out with Fujifilm.)
For the Fujifilm GFX, I used the Fuji GF 500mm/5.6 lens, because it is the only option. It was amazing - light, compact, and easy to hand-hold. The only problem was 500mm is a little too zoomed in when the planes were directly in front of me at show center, and the GFX system with its 7fps maximum frame rate is not ideal for air show photography.
I switched to Sony a few years ago to get their better bird autofocus, and they have been great at the airshow. I think the Sony 200-600/5.6-6.3 is a great airshow lens, but my favorite is now the Sony 100-400/4.5 with the Sony 1.4x TC. Unfortunately, my favorite birding lens, the Sony 400-800/6.3-8, is too long. The 400mm minimum zoom cuts off planes when I'm shooting from show center in the box seats. But, if I had to sit further back, it might be a good option.
Wide lens for the ground show
Air shows always have a ground show, which has its own set of great photo options. I can see everything from small, homemade racing planes up to walking through massive C-130 transports. A wide lens is what you need for these planes; my favorite is something in the range of a 16-35mm zoom lens. The wide (16mm) end lets me fit in the massive transports and airliners. The 35mm is the wide end of a natural frame, and is great for smaller planes, or to get your friends and family in the shot.
In the Fujifilm system, the Fuji XF 10-24mm/4 is my favorite, and the clear choice. You can get by with any of the mid-range zooms, like the 16-55/2.8 or 16-80/4, but the 16mm end (24mm on a full frame) is not quite wide enough for my tastes.
For the GFX system, the Fuji GF 20-35/4 zoom is great, if a little wide at the 35mm end (28mm on a full frame). Still, I enjoyed having it for the ground show.
In the Sony system, the Sony 16-35mm/2.8 is superb but pricey, and the Sony 16-35mm/4 PZ was what I used last year. This year, though, I went with my do-everything Sony lens, the Sony 20-70mm/4. It is wide enough at the 20mm end to be perfect for airshows, and the 70mm end lets me zoom in more to get detail shots.
Skip the tripod/monopod if you can
I shoot entirely hand-held. I brought a tripod to my first show, and never unstrapped it from my camera bag. The planes are moving too fast, and are too high up, for a tripod or a monopod to work for me.
That said, I won't hold it against you if you bring a monopod. If you're shooting a huge lens (think 600/f4.0) or you just can't hold your lens all day, then bring one.
Camera - decent autofocus and high frame rate
Modern cameras with airplane-detect autofocus are a big help, but for most shots, a plane against a blue sky is pretty easy for any autofocus to lock on. (The hard part is actually following the planes as they zoom past - I'm still working on my panning skills.)
What does help is a camera with a high frame rate, to give you lots of chances to get the shot as the plane zips past. Modern cameras that shoot 8, 10, 15, or 30 frames per second make for great photos. Just make sure, if you have to use electronic shutter to get the highest frame rate, that the sensor is fast enough to read out without "rolling shutter". Rolling shutter causes weird warping in photos if the target is faster than the sensor readout - and jets are very, very fast. Stick to mechanical shutter and you'll be fine, but if your camera has a stacked sensor, you can use electronic shutter for the extra frame rates.
In the Fujifilm system, almost any of the modern bodies will work. The X-H2S, with its high-speed sensor is the best choice, with up to 40fps with its super-fast electronic shutter. I got great shots with a X-T5 and X-H2 last year, and an X-T4 before that, with their 15fps mechanical shutters. The X-S10 and X-S20 are good, with an 8fps mechanical shutter that is just on the edge of what I like to shoot air shows with.
Speaking of "on the edge", shooting an air show with my GFX 100s ii worked better than I hoped. The autofocus is good - I was hoping for even "OK" - but when the planes hurtled past it struggled a bit to keep up. And, if I just held down the shutter button, the 7fps would fill up the buffer in the camera - only SD cards, no CFExpress for quick unloading - and the frame rate would drop to a few shots a second. But, I went in worrying it wouldn't work at all; instead, it felt like I was shooting with equipment that was considered "good" about ten years ago. What I wouldn't get ten years ago was 100MP files, which were AMAZING. Also, the GFX 100ii is obviously designed for higher speed photography - 8fps, larger buffer, CFExpress cards to unload the buffer quickly, and a battery grip so you don't have to swap batteries during the day.
I switched to the Sony system a few years ago, and I haven't looked back. The (admittedly expensive) Sony A1 ii and Sony A7R vi have stacked sensors and high megapixel sensors, and both helped me get fantastic photos the last few years.
Other stuff to bring
- Extra memory cards: This year, I shot 5000 pictures in a day at the air show. (Shooting with continuous high shutter speed on will fill up cards quickly.) Make sure you have lots of memory cards, or big cards. I use 512MB and 1TB cards nowadays, so I don't have to swap. Yes, they're expensive. But, I can shoot a 5000 picture day on that 1TB card and never have to worry about space.
- Extra batteries: All those pictures will also chew through your batteries. Make sure you have spares, and make sure those spares are recently charged.
I started with a full battery in my camera, but all my backup batteries had been sitting around for a while, and were only had 3 out of 5 bars of juice. I made it through the day, but I was making myself more nervous than I needed to be.
Also, if you have a newer camera, check if it can be charged by a USB-C battery. I have a large battery from Anker that will keep my camera running for hours, which I bring as an emergency backup. (Don't forget the USB-C cord.) Shooting while tethered to a battery is not fun, but it's better than no power at all. - Suntan lotion (and cover up): You're going to be out in the sun all day. Make sure to use sunscreen, and make sure to reapply every few hours. I wear a wide brimmed hat, a sun shirt, and pants to keep myself covered.
- Rain cover: The alternative to "in the sun all day" isn't fun - a few years ago it was drizzling on and off during the air show. I was able to stay and get some shots because I had a poncho, a rain cover for my camera bag, and a camera raincoat made out of a gallon zip-lock bag with a hole cut in it. (I have since bought rain sleeves and I keep a pack in my camera bag just in case.)
Camera Settings
TLDR
- Jets: Shutter priority, 1/2000 sec, continuous AF (with airplane tracking on), zone area focus, drive mode: high, and electronic shutter if you have a stacked sensor camera
- Prop planes: Shutter priority, 1/250 sec, continuous AF (with airplane tracking on), zone area focus, drive mode: high, and electronic shutter if you have a stacked sensor camera
Details: Why shoot in shutter priority
The important part of airshow camera settings is shutter speed. We want to freeze the jets, especially when there is wing vapor, and we want to pan with prop planes to get propellor blur, so the planes don't look frozen in mid-air. Both of these take specific shutter speeds for them to work.
Aperture doesn't matter as much as shutter speed with air show photography, and neither does ISO, so I'm fine letting my camera figure those out for me. Normally I'm a "manual mode with auto-ISO" person, picking out my shutter speed and aperture, and only letting the ISO float. But, airshows are in bright sunshine, and when I get to my base ISO (100), I like that the camera can start closing down the aperture on its own to keep the photo from blowing out.
That said, if you are a "full manual or you're not a real photographer", and enjoy fighting the changing light, don't let me stop you. Use my "shutter priority" settings as your shutter speed, open your aperture up all the way for your lens, and then change ISO as needed.
With that overview out of the way, here are my camera settings:
Autofocus and drive settings
These are the same for both prop planes and jets. I use a wide or zone autofocus area, with "plane detect" autofocus if your camera body has it. I set my drive mode to the highest speed I can - on my Sony cameras "high speed" lets me shoot at 30fps. (Yes, I have lots of photos to cull after the show, but I have a better chance of catching a decisive moment with a higher frame rate.)
Mechanical vs Electronic shutter: This one is trickier. For most cameras, mechanical shutter is the way to go. Standard cameras have a low readout speed on the sensor, and you'll get rolling shutter artifacts unless you use mechanical shutter. (Why? That's too in-depth for this article that is already longer than I expected it to be.)
If your camera has a stacked or partially stacked sensor, it is probably fast enough to shoot an airshow in electronic shutter mode. If you want to be sure, look up your camera's sensor readout speed; 15ms or lower is my cutoff for "fast enough to avoid rolling shutter." (I just shot the Cleveland Airshow with a Sony A7R6 set to compressed raw mode, which gives it a 14ms sensor readout speed, and I did not notice any rolling shutter artifacts).
Jets
Settings: Camera set to Shutter priority mode ("S" on the mode dial, unless you have Canon, then it's Tv mode) and set the shutter speed to 1/2000.
Jets are easy(ish), we just need a high enough shutter speed to eliminate motion blur, and 1/2000 is good enough for almost all situations. (When I have high-speed jets passing right in front of me, especially when I'm trying to get a shot of two Blue Angels crossing right in front of me, I'll bump the shutter up to 1/3200 or even 1/4000 to freeze the motion of both jets.)
Propellor planes (or helicopters):
Settings: Camera set to Shutter priority mode ("S" on the mode dial, unless you have Canon, then it's Tv mode) and set the shutter speed to 1/250.
That low shutter speed gives propellor blur, and the key is panning with the plane as it goes by to keep from having motion blur.
For propellor planes, I think the key to a good photo is prop blur. That's what our eyes see on prop planes, so we expect it in pictures, and things just look weird if the propellor is frozen. So, we need a low enough shutter speed to see a blurred propellor. But, that would also blur the plane - it's moving fast itself. So, we have to pan with the plane, keeping it in the same spot in the viewfinder, so we get the body of the plane in sharp focus while the propellor is blurred. This is hit-or-miss, and (because of my poor panning skills) mostly miss. But that's OK - I prefer one or two sharp shots of the plane with prop blur to dozens of sharp shots without prop blur.
Now, if you have panning at 1/250sec down, try reducing your shutter speed even more. Professional air show photographers will go down to 1/125 or even 1/60 to get the maximum blur possible. (My panning is too shaky for that, but someday I hope to get there).
But what if I'm no good at panning?
I've been there. Keep trying, you'll get it. (Or at least get better. Remember that all you need is one sharp shot - you're not going to share hundreds of shots are you? If you get one good one, you were a success.)
My key for smooth panning is to twist at the waist. (When I forget and use my arms to pan the camera, I wobble and jerk all over the place.) I set up pointing my camera where I expect to stop panning, tuck my elbows in, then twist at the waist to where the plane is coming in. Then I pan with my waist, keeping my elbows tucked in, as the plane passes. My body will naturally unwind to my starting position, (hopefully) giving me a smooth pan.
(Oh, and I try to keep the plane in the same spot in the viewfinder - it gives me something to aim at.)
That said, during one of the prop plane's passes I will take some safety shots with my jet settings (1/2000 sec). That ensures I have focused shots of all the planes. Then I go back to trying to pan and get my blurred propellors.
And, if this is your first air show, there's no shame in ignoring panning and shooting at 1/2000sec. Don't let some guy on the internet (hi!) tell you "you're doing it wrong" if you're enjoying yourself.
Saving these settings to custom modes makes them easy
There's a lot of setup I just described, and if you're like me, you're going to forget some of it in the heat of the moment. That's where your camera's custom modes come in. (If your camera has numbers on the control dial, you have custom modes.) Days ahead of time, when I'm at home, I save my settings into custom modes, so I don't need to trust my memory.
I set my camera up for Jet mode, and then save the settings to custom mode 1. Then I set up for Prop mode, and save the settings to custom mode 2.
With those two modes saved, I can easily swap between them with a twist of the mode dial. No forgetting settings, no fumbling with my camera when a new plane starts its show - one click and I'm ready to go.
What if I'm shooting both a prop plane and a jet at the same time?
If you have something like a heritage flight, with an older prop plane flying in formation with a modern jet, use Prop mode and pan with the prop plane. You still want that prop blur, and the jet will slow down to match the speed of the prop plane, so panning should get both of them in sharp focus.
Drag the shutter to blur out crowds on the ground
One more trick: try ultra-slow shutter speeds on the ground. In-body image stabilization (IBIS) on modern cameras is amazing. I can hand-hold wide angle lenses down to 1/10th of a second and still get sharp shots, and with burst mode can get a few sharp shots down to ¼ of a second. I use this trick when I'm dealing with crowds at a popular location. If the people are moving, shooting at a really slow shutter speed turns the people into blurs.
I can usually make this work by turning my ISO down as low as my camera allows, and closing down the aperture as much as I can. On my cameras, this means an ISO of 40 or 80, and an aperture of f/22. I have to use a Neutral Density filter on bright, sunny days. In the shot above, even with an ISO of 40 and an aperture of f/22, I needed a 6-stop ND to get the shutter down to ¼ of a second.
...and ask your friends to hold still
If you have someone you actually want in the shot, tell them to hold as still as they can. They'll be sharp, and everyone around them will be blurred. (This is one downside to this approach. Most people will be moving around, at least a little…except for the other photographers. They hold still to get the shot, so they show up sharp in the photos.
How to get interesting photos
Here is what I look for to elevate a shot beyond Plane with Blue Sky. (Not that there's anything wrong with that).
- Clouds: Clouds can be a mixed blessing. Flat, boring clouds give me Plane with a White Sky. But, when I get lucky, I'll get a partly cloudy day, with interesting cloud formations in the background of my shots. And, some of my favorite shots were on a day where there was a storm way out on Lake Erie. I have some fantastic shots of the Blue Angels against an ominous blue-black sky, where the planes just pop. If you have good clouds, try to get shots when the planes are in fromt of them.
- Pilot: Adding the human element makes the shot better. Look for shots when the planes are closest to you, where you can see the pilot in the canopy. (The stunt planes are especially good for this.)
- Blurred propellors: See my discussion of panning up above.
- Ground details for context: Do you have a chance to get some of the ground in the photo, in a way that doesn't block the plane? Flags, banners, buildings, and towers are all things I've used to add interest to the shot.
- Unique plane features: You want an angle that shows off the unique features of a plane. Twin tails, weird angles, interesting paint jobs - what makes the plane stand out? At my last show, my goals were the curved wings of a F4 Corsair, the shark teeth on a P-40 Warhawk, and the triangular shape, twin tails, and rear propellor of the homebuilt Rutan Long-EZ.
- Smoke trails: Stunt planes will often have smoke machines, and those trails can add a lot of interest to the photo. Try to give them more room in the frame so the line of smoke becomes part of the composition.
- Wing Vapor: When fast jet planes turn, the pressure difference along the wing causes vapor to form. On high humidity days this can be dramatic - long contrails behind the wing edges, and a cloudburst of vapor as a plane goes into a tight turn. The best is a vapor cone - a plane close to the speed of sound causes shockwaves, which can result in a cone of vapor. I've only seen this once, and (unfortunately) it was during a sneak pass, and I wasn't ready. (I was still focused on the rest of the Blue Angels formation.) A vapor cone is my new white whale - someday I'll get a picture of one. Someday...
Culling - what do I do with all these pictures?
At my last airshow I took 12,000 pictures. (I had 0.4 second pre-capture and a drive mode 30fps turned on for Jets, hoping to catch the Blue Angels crossing right in front of me - which I did - but that led to 20 pictures minimum when I pressed the shutter button).
How do I get through all of those? Ruthless culling and picking winners. You can do this in almost any photo editor, but I use Photo Mechanic because it loads photo previews instantly.
First, I import the photos to a SSD, and set the memory card(s) away for safe keeping. If I'm on the road, I clone the SSD so I have a second safe copy of all my photos.
Now it's time to cull. I put my "Conan the Destroyer" hat on and get to work.
Pass 1: 1-star the interesting ones (and be ruthless)
I put my right hand on my arrow keys, my left hand pointer finger on the "1" key, and start scrolling through the pictures with the arrow keys. I make a snap decision about every one - if it's a potential keeper, I press the "1" key, then move to the next. My goal is to get through all the photos as quickly as possible, pick the potential best photos from each pass of a plane, and tag them with a 1 star rating. When I see a good angle, I'll star three in a row. If I see anything interesting happening (like vapor trails), I'll star all of them. Then I'm moving on. Out of focus? Bad angle? I already tagged this angle? Moving on to the next photo. I will occasionally zoom in to check focus - this was important on the slow shutter speed panning for prop planes - but I can usually see if a photo is out of focus from the "fit to screen" preview.
(I usually have a memory of certain photos being really good ones, and I watch for those. Also, when I'm at the airshow, I have my red "record" button programmed to star a photo in playback mode, so if I'm looking at my results and see a really good one, I can star it in camera.)
Once I've made it through all the pictures, I'll filter to my zero-star photos delete them all. Yes, all of them. That took me down to 2000 pictures.
Pass 2: 2-star the potential winners
Now I do the same thing with my left hand on the "2" key - I'm going to 2 star my favorites from each sequence of a plane. My goal is to quickly pick the best photos for each plane, and filter out any duplicates. If I have a lot of photos with the same angle, I'm 2-starring the first one (after checking focus at 1:1), then moving on until I get something different from that angle. (I get a lot of photos that look almost identical from the multiple passes each plane makes.) If I have different angles that I like, that's fine - 2-star them and move on. Like the first pass, I try to keep moving, and get through them as quickly as possible. Now I'm down to 200 2-star photos.
Unlike the first pass, I'm not deleting anything - I'm keeping my 1-star photos - just in case I find out when I'm editing that there's something wrong (out of focus), then I can go back and look at the 1-star pictures close to the 2-star pictures.
Pass 3: Pick the champions
Now for the hard part. I'm only going to share one photo of each plane. Maybe two or three if I got some really interesting photos. I have to pick the true winners. I make one more pass with my left hand on the "3" key, and 3-star the winner for each plane. Those are the ones I'm going to edit. (I have to admit, this is where I have a hard time being truly ruthless - I'll usually pick two or three winners for each plane, and then only share one of them.) This got me down to 50 3-star photos, which I edited, and then I picked my favorite 14 to share on social media.
That sounds like a lot of work
It is - one other tip is to start as soon as possible after shooting, especially with the first culling pass. I'm the king of procrastination, but I've learned to get moving on my large photo shoots asap. Having 12,000 photos (or however many you shot) hanging out there is heavy. It's hard to get started, and if you lose momentum, you wind up going to this year's airshow while last year's airshow photos aren't edited yet. (I know, I've been there.) Each pass makes that load lighter, and when I'm looking at potential winners, I get excited - "hey, that's a great one!" is a lot more motivating than "Ugh, I have all these photos to get through."
All My Air Show Photos
Check out my Air Show photos here: Air Show Posts
Thanks for reading!
I hope this helps, and if you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I'll try to help if I can. ("How do I set this up on my camera" is going to be hard unless it is a Fujifilm or Sony camera, which are the brands I'm most familiar with.)
Or, if you're an air show photo expert, and I'm missing something, let me know in the comments.
Good luck at the air show!
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