tips please

got to shoot a low flying but quick aircraft grey or blue sky canon90d 150 -500mm lens any tips greatfully accepted

 

i usually use multi point focus boxes on clear skies as there wont be any busy background for the auto system to catch on
expose for the aircraft, similar to birds you might need to manually turn up the iso to a setting for that, you'll see what you need during the shoot

if you leave it on auto the amount of sky will cause the exposure system to under expose, if you are really good with your aim and can hit the plane perfect you could try spot and a single box but at 500mm thats going to be pretty hard unless they flying slow and towards or away from you

if you shooting jets in lower light you might want to try and expose for the after burners, they are great shots

if they are all very low flying and you have alot of missed focus because the lens is hitting the subjects in the back ground you might want to try manual focus esp if they using the same flight path, small box group could work too if its not a clear background
last resort on that would be to get down low so you have a sky behind them, i've seen some low flyers with hills behind them


you seem to be doing pretty well panning wise with your car shots, just some are a bit dodgy on exposure but alot are very good

on some of the lenses you can switch from full OS to panning OS, this allows for left to right movement while the lens comps for up and down stabilization (do you mean the 150-600mm? not sure if the 150-500mm was a typo above) think that lens has it, i know my sigma 150-600mm has it

trying to keep a bird or a plane in frame at 500 / 600mm if it is filling the frame can be difficult at first hand held, you could try reducing the zoom a bit so its half the size of the frame or more to get a feel for the speed of the tracking and to get a ball park of the exposure

use the focus limiter to 6meter to infinity so the lens is quicker reacting, if its on full rack it will come all the way back to close then out again each time you miss the subject on servo, with the limiter it will just use the quick rack, also don't use any extenders as this will slow down the focus, if you do use them when you got stuff under control

on some bodies shooting slow continuous allows for the focus system to refocus between burst shots, where as fast continuous may just use the first image focus, depends on the body,

depending on light and the shutter speed you might want to bump up the ƒ stop to get a better depth of field, wouldn't go past ƒ16 as diffraction will make the image softer again, its always worth knowing what your system limits are with things like diffraction and sharp sweet spots (your lens and body diffraction may kick in before ƒ16)

if you ar not getting what you want at the airshow etc ask others who look like they know what they doing, chances are they will give you some good tips for the conditions on the day

try to have the sun behind you so you have good light on the plane and not having to shoot into the sun if you have the choice of placement

don't for get a wider lens too, 150mm is going to be too big for planes on the ground if you get to see them up close, same for any pilot shots.
just a few things i can think of, sure some pro plane smudgers have better advice, happy shooting kevin

 

great help thanks its going to be 1 spitfire on a low pass

 

just the one, go for the wider focal to be sure to get it if you close, if its further away then go longer, the further away the slower it will seem,

 

thanks

 

May I give you one other tip. Turn the Noise Reduction setting on your camera to it's lowest setting, preferably OFF altogether (page 238 for EOS 90D in the user manual). Noise reduction on this camera is very aggressive and tends to 'smear' or obliterate fine detail and crisp edges giving the image a 'plasticky' appearance - which is noticeable in some of your vehicle images.
Noise can be reduced glabally or selectively in software if it is deemed objectionable. I notice that you use Picasa which I have never used but there is free software out there which will do the job.

Good luck with the shooting - figuratively speaking of course.

Late edit: Page Number corrected

 

many thanks