Page 25 - Australian Photography - September 2017

PHOTO TIPS: AMA Z ING AER IALS

2 BASE YOUR LENS SELECTION 4 SET YOUR SHUTTER SPEED

ON THE LIGHTING EVENT YOU
JUST FAST ENOUGH
PLAN YOUR FLIGHT AROUND
During my research, I found opinions
varied greatly on what minimum shut-
When you fly with the doors of a heli-
copter removed, most companies will
ter speed to use. The reality is, when
not let you switch lenses for safety rea-
you are flying, there is no hard and fast
rule. Focal length, sensor size, aircraft
sons. This makes lens selection some-
type, weather conditions and more will
thing you need to consider thoroughly
all affect the minimum shutter speed
before flying.
Fortunately, with two camera bodie, I
needed for blur free images.
was able to access two lensed. I knew for
On the day of our flight the weather was
the first half of the flight while there was still enough poor, but our pilot did his best to keep the helicopter steady.
ambient light, the 24-70mm was going to be my go-to My plan was to start at 1/250s and take a number of test
lens. I enjoy using prime lenses, however having the shots to determine how low I could set my shutter. I used
ability to zoom turned out to be incredibly useful. I 1/250s most of the time, but made adjustments as required.
would have happily shot the entire flight with that lens
however as the light started to fade, switching to the
35mm f/1.4 prime was necessary to avoid really high LEFT: In sections of New York, there are city blocks tightly filled
ISOs. Being restricted to a fixed focal length for the with apartment buildings, each one indistinguishable from the
last half of the flight was frustrating and made me wish adjacent buildings. From street level, these buildings would likely
be dismissed by photographers. From above, these architecturally
I’d brought an 85mm f/1.4. Having reviewed the fo-
uniform structures create unique and interesting compositions.
cal lengths I used, I don’t regret my lens selection, al- Sony a7R II, Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM lens @ 43mm, 1/250s @
though I certainly wouldn’t have complained having a f/2.8, ISO 3200.
third lens and camera body at my disposal.
BELOW: Much like the CBD of Melbourne, Manhattan’s streets
Zoom and prime lenses both have their place in aer-
are gridded. I like to use strong leading lines in my images, and
ial photography. The decision on what to bring is going
the gridded streets of New York present countless opportunities.
to be heavily dictated by the lighting event that you Sony a7R II, Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM lens @ 70mm, 1/250s
plan your flight around.
@ f/2.8, ISO 3200.
3 UTILISE BURST SHOOTING MODES
Although we may be shooting a fixed sub-
ject, as the helicopter is constantly mov-
ing, the same principles used for shooting
sports or moving objects can be applied.
For this flight, I had set both cameras to
use ‘Hi’ Continuous Shooting. By choos-
ing this drive mode over single-frame
shooting, I would end up with a series
of images, allowing me the flexibility to
choose the frame with the least motion
blur and the best composition. Upon reviewing my im-
ages post flight, there were a few instances where having
additional images to choose from, salvaged a shot which
otherwise would have been unusable.
One issue I had not foreseen was how quickly the
buffer would fill up on my cameras. The Sony a7R II
boasts an impressive 42-megapixel sensor, which cre-
ates very large files when shooting in uncompressed
RAW format. There were a number of instances
where I was either unable to review my images or
missed out on a particular shot due to the buffer not
clearing in time. To rectify this, I changed my set-
ting to ‘Lo’ Continuous Shooting and switched be-
tween cameras regularly to mitigate the issue. I would
strongly recommend testing your camera’s buffer ca-
pacity prior to your flight.