Capturing the prop blur

Today I drove over to Urbana, OH to view some of the B-25s gathering in preparation for the Doolittle Raiders reunion. I decided to do some experimenting with my camera, a Canon S5 IS (not an SLR). It has a 12x zoom so I can get reasonable close-ups and the image stabilization does a decent job of compensating for my shaky aim.

Anyway, I put the camera into shutter priority and tried setting the shutter speed down to about 1/60 sec to get a full disc prop blur, but the aperture couldn't close down tight enough to get a good shot (the photos were over exposed). I ended up shooting most of my pics around 1/250 sec and thus only got a partial blur.

Anyone have any ideas how to get a slower shutter speed? I wonder if a dark filter would work (or even fit on my camera)?



More photos here.

Two things come to mind, and you already hit on one.

1) A Neutral Density (ND) filter. From 1/250 you'll need at a 2-stop filter to get you to 1/60, but you might consider a 3-stop. You might need an adapter to use screw in filters (I don't know about the S5) or another option would be to buy an inexpensive 100mm x 100mm square ND resin filter, and just hold it up against your lens with your other hand. Might be a little tricky to hold though.

2) Can your camera shoot in RAW (as opposed to JPEG)? If so, RAW will give you more lattitude to adjust the exposure down afterwards.

Nice shots!

Edit... I just looked at the S5 specs and I don't think it does RAW.

Sunglasses

Although it is sometimes awkward to try, a tip I have used for many years when I don't have my "big gun" stuff (I'm an aerial photographer) with me is to use your sunglasses. Just hold the sunglass lens up to the camera lens and use the LCD to compose the shot. Polarized sunglasses are a plus.

I almost always have my point and shoot camera and my sunglasses with me on daily travels. I don't always have the high-end stuff. (the better quality the glasses the better quality the photo)

On another note, 1/160 usually produces a good prop blur. Depends on engine/prop speed.

There's a few things that come to mind here...

if you're using a 12x zoom on a point-and-shoot, there is almost *no* setting that will give you both a full circle prop blur and yet still a photo of an airplane that will be anywhere near sharp. Hand-holding a 1/60th second photo is hard at times even with a professional camera.

Taking a photo of a full prop disc requires that the prop move at least 1/2 revolution (on two-bladed props). As a pilot you can probably guess what RPM people are flying at, at least close enough for a guess. I usually assume 2000rpm, and work from there. 2000 rpm is 60/2000 or about 1/30 of a second, for a full revolution. 1/60 for a half-revolution is about right for a full-sweep photo.

I find that photos of planes look more "believable" when the prop has between 1/6 and 1/4 of a sweep blurred. That means 1/120 to 1/180 of a second shutter speed. I usually use 1/200th, and find that it works well, which means the planes are probably flying closer to 2400 rpm. It's a good balance between getting "action" in the shot (with a prop blur) and sharpness of photo (due to hand shake and airplane motion through the frame as the shutter releases).

A full sweep will sometimes disappear into your background, unless the conditions are just right. Shooting a partial sweep forces clear areas where the prop is and isn't, again giving the illusion of motion.

And as a final note, when you're at an airshow and shooting planes, don't forget to switch from 1/250 to 1/1000 when the jets come out. You'll get much better photos, and there are no props to blur. Just don't forget to switch back when the prop planes come back. Photos of stopped props look very, very wrong somehow.

A circular polarizing filter will take 1-2 stops of light away which may help. Do you have any ability to adjust the sensitivity on your camera? I can dial the iso on my camera between 100 and 1600, but really only 100 to 400 is good enough quality.

A photo on my shelf I took has about 45 degrees of prop rotation which looks good to my eye. It's still just a blur with nothing readable and even the white stripes on the tips are barely noticeable.

Thanks for the responses. The only other adjustment I used was the exposure compensation which I set to the darkest possible setting (-2). The problem here is that since I was overriding the autoexposure, I wasn't really sure the exposure was correct. It turns out most of my photos were somewhat too dark and needed to be tweaked in the Gimp to brighten them up.

I'm going to do some checking to see if I can find a filter that will fit my camera and cut the light some. Too bad this camera doesn't go to F15 or so. That would probably be all I need. The smallest aperture on the camera is F8.

Someday after the plane's done and I have more time, perhaps I'll get more into photography and buy a real camera.

If you are shooting air to air, the pilot may be able to set a higher propellor rpm during the shoot.

If you are shooting ground to air, you don't often have much of a say in what the pilot is doing - in these instances, shoot slower than 1/160 if at all possible. If there is lots of light around, you may need to add a ND filter, or wind down your ISO as slow as possible to achieve this.

Of course, ground to air also means zooming in as much as possible, and the standard rule of thumb of 1/focal length as a minimum to avoid camera shake (e.g. 400mm lens = no slower than 1/400 sec) means that 1/160th is hard to reach. In this case, if your camera supports a VR lens, these can be invaluable to reduce camera shake when shooting longer lenses and slower speeds.

Invariably, sharp, full frame photographs of aircraft with full prop disc's usually come after half a dozen blurred attempts of same shot - thank goodness for digital!!

Unless your name is Ian Brodie or Phil Makanna, then they just happen...

Shutter speeds

Funny this should come up, was just playing around with the shutter speed on my Nikon the other day.

1/125:


1/160:


1/320:


1/400:


1/1000:

I took this last weekend at Dahlonega when Smokey came over to fly with us on a Circle the Jumper mission.

I set the shutter speed at 1/60 and panned along as he landed. ISO at 100 and let the apeture set itself on my Canon 40D.

Panning is something you really need to learn how to do and it takes alot of practice to keep the object still while panning but the results are worth the time spent. This technique will give you a focused object but a blurry background as well as a prop arc. Smokey was pretty much at idle so RPM was relatively low.

Rick, just keep in mind that the B-17 was probably at idle, so something around or below 1000rpm.

Jerry, excellent photo. I love the composition. But I find that the lack of a propellor looks a little odd to me. Stand next to the runway and take the same photo with a fast enough shutter speed to give only a partial arc on each prop blade (1/4 to 1/6th per blade, or about twice as much as in the 1/125 photo from Rick, above), and you'll get a little more depth-of-field to sharpen up the airplane, without losing too much of the background blur that gives the feeling of motion.

That is true, The photo's are not perfectly relevant. I had just remembered taking them a last week and playing with the shutter speeds. I am still very much an amateur when it comes to SLR photography, but i am having a great time learning.

RV8iator said:

I set the shutter speed at 1/60 and panned along as he landed. ISO at 100 and let the apeture set itself on my Canon 40D.

Click to expand...

Jerry - outstanding photo. 1/60th handheld and still that crisp against such great motion blur is a real pleasure to see. You have every right to be proud such a great photo.

Cheers
Chris

I have a Nikon D40 and have been messing around with shutter speed thing at various airshows for a year or so. Although I've managed to get a few good pics, I've sure got a lot of bad ones. Thank God for digital cameras or I'd be broke from buying film.

1/60 Full throttle on the takeoff roll (white prop helps)


1/60 Although taxiing, engine RPM was high


1/80 Low RPM taxiing


1/80 Definately one of my favorites. I've tried and tried but haven't been able to get another like this.


Not long after after I took these pictures, I thought I would try to get some good air to air prop blur picts in loose formation. You know like the ones on the cover of the AOPA magazines. Ya right, every single one was blurry. Although the air was smooth, I sure the vibration killed me.

Jerry

Just saw this on the home page. Is this another of yours?



Takeoff, so high RPM, and easier to get a full disc, but still great work.

Chris

One thing about the B-25, and other big radials or V-12, is they have geared props.... Most turn about 55% of engine speed. In the B-25 the T/O rpm is 2600 and cruise is around 1800, so after the nosecase slows the prop down it is not turning very fast.....

Photographers ask us all the time to push the props up, we don't push them up too far... Taking care of our engines is more important than pretty pictures....

Several Great shots here!

Tailwinds,
Doug Rozendaal

Sky Pig II and P51

Bernie and Doug R. Full Blur. I shoot 1/80 with image stabilization on my Canon.





It helps to get you between the sun and the prop you wish to blur..... My mentor Peter Fruehling taught me all I know!