AirshowStuff Forums

Would be interested to hear some discussion about how all of you estimate exposure compensation on the fly during airshows....
Thanks, Kevin

Good question!

I've come to be very aware of blown out hot spots on aircraft and clouds, so I've started shooting at 1/3 or 2/3rds under. That preserves more details in the bright spots and I can brighten the dark spots (rendered darker by the compensation) pretty easily.

Another way to look at it is that when you're outside at a show, you are far more likely to run into full white spots than full dark. So reducing the exposure balances things a bit.

All of this is assuming you are shooting RAW and editing afterwards. If someone is looking for a JPEG recommendation, they want to get it as correct as possible in the camera so it'd take a good deal more fine-tuning to the situation.

I wrote an article for the RC crowd a few years ago discussing EC & prop blur. Full scale is a bit different because you won't have as much sky in the shot & the shutter speeds for props or heli rotors need to be much slower but it may offer some ideas. I wrote a similar article for Model Aviation Canada (our MAAC magazine) which was a bit more condensed. The on line article has other tips too.

https://www.rccanada.ca/rccforum/showth ... p?t=147971

I will meter on a static display that I can walk up to and get an EV that I keep for the day and set the camera manually, assuming the weather and clear sky holds. If not, I'll meter on stuff in the crowd near me. Basically, meter on subjects instead of sky.

I used to try to spot-meter during the show, but you can't count on the subject being on that spot, especially in multi-ship formations.