THE EQUIPMENT
This article isn’t about the gear you’ll need to take airplane
shots, but we need to discuss it if the rest of the conversa-
tion is going to make any sense.
With that disclaimer, know that in order to capture
great images, you’ll need cameras and lenses that are up to
the task. Good news alert: Just about everyone is carrying
around a high-quality camera in their pocket or purse.
That’s right—it’s your phone. If you have a late-model
mobile phone from Samsung, Apple, Google or several
others, you’ve got a camera that can capture some great
aviation shots, at least certain kinds of shots.
It’s not even the latest model, but I use my iPhone all
the time to shoot airplanes, and there are several kinds
of images for which it’s a great tool. It’s nothing short of
remarkable for taking photographs of the earth below
as I fly, and it’s spectacular for shooting the instrument
panel (as well as various airplane details, everything
from spinner to empennage both outside and inside the
plane). I haven’t taken a photo of a panel with a digital
single-lens reflex (DSLR) for ages. My iPhone is easier to
use and generates better results for my purposes.
Then again, the iPhone is useless for taking photo-
graphs of airplanes at any distance. These phones lackthe optics for such uses, and they likely always will. And
because it’s hard to control shutter speed and aperture
on a phone’s camera, you can’t tailor the settings to the
subject as you can with a good DSLR camera. So, use your
phone to take certain kinds of airplane pics, including
panel pics, detail shots and snapshots galore, but don’t
expect it to do the impossible.
Doing the impossible (or seemingly impossible) should
be left to what the pros use when they head out to the flight
line...that is, a good replaceable-lens camera. Granted, in
their bags the pros have four camera bodies and seven
lenses, plus countless filters and adapters and other
accessories, but in theory, what they use to get their shots
is what we all have access to—a DSLR or a mirrorless,
smaller-format camera. They aren’t expensive, either. You
can get a good used 35-mm DSLR with a kit lens on eBay
for less than $500, less than most of us paid for our phones.
And when it comes to digital cameras, even models a few
generations back can take spectacular shots.
There are a handful of important considerations when
choosing a camera, but the bigger issue is choosing
lenses. I strongly suggest using zoom lenses, so you can
zoom in or out to make the subject (airplanes mostly) the
right size to fit in the frame as you imagine it. Very longIF YOU’RE A PILOT OR JUST AN AIRPLANE NUT,
then you have almost certainly taken photographs of
airplanes, probably lots of them. And it’s also likely that
many of your efforts have been less than fully satisfying.
No shame. Airplanes are really hard to photograph.
There are, in fact, a number of built-in challenges when it
comes to photographing aircraft, often making it easier
to make mistakes than not. Here at Plane & Pilot, we
see endless examples of what not to do. Some of these
shots-gone-wrong contain multiple, glaring examples
of how easy it is to ruin a perfectly good opportunity.
There’s hope, however. If you know how to look out for
the mistakes lurking in the weeds and if you understand
how to look for the possibilities, you’ll soon be able to
turn even a humdrum scene into a compelling image.
46 SEPTEMBER 2019 ÇPlane&Pilot
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