How to Photograph Airplanes With a Digital Camera

Unless you are right next to the plane, you will need a long lens to capture the aircraft.

Airplanes seem as if they would be easy targets to photograph: just point your camera toward the sky, single out the airplane, and click the shutter button. While you can certainly take photographs of airplanes with the automatic settings on your digital camera, your level of picture quality and professionalism is increased when you set your camera to capture the image exactly as you desire. You can take photographs of airplanes with a "point and shoot," or a DSLR camera. The advantage of the DSLR camera is the ability to remove and change lenses.

Things You'll Need

• Tripod

Instructions

1. Attach your camera to the top of your tripod to ensure steady camera movements. Because of the likely distance between you and your airplane subject, without a tripod, camera movements will be greatly exaggerated. A sneeze or deep breath could mean a lost shot.

2. Set your shutter speed to a high setting. Airplanes move very fast, and you need a shutter that will open and close quickly to capture the image without blur. A good shutter speed to start with is 1/250th of a second. Anything longer than 1/60th of a second is almost guaranteed to produce a blur. Experiment with your photos to achieve desirable results. If you have a "point and shoot" camera, you can find the shutter speed setting in your digital menu.

3. Close up the aperture of your digital camera to increase the focus range of the lens. When your digital camera is set at the lowest f-stop, the depth of field is more shallow, making focusing much more difficult. An f-stop of f4 or higher will increase your chances of capturing the airplane in focus. You can adjust your DSLR aperture from the lens barrel, or, if you have a "point and shoot," you can access the f-stop option in your camera's menu.

4. Use the longest lens you have for your camera if you intend to capture the plane "close-up." This means that, if you have a zoom lens, zoom in as far as you can to the area in which the airplanes are flying. If you have separate lenses for your camera, put a lens on the camera that is 200-millimeters or more in focal length. Move the zoom switch on your "point and shoot" camera to the "T" (telephoto) printed on the camera body until the lens stops moving.

5. Take a few practice photographs to check the ISO settings on your camera. If your ISO exposure settings are too low, your images may appear dark. If the ISO is too high, your photos will appear over-exposed and grainy.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have a "point and shoot" digital camera, make sure the dial wheel on the camera body points to the "M," which stands for manual. When your "point and shoot" is in manual mode, you can access the aperture, shutter, and other functions from the in-camera menu.

• Do not point your digital camera toward the sun if you do not have a UV filter. The sun can damage the internal elements of the camera.

References

• Digital Photography School: How to Take Sharp Digital Images