Planespotting is probably one of the quickest ways to learn to handle a moving subject: the aircraft arrives, you have a few seconds, and it won’t come back because your ISO was wrong. These are the settings I start with — not universal rules, but a starting point that works in most situations.
The principle: shutter speed first
Everything revolves around shutter speed. The rest follows. I use shutter priority with Auto ISO and an upper limit: I decide how much motion to freeze, and the camera handles the rest.
| Situation | Shutter speed | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Jet landing or taking off | 1/1000 s or faster | Freezes the subject and leaves some room for imperfect tracking. |
| Propeller aircraft | 1/160–1/250 s | Keeps the propeller blurred: a frozen propeller makes the aircraft look as though its engine has stopped in flight. |
| Helicopter | 1/125–1/200 s | The same principle: you want movement in the rotor disc. |
| Aircraft parked on the apron | As needed | Composition matters here, rather than speed. |
Slower shutter speeds with propellers are the difficult part: at 1/200 s, you need to follow the subject with your whole body, not just your arms. You’ll discard plenty of shots at first, and that’s normal.
Aperture and ISO
With telephoto lenses, I often work wide open or slightly stopped down: f/5.6–f/8 is the compromise I use most, keeping the subject sharp from end to end without pushing the ISO too high.
I set a reasonable upper limit for Auto ISO on my camera. A little noise is better than motion blur: you can reduce noise in post-processing, but not undo a blurred subject.
Autofocus
- Continuous AF (AF-C / servo): essential for a subject approaching you.
- Dynamic area or tracking, rather than a single point: an aircraft against an even sky is easy to acquire and hard to lose.
- Continuous shooting at a moderate burst rate: there’s almost always a frame with the right attitude in the sequence.
If your camera has aircraft or vehicle detection, it’s worth enabling: it makes a real difference on side-on passes.
Your spot matters more than your settings
You can have perfect settings and still come home with mediocre photos if you’re in the wrong place. I check three things before choosing where to stand:
- The active runway. It depends on the wind and can change during the day, so check before setting out.
- The direction of the light. Usually, I keep the sun behind me. Early morning and late afternoon offer soft side lighting that brings out aircraft liveries.
- The background. An even, clear sky is the simplest choice, but a hillside, hangar or city can make a shot distinctive.
Post-processing
Keep it simple and focused: straighten the horizon, crop to leave room ahead of the nose, lift shadows on the fuselage and apply a little sharpening. If a shot needs much more than that, the problem usually started before editing.
In future articles, I plan to add a few photographs with comments and exposure settings. If you have a setup that works better for you, tell me about it.