Guide to aerial photography

No magic there. Just follow some basic rules (which most people fail at already…)

• Don‘t use a smartphone camera (a regular compact cam is ok)
• Shoot away from the sun (unless looking for special effects)
• Level the horizon
• Avoid reflections from the windows
• set focus to „infinity“ (can also be achieved by cropping)
• Don‘t put interesting objects dead into the centre of the image; offset them to the side a bit

Some previous discussion here.

Don‘t overdo it with colour, brightness and contrast corrections.

https://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/aerial.htm

Makes such a difference if you can open the window and get the lens out. I did a right bit of photo flying 10 years ago.

Any recommendations on cameras? Today I simply use my phone, but the ergonomics is awful, I use it for other things and so on.

What I need (or at least want) is a compact camera. It has to be compact, or I simply will not bring it along (I am definitely not a big camerabag person ) It has to be able to set those setting as described above.

Good advice above, and Bosco summarises it well.

I would add:

• keep windows clean, scratch-free, and polished with Plexus or similar
• shoot through an area of window with fewest scratches (a good technique for ski lifts also )
• shoot through an area with least curvature
• use a hairy black towel over your legs, to stop them reflecting
• pros use black gloves
• if you have to use a phone buy a black case phone (not white – they are terrible for reflecting in windows)
• avoid bright objects in the back of the plane because they also reflect and ruin photos
• avoid touching the window with the camera as this scratches the window and couples vibration into the camera (for stabilisation, touch the window with one finger of the hand which holds the camera)
• fly somewhere scenic!

Many previous threads…

Re the camera, I have recently got a Canon G7X and would regard that as the baseline for getting reasonable results. Often, one needs to crop the image, and often the crop is done purely to remove an unwanted reflection. A DSLR (I would use a Pentax K1 with a 28-70 lens) does a great job of course, much assisted by its amazing stabilisation, but is heavy and bulky.

Well, no-one has said it yet, but Im going to:

If you are taking photographs, get someone else to fly. Or you fly and get someone else to take photographs.
I am saying PHOTOGRAPHS. This is not the same as taking a few pics out of the window when you are in the cruise at several 000ft.

And you can never take too many photos of high enough resolution so as to be able to pic the best and crop it on decent software.

Regards, SD..

Aircraft where the window opens. Ergo Cessna 150 through 182, or Super Cub types. Fly early morning or evening to get lower sun light and smoother air.

35mm format you need around 50mm to 200mm focal length. To avoid vibration don’t lean on airframe, let your butt act as the VR. As the Ken Rockwell article says, 1/1000 shutter and probably a fixed focal. A Sony A7 and a vintage Minolta 100mm or 135mm would be a nice combo.

I only use iPhone, but would need a buddy to fly or take photos if I was to take it more seriously.

There is a poster who brought his PA-11 cub special to Europe and lived at Puigcerdá, he seemed to be using his photo skills commercially and may have had some books published.

https://garrettfisher.me/flying-in-spain-an-overview/

If you are thinking of buying a new camera, see if you can test it first or an example of it. The first thing you are looking for is how comfortable you feel with the camera is it too heavy? Does the lens you are thinking of using protrude too far, trying to take photos against plexiglass is really difficult with an unweildy camera. Is it overly complicated to be able to just grab, point and press. Most great photo opportunities on the move just arrive suddenly, and to capture the moment is not easy if the camera needs lots of fiddling before you can take the photo.
If choosing a camera for use in an SEP if you can, test the camera by taking a photo with a wire fence in front of you (roughly the distance between the front seats and the prop on your aircraft) and focus on something in the distance, you should not be able to see the fence on the photograph although it will have a slightly lighter and softened appearance. This can be changed in other ways.
Be careful with cropping as it can just as easily destroy the composition ofa good photograph as enhance it.
Finally, take loads of photos, digital cameras allow you to do that with little or no extra cost.
Otherwise @Boscomantico and @Peter have basically covered it.

skydriller wrote:

If you are taking photographs, get someone else to fly. Or you fly and get someone else to take photographs.
I am saying PHOTOGRAPHS. This is not the same as taking a few pics out of the window when you are in the cruise at several 000ft.

Seconded. The best flying photos I have were made by my best friend when I took him along in a C172. Most of the photos I made myself were of substandard quality so far…