Need tech Advice & Tips for Airshow photography

[Sean Setters]

1) Shoot in manual to lock in a specific exposure on flying planes. Make sure that the shutter speed is fast enough to freeze the planes, then set the Aperture/ISO to balance out the equation. You may need to adjust these settings at different parts of the day, but otherwise, it should work well. Shoot in RAW so that if you need to adjust exposure by a little bit in post, you'll still have the head/floor room to do so without significantly impacting image quality.

2) For ground subjects, I'd shoot in Av mode. Figure out how much DOF you want in the grounds shots, and adjust the camera accordingly. Av mode works better for the ground shots because of the greater variance in highlight/shadow situations. As its a much more dynamic scene, letting the camera adjust for the exposure makes sense. Using Manual mode for flying subjects and Av mode for ground subjects makes a lot of sense, too, from a practical standpoint--the correct settings are easily obtained by turning the Mode Dial one click in either direction.

3) For flying subjects, I'd definitely use AI-Servo. The camera shouldn't have any problems tracking subjects unless they fly straight across the sun. For stationary subjects, I prefer One Shot as it allows me to focus and recompose (something that isn't as necessary on the 5D III). Most of the action on the ground (other than take-offs) won't be moving fast enough to need AI-Servo.

4) I'm going to cop-out on this one and say, "Read the Manual." :-)

Try looking through Bryan Carnathan's airshow pictures. He puts little tips in the caption that may help you out.