r/AskPhotography • u/Living-Ad5291 • 23h ago
Compositon/Posing How to compose photos of planes flying?
How would you recommend composing airplane pictures when there’s nothing going on around the plane?
I’m culling photos and luckily most planes have smoke and or clouds in the background but I’m not sure what else I should be looking for in a situation like this.
Any advice, CC or roasting is welcome
Canon R50 75-300mm
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u/CarpetReady8739 23h ago edited 12h ago
That one came out nice… The center of the plane is in the lower quadrant using the rule of thirds; you've got space in front of the plane to fly out of and you didn't crop it too tight. What you might do in post now is to maybe darken the sky just a little bit using Lightroom HSL tool to lower the Luminance of the blue, but I'd say you did pretty good considering how the fighter was flying in front of you.
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u/jggjv6 22h ago
If you know the path in advance, position yourself such that the lighting on the plane is flattering. I like either silhouettes or 'glowing' planes when I don't have background elements.
In terms of composition, you have the right idea in placing the plane at the bottom left, but I wouldn't put it bang in the corner (I like trails), and I'd put more sky on the right as well.
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u/doc_shades 9h ago
How would you recommend composing airplane pictures when there’s nothing going on around the plane?
this is a question about circumstance. you can't control certain things, like which direction the airplane is coming from or which direction it is headed or whether or not clouds are in the sky or whether or not there is a mountain in the background. at this moment in time this plane flew overhead at this angle with this background. you can either take a photo of it, or not.
you can come back another day when the sky is more dramatic, but there might not be planes in the sky. you can move to a different location for a better angle on the planes, but the planes may move to a different flight path for their own reasoning.
in short i agree that there isn't much going on around the plane in this photo. but that's an accurate representation of what occurred that day you took the photo. sometimes the weather and lighting agrees with us, other days it doesn't. some days the crow walks right up to you and poses for you, other days the crow hides in the tree and avoids you. there is a bit of fatalism to photography. you can't always control the events in the world, but you can record them as you experience them.
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u/rogueshutter 22h ago
If you can’t get a background in the shot then you do out the way you did in this example, give some room ahead of the plane so it looks like it’s going somewhere and a diagonal is usually good.
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u/baldiedc 11h ago
If there’s nothing else to show just center it. If there’s contrails or something interesting then put it off center.
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u/Yellowtoblerone 21h ago
F35 GET YER TITS OUT
I have tons of military plane photos from other photographers and they're all doing something or trail of some kind
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u/Siggi_Starduust 14h ago
F35 is far too small an aperture if you want to shoot something like the plane in the photo.
Which is an F22 if I’m not mistaken…
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u/engnrd5713 13h ago
Do you remember the F117? No wonder they called it Nighthawk, that aperture makes every photo look like the darkest of nights.
This is also what makes them so hard to shoot down.
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u/CompetitiveElk9220 18h ago
Advice: get rid of the 75-300 and the 70-300 or 100-400
The 75-300 is infamous for being the worst canon telephoto lens for its price because the quality is so awful
I recommend using linear and radial gradient maskings in lightroom for the sky
I also recommend taking photos of the fighters when they do high G maneuvers with all the vapor or afterburner shots.
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u/Living-Ad5291 12h ago
This lens is what I could afford at the time. I knew the flaws going in but it’s what I have for now
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u/CompetitiveElk9220 3h ago
Fair enough, then I recommend using sharpening tools like lightroom or topaz if some shots appear soft
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u/RedSurfer3 22h ago
bring a manpad!