New to Dslr photography

Location : Bedford Spotter Watch Member : No

Hi all,
just got a new Canon EOS1000D camera kit,with 18-55 lens and 70-300 lens.
As I am new to the slr scene I am just taking pot shots of civvie airliners with the aim of getting some fast jets and transports next year.One problem I seem to get is when I take a pic of an aircraft flying it becomes more of a silouette and no markings are clear.
Any tips and hints will be most appreciated

main aim is to get as good as some of the photographers on here

Thanks Cheers

Moderator Location : In a layby

Hi Sidders, I use a 400d (which is very similar) What camera setting are you using? For jets its best to use "AV" mode and set it to around f8 using the dial on the top. If its prop aircraft or helicopters switch to "TV" mode and (using the same dial) set the shutter speed to 1/250th That way you will get some prop blur effect.

It might sound obvious but try and keep the sun behind you and practice as much as you can!

Im not very good at explaining things clearly but if you have any other questions by all means pm me and i'll see what I can do

Location : Henlow, Beds

Hi Sidders,

All of what Graham basically says is good advice and will help. The specific problem you have described with the "silouetting" is caused by under exposure of the plane in relation to the sky, basically the metering sees more of the bright sky and less of the plane, and averages the scene to be brighter than it is. The three simplist ways to avoid this are (a) don't shoot into the sun, sounds damn obvious but sometimes you can't avoid it. If possible position yourself with the sun behind you. That will illuminate the plane better. (b) dial in some positive exposure compensation into the camera. On a Canon thats done by pressing a button marked "-/+" (normally under your right thumb). Use that to add +2/3 to +1 EV to the shot, you will be amazed what that can do! If the image then goes too light, reduce the compensation by 1/3, I'm afraid its something you just have to experiment with. Have a read of the manual on that subject. The final option is to change the meeting mode away from the default "Evaluative" to "Partial". On that setting the more central part of the viewfinder is used for metering - however use this one with care. Again manual time!

A combination of those 3 above should improve the sitiuation no end.