Cockpits

[Tonyz]

Here are two day shots and another night shot.  The light is from the NVG compatable light, but I would like to get a slightly higher shutter speed for a clearer background of the city.

[Tonyz]

I borrowed a night vision lens and shot this of the cocpit on the ground.

[André]

Nice shots there Tony. Glad to hear the SDPD guys let you experiment as well. 

Have you tried a clamp gripe and remote control as well attached somewhere in the back on the chopper ?

[RichardVM]

Isn't that a matter of shutterspeed and direct flash? Too high shutterspeed, black screens. And the light of the flash, when flashing directly, will black it out as well I think. Flashing indirectly might remedy that, but keep those shutterspeeds down. It was another reason why I didn't use the flash in the KLM-shot, apart from trying to keep the atmosphere of the early-morning sunrise landing.

Unfortunately, the screens are simply underexposed when you meter for outside. You could ask the crew to see if they can turn up the brightness of the screens at all, or you'll have to sacrifice your outside exposure and underexpose the outside exposure in hopes of getting closer to a correct exposure for the screens.

The only noticeable effect the flash should have on the screens would be if you had a direct reflection, which would show as a bright white blown-out area. Trust me, I've seen a lot of those.

Talk about arm-chair flying...

Richard

[thenewarea51]

Dude, that's an Astar? Looks like the GD space shuttle. I can't believe how everyone is turning to glass these days.  I went to go get checked out in a fixed wing the other day and the flight school's whole fleet has Garmin G1000s. The world is going to h ELL

Here are two day shots and another night shot.  The light is from the NVG compatable light, but I would like to get a slightly higher shutter speed for a clearer background of the city.

[Tonyz]

Yep, it is an Astar.  Glass cockpits just amaze me....but they can be a pain to shoot.

Next day time flight I take I will try Richard's advice and get them to turn the screen brightness up all the way. 

[bcradio]

Rode shotgun on an IFR flight last night in a Bonanza... Tried a few different things.

This technique puts it into the point and shoot category, but it works - I put the camera in the crook of my shoulder and neck.  It really seemed like the best way to stabilize it when the shutter speeds were very low.

[bcradio]

Using a zoom lens at night?  VR / IS works!!  1/15 at 70mm, VR on ACTIVE mode = all these shots were sharp (I could have used a lower ISO I think)

[CAVU Mark]

Mig 17, but can you read Chinese?
Correction MIG 15.

[CAVU Mark]

Love those old cockpits.  Here are the bare essentials, Rearwin Cloudster (love those old names too).

[Christian Beenen]

Realy great shots everyone! Great tips as well!
Some of mine attempts form this week:

[Christian Beenen]

Thank you.  Yes,  used no flash. Varied between ISO 800 to ISO 400 with different shutterspeeds around 1/3 second, F/4 with a Canon 10D with Sigma 10-22mm at 10 mm.
Must admit I had the luxary to adjust the cockpit lights and screen brightness in the cockpit to match amount the light outside, which helps a lot.

[Flying Buckeye]

I took this shot yesterday using the same method as was described near the begining of the thread. I metered through the window and then used the built in flash, set at 1/4 power, to light up the dashboard. This was taken looking in the general direction of the sun, so this isn't the best looking picture, but I think I understand how to take these style pictures.

[Tonyz]

Looks pretty good.  Using the built in flash is a problem as you will get some reflections.  If you can use an external flash and bouce it off the ceiling.

[DanG (m1)]

Took this on a short flight across florida this past fall. Wanted to get a few sunset pictures out the window with the cumulous clouds, but started looking around for another shot after the sun went down. Grabbed the flash, and messed around for a few minutes. For this shot i held the camera upside down and bounced the flash off of my red shirt. What i find interesting is how some instruments remained sharp from the flash, while others with more ambient light got more blur. Not the best technical photo and i've always had mixed feelings about it, but it captures some ambiance to night flying that i just love.

edit: it looks a lot better in full resolution...