Aerial shots often leave something to be desired. With fast movement and the occasional bumpy ride, shooting from an aircraft can be challenging. The poor optical qualities of aircraft windows don’t help either. Here are 7 suggestions for overcoming the most common problems with aerial shots.
- Seating
Choose a window seat on the side away from the sun. Facing the sun would accentuate imperfections in the window. To avoid blur caused by hot engine exhaust, take a seat in front of the wing. - Aircraft Window
Clean the window with a lens or eyeglass cloth (as trivial as this may sound). - Photo Gear
No matter how advanced your camera is, it can’t compensate for the loss of image quality caused by the atmospherics and the window. A smartphone may be a perfectly adequate choice. - Camera Angle
Try to hold your camera at an angle of about 90 degrees to the plane of the window. If you tilt your camera too much, imperfections in the window will show through. - Focal Lengths
Avoid extreme focal lengths. They will either bring the window frame into the picture (wide angle) or accentuate the imperfections of the window (telephoto). - Shutter Speed
To avoid motion blur, use a shutter speed of at least 1/400 for wide angle and 1/1000 for telephoto. - Composition
Go a little wider than you intended to give yourself a little more room to crop in post. When it comes to photographic subjects, historical flight data will help you get an idea of what sights to expect along the way. Just use a platform like flightradar24.com to find out more.
Have a safe trip! And many great aerial shots!
