Photography Above the Clouds
Ever Try Taking Photo’s In An Airplane?
Millions of flights a year. Billions of fliers. Out of that many that travel the friendly skies, how many do you see taking photos through the window? If you haven’t tried it, you might be pleasantly surprised at the results. If you’re patient, lucky with light and sitting in a window seat away from the wing, there is nothing stopping you from passing the time working on your “sky” photography.
Above Lake Erie, BlackBerry Bold Smartphone Camera
For years we’ve all seen peoples vacation photos that almost always takes over an hour, and puts us to sleep in the process. When the giddy vacationer is showing off their photos, they’ll often pull out some shots on the airplane they took through the window, often with a big white blown highlight in the middle because they didn’t turn off their built in flash! Fuzzy at best, nothing interesting. On my trips of late, I’ve actually been driven to try to capture some good images through the window of the plane after we reach maximum altitude, above the clouds.
The first thing you need to do before even boarding is to make sure you get a window seat. If you don’t you’re going to be out of luck. for obvious reasons. The airlines no longer have “room” on flights where you can move around. Usually, flights are completely booked, and if you want to choose a seat, you need to do that 24 hours before check in, otherwise you’re out of luck. You can choose seats online, and try to avoid being seated near the wing if possible. Wings are cool, but I don’t like them in my sky shots.
The second thing you need to do is to choose your compact camera to shoot with. You’re not going to have a lot of room to get your DSLR out of the bag, if you even have it in your carry on luggage. Its harder to maneuver with a larger camera and lens as well. Remember, airlines are cramped little places, and you’re not going to have any room to move around, better yet compose an image through your viewfinder. You’re better off with a small compact camera with a swivel LCD to compose your images, or you’re going to have to guess on the composition. Don’t strain your neck! Its not worth the injury, and you don’t need to anyway.
On my last trip, I didn’t even have my compact with me. I just used my 3.2 megapixel smartphone camera. It was easy. I just pressed the smartphone against the window, and started shooting. I’d review the image, recompose, and shoot some more. Landscape and Portrait orientation. Full auto mode, and I was pleased with the results. Tip: press the camera against the window, if you position the lens away from the window, your camera’s autofocus will focus on the window, not the sky! Airplane windows are naturally dirty, but if you press the camera lens against the window, you’ll reduce those “dirty” effects.
Above Lake Erie, Kevin L. Moss
Additionally, plan on some post-processing in your photo editor. Auto white balance may not work with the dark blue color cast the windows introduce to our images. You’ll need to modify the white balance of the shot using color balance, levels and hue/saturation adjustments. A little patience, a little luck and a trip with little turbulence and vibration are key.
Shoot the friendly skies!
Above Arizona, 2005 Nikon D70
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