Somewhere over Scotland
Today’s photoessay is a series of images that is both a continuation of the dreamscape series and the result of spending far too much time on an aeroplane in the last few months – think of it as the fruit of doing a little homework before departure. Of course, shooting from a chartered helicopter is nice, but also not something undertaken without a client or access to a central bank’s vault – preferably from a country that’s still solvent.
Hong Kong, new Macau bridge
Aerial photography through a window can bit a bit of potluck, but there are a couple of things you can do to maximise your chances:
- Clean the window – seems obvious…
- Up the shutter speed – moving aircraft are moving a lot faster than you think. We’re talking 1/5x-1/10x here.
- Avoid focal lengths that are too wide or too long; either way tends to resolve the imperfections in the window itself, or dirt on it. 24-85 is about the limit, realistically.
- You only get one chance at a shot, so I would suggest going a little wider and leaving yourself some room to trim if you’re not confident of perfect framing. It’s much harder to get the horizon flat than you might think, especially if the aircraft is banking or changing altitude.
- Avoid shooting at very shallow angles of incidence to the glass – this magnifies variations in thickness and both distortion and color filtration effects; perpendicular is best
- Shooting from a position behind the engines almost never works, because the hot air creates a difference in refractive index of the air, which in turn results in blurring.
- Fairly serious color correction is going to be required in post, mostly in the blue channel. This is partially due to the window itself,f and partly due to atmospheric attenuation (and related to the reason why the sky itself looks blue).
Don’t worry if your hit rate is low; but do keep shooting! MT
This series was shot with a Leica Q, Canon 5DSR and 40 STM, Nikon D810 and 85/1.8 G and processed with Photoshop Workflow II. You can also look over my shoulder at the way I postprocess in the Weekly Photoshop Workflow series.
Port Dickson, Malaysia
London from Gravesend
London
Hong Kong
English coastline
London
Fellow travellers to destinations unknown
South China Sea
Genting Highlands, Malaysia
Off the coast of Vietnam
South China Sea
Just outside Hong Kong I
Just outside Hong Kong II
The journey is the destination even if you can’t see the end
__________________
The Lisbon Masterclass (9-14 Mar 2016) is now open for booking
__________________
Ultraprints from this series are available on request here
__________________
Visit the Teaching Store to up your photographic game – including workshop and Photoshop Workflow videos and the customized Email School of Photography. You can also support the site by purchasing from B&H and Amazon – thanks!
We are also on Facebook and there is a curated reader Flickr pool.
Images and content copyright Ming Thein | mingthein.com 2012 onwards. All rights reserved
Ming Thein | Photographer 
Hello Ming, I just recently subscribed to the weekly workflow, episode 3. Have you covered processing an image from an airplane yet? If not is that something you’d be interested in doing? Like you i spend a lot of time on airplanes and shooting out of the window it would be great to watch you work through one or more of these types of images.
Not yet, but I can put it in the next one. Perhaps you’d care to submit an image or two for the next episode? 🙂
I’ll see what i can do! I’ll actually be flying this coming Tuesday from Alaska to Oregon I’ll try to get something to you by Thursday.
That should be a pretty interesting route! Looking forward to it.
outstanding images. Do you recommend the use of a polarizer to minimize reflections?
Actually, no – I hardly ever use them, especially not in the air because they tend to interact badly with the perspex windows – you see all of the stress lines etc. in the window…
787 Dreamliner has nice big windows and a window dimmer you can control- variable ND haha.
Not flown in one of those yet, but sounds good. How neutral is the ND’s color, though? 😉
In any case, you want more light, not less. 😛
How do you minimize reflections?
Nevermind, I didn´t see the writeup. Was to busy looking at the pictures.
Pad the area of the window around the camera with a black fleece or some similar non-reflective cloth.
One of those cheap rubber lens hoods should be easier to handle.
That’s a great idea, though get a larger one to give you some flexibility in aim.
They are all wonderful but “Somewhere over Scotland” is magical! N.B. You have probably sold more Leica Qs than their entire salesforce! Remind them about the commission! 😉
Sadly…there is no such thing. Leica only deign to contact me when they want me to review something and publicise it… 😦
More great photos, and I am drawn to those from the 5DSR and EF 40/2.8 yet again. Like those of a train station last year too, you’ve captured the essence of transit very well indeed.
Also nice to see my own part of London from the perspective of someone visiting too.
Thanks Samuel! Which bit of London is that? I lived here for about three years in the early 2000s…
In Lewisham. I’m a cycle ride from Greenwich Park, which I can just about make out. The view from Gravesend is really nice.
Whereabouts were you?
Ah, Herne Hill – not far 🙂
Stunning shots! Especially like the one of Hong Kong, that’s just amazing!
Thanks!
Fantastic set, Ming! I especially love the shot of the Macau bridge.
Thanks Roger!
Well done, Sir. I use Zeiss ZF.2 lenses for aerials. The clarity helps cut through the haze, the micro-contrast helps bring out the detail and the hard stop at infinity makes things easier. Maybe I’d be better off with a Q or some Quattros.
The ZF2s do well too – I prefer MF lenses for aerial work actually because you can set infinity and leave it there, and not worry about the AF system getting confused by the number of reflections. Wider lenses work better because of motion and shutter speeds, of course – which is probably why the Q appears to be so strong.
I particularly like the “semi-astract” images more than the “views”. My personal tip would be to find a camera with a specific “through window” setting. I discovered this by chance on my humble Leica C and have had amazingly satisfying results.
I didn’t even realise there was a ‘through window’ setting. I’d imagine it to be limited to JPEG only though?
Also, you can stitch panoramas of large landscape elements. Shoot bursts, and the plane motion will scan for you.
I’ve not tried that – something for the next trip; thanks for the tip! 🙂
I have tried this (stitching panorama) and failed. The plane moves too fast and the perspective to changes shot to shot.
Wonderful images Ming. Really enjoyed.
I meant perspective changes shot to shot.
Thanks!
Some more tips:
1. Wear black clothes.
2. Shoot really close to window, without letting lens touch it (to prevent airframe vibration).
3. Put a light baffle around lens, against window, e.g. (black) scarf, sweater, blanket to prevent stray and reflecting light from cabin.
4. Make use of bigger windows…. 😉
A nice set Ming. More soon!
Indeed 🙂
It’s worth going to the back of the plane to see if there’s a better window – the best window on a flight from London to Cape town was by the toilet. We flew over a thunderstorm at night, it was amazing.
Passed something similar today. Amazing yes, impossible to photograph. Just too dark and no way to time it or do stable long exposures.
Superb pic over Scotland. Thanks for the tips too. Any tips for aerial sunrise or sunset shots?
Not really – colours tend to go pretty extreme because of difference in light temperature on the light/dark sides, and dynamic range is equally extreme. Not much you can do except use something which can hold it and expose as far to the right as possible.
Thanks. I shot a few pics on my way from Jaipur to Mumbai recently and was wondering if there was any way to reduce the pixellation.
Such images turn out more grainy than others. Is that your experience too?
Err…no.
Great stuff! +1 on all the color correcting, I learned that when editing my shots landing in NYC
Thanks.
Nice set Ming! Sadly any position ahead the engines on long haul usually means you need enough miles, luck or fork out a lot of cash.
I’ve found that even with 28mm you have to be careful with odd distortion, reflection from the windows and odd streaks of light.
Thanks. Yes, if you travel enough…well, too much, in my case. I’m sitting in the cockpit tomorrow which Peter promises will be even better 🙂
28mm: bundling up a black fleece around the outside of the camera helps a lot, too; it casts no reflections and acts as a baffle. Your seat mate may look at your strangely though.
Enjoy the cockpit! Wonderful images Ming. Amazing. – Eric
Just got back – it was a great experience!
😃