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Lessons Learned On December 15, 2003 the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum opened. http://www.nasm.si.edu/museum/udvarhazy/ This was a major event in aerospace exhibitions. DigitalAircraftLog visited the museum 3 times, including the opening day. Taking high quality pictures is a challenge both from a photographic and access perspective. Click on our link on harassment http://www.digitalaircraftlog.com/photographers-harrased-dulles.htm to learn more about how the museum is making it difficult for professional photographers. Equipment This was our first outing with the Nikon D2H cameras. We used the following over the three days of shooting: 2X Nikon D2H Manfrotto 3 Section Carbon
Fiber Tripod Model 3443 The Nikon D2H is the best digital camera we have used. It is our 8th generation of digital and excels in human interface, construction, auto focus and speed. The noise characteristics are on a par with other cameras, thus, one has to be sensitive to the shooting conditions to keep the noise down, especially in low light levels. At 4mp the imagery is very good, on a par with the D1X, but when it comes to cropping images the resolution limit is obvious. One other thought - the D2H speed is addictive. The very
rapid response gives one the impression that since many shots can be
fired
off at once
they will all be good. This is just garbage. This camera is as hard
as the D1x or practically any other camera to get good shots from it.
Speed
of the shutter and fast fire shots does not improve the quality of
the images. Shooting Environment The lighting conditions are tough. There are three sources of light: Inside lights came from lights mounted on poles around
the floor. Thus, there is a mixture of all forms of illumination – different types of incandescent and available. One factor in the varied illumination is that, with available inside light, many brightly lit aircraft came out muted. That is, the colors were suppressed. It is here that flash would have been better. For some shots, with the outside light in the background, light level was much to high – or put in another way, the dynamic range too large. But other conditions the light level was quite low and forced long exposures. Spot lights showed up in many images and this required compensation of the exposure and in other cases forced changes in the location of the shot. In order to keep the image noise down I shot many images at ISO 200 and in some cases 400 and 800. Further, on all three days pictures were taken only in available light. Using flash might have improved a number of images but the flash lighting was going to be complex and there was just not enough time during each visit given the number of aircraft and objects to be taken. Shooting here was a classic photographer’s dilemma. That is, even though images could be gotten at ISO 200 in available light the depth-of-focus was to short. In order to look like being there, and as a function of the position of the aircraft to the camera, the f-stop should be f/11 or greater. Now the exposures were in the 1 second range or longer. As a result, on day two of shooting I used a monopod with significant improvement. Then on day 3 used a tripod – also with an improvement. Shot about 2,000 images in 3 days. I have taken pictures in many aircraft
museums and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is one of the most challenging |
