For the life of me I can't get the shutter speed right when I shoot choppers and I've been doing this as a hobby for a long time.
Here's what I know so far.
- The main rotor blades spin at a different speed than the tail rotor so it's easy to get a nice blur on the tail rotor. The mains are another story.
- It doesn't matter what shutter speed I select when the mains are in your direct line of fire they always appear stopped or at best a very slight blur on the tips. I expect that and know there's no way to stop it.
- When shooting aircraft in flight I always do it on Tv and select my shutter speed according to what's in the air... ie: jet or propped aircraft... and most often get a decent blurring effect. Props usually in the 1/320 or 1/240 sec range.
-With choppers I have slowed down my shutter speed to 1/60 sec and still do not end up with a decent blur even if the thing is directly above my head. What does end up happening at that slow of a shutter speed is I end up loosing a lot of sharpness due to motion blur. That said, it still doesn't give the effect I'm looking for.
If anyone has any tips to get a nice blurring effect on the main rotor blades I sure would love to hear about it.