About the difficulty to photograph Helicopters

While walking around, suddenly several Helicopter flew over me. I was not prepared and had only my walk-around camera with me and took some shots. Later after reviewing them, I realized that I am not a great Helicopter photographer. The trick in good pictures of these fast moving objects is to show that they are actually in the air…and the best trick to do this is to use a low shutter speed, so that the rotor turns into a dynamic blurry wheel. However, this part is not the easiest one.

I am quite happy with the title picture above, the Helicopter is rather sharp while the panning added some blurry movement into the background and the low shutter speed of 1/100s made the rotor also kinda blurry. Not bad, but it could have been better.

Looking at my first picture of this series however (see below), I made the stupid mistake most photographers do when they photograph Helicopters, I used a too short shutter time and the rotor looks entirely frozen. Nothing indicates that these beasts actually fly.
That’s a bad picture.

This made me curious and I asked the list members of D1scussion at what speed the rotor of Helicopters actually rotate and how this translates into a suitable shutter speed. Obviously you need a long lens, the freedom hand holding the camera/lens combo and a shutter speed which allows to still take sharp enough pictures. Not that easy to get the combination right. Several list member of D1scussion are coincidentally Helicopter pilots and I learned a lot.

The trick is to try to get the rotor rotating a full arc. If for example the rotor rotates with a speed of 2400 Rounds Per Minute, you have to divide this by 60 to get a value of 40. Thats 40 rotations per second. In theory to photograph a full arc you would need to use a shutter time of 1/40s. However, since Helicopters usually have 2, 3 or 4 blades, you have to take this also into account.

For a 2 blade Helicopter, you need to to calculate like this: 2400 RPM / 60 seconds = 40 RPS * 2 Blades = 80 Rotations Per Second. This translates into a shutter speed of 1/80s. For a 3 blade Helicopter the formula will be: 2400 RPM / 60 seconds = 40 RPS * 3 Blades = 120, equals 1/120s shutter speed.

Of course the 2400 RPM value is entirely hypothetical because most Helicopters operate at much lower RPMs between 280-400 RPM. Make the math again and in worse case to properly photograph a 2 blade Helicopter, it requires a shutter speed of ca. 1/10s!

Even with the best Vibration Reduction system, its very hard to hand hold a long lens like a 200mm lens at these low shutter speeds.

Have a look at the picture below:

All of these 3 red Helicopters are 4 blade models…in theory the most easy to photograph one. But if you look closely, I failed. The lowest shutter speed I felt comfortable using on the 200mm lens was 1/100s. But this was not long enough to make the rotor turn an entire arc, just about 10 percent (or 35 degrees) of it. I probably also should have used 1/10s or 1/15s.

The next photo is slightly better because of the angle. But again, another visual problem appears here. To shoot a camera into the rather bright sky at daytime with an ISO 100 setting and a shutter speed of 1/100s requires the aperture to step down all the way to 22…which creates a large depth of field and the background becomes too sharp. This particular photo could have looked great instead of just ok, if the background would have been blurry.

Some of my older shots revealed that I always have the same problem: a bright sky, the maximum f-stop possible per lens and I need a long lens to actually get some details of a Helicopter into the frame. Try to freeze this action with a shutter speed of less than 1/100s!

Don’t get me started if Helicopter pilots add some action which requires a short shutter speed like this one! Hard to make it right…whats more important, the blurry rotor or the frozen water splash?

And again what I would call a failure.

Shooting out of a Helicopter has different challenges. On a recent trip to Hawaii I booked a flight in a Helicopter, but it was so narrow I had a hard time to use a long lens without slamming it against the window or my seat neighbor. I also seem to sit always on the wrong side.

Shooting straight-on action out of an Helicopter is another challenge, because from time to time one of the blades appear in the picture as you can see on the picture below in the top left frame.

Looking even more years back into my Helicopter photo collection, I always made the mistake of using a too fast shutter time, even when a Helicopter lands right in front of me.

Of course nothing can beat a trip with a Helicopter when an innocent tourist photo suddenly turns into a historic document as can be seen in this shot in NYC taken in 1999.

I simply must admit I don’t have much experience shooting – and shooting out of – Helicopters. But then again, if I am not mistaken I flew only 4 times in my life with a Helicopter so far and only occasionally see one close enough for a photo opportunity.

This article is probably the most scientific try to understand my own weakness and to become better the next time I have the chance to photograph a Helicopter in flight.