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AN AIR-TO-AIR shot by Tom Tutwiler, ASC, in which positioning of the camera plane played im¬ portant part in achieving the fine pictorial result. Below: a Lockheed cameraman shoots from tail posi¬ tion of a Paul Mantz camera plane.
SHOOTING FROM THE AIR
When shooting with an airborne camera, among the problems encountered are maintaining steady camera contact with target or subject, minimizing camera movement or vibration, and overcoming effects of aerial haze.
By WARREN GARIN
^hooting WITH a motion picture camera from a plane, helicopter, or perhaps as a skydiver cine¬ matographer, involves a number of problems for the novice not always encountered when shooting on terra firma. And if you are a professional camera¬ man, you are likely to be handed an aerial shooting assignment sometime during your career — maybe several — and since most aerial scenes are generally of a nature not easily repeated, it is well to be fore¬ armed with the knowledge necessary to making such assignments a success.
Aerial photography is commonly divided into three classifications: 1) ground-to-air, 2) air-to-air, and 3) air-to-ground. Ground-to-air photography, being similar to conventional exterior ground pho¬ tography, does not involve any particular change in technique. The usual compensation in exposure must be made, of course, when shooting directly into the sky — reducing the lens opening 1 to l^/o stops.
Air-to-air photography involves shooting from the air to record a nearby plane or other object also in the air. Filming a ground area or object from a plane in flight is termed air-to-ground photography.
When photographing with the camera airborne in a plane or helicopter, the three main problems con¬ fronting the cameraman are: locating the “target” or subject, reducing camera movement or vibration to a minimum, and overcoming the pictorial effects of aerial haze.
Locating the '“target” or subject is a co-responsi¬ bility of the aircraft pilot, for unless he knows where it is and what it is, he will have trouble locating it and difficulty in bringing the craft into position for the desired angle of photography. This problem can be overcome by briefing the pilot before take¬ off — discussing the object of the flight mission, loca¬ tion of the "target,” direction of approach to be taken, the direction of circling the “target,” and the altitudes at which photography is to take place. Such decisions are largely up to the camerman who alone is responsible for the final photographic result.
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AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, DECEMBER, 1963