Can you photograph skydivers from the ground, and what focal length do you need?
Asked 10/24/2022
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I’m new to photography and wondering whether it’s practical to photograph a skydiving plane and skydivers from the ground. A typical jump plane might be around 38 feet long and flying at about 13,000 feet. I estimated I might need something like 1800mm, but that seems very hard to aim and track. Is there any practical way to do this from the ground, such as using a long zoom, cropping, or a tracking feature? Or is it simply not realistic for a beginner doing this for fun?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
3y ago
2 Answers
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If you want the plane to fill 1/10 of the short distance of the frame you need your frame to be 380' or 4560" across. That corresponds to 4560 focal lengths away because a 35mm frame is 1" across. That comes out to about a 3'or 900mm equivalent focal length. This is achievable with a 150-600mm zoom on an APS-C camera. It takes practice to find an object at that focal length but you can do it. I have taken many bird photos with a rig like that.
I have the Nikon superzooms that go out to 2000mm and 3000mm equivalent 35mm focal length. They have a nice snapback button that shortens the zoom so you can find the target, then returns to the desired zoom. If you set the camera to 900mm and use the snapback it is easy. I have used this for birds in flight.
The skydivers themselves will be rather small at this focal length as they are 1/6 the size of the airplane. If you want them larger your 1800mm is a better choice. Although you can add a teleconverter to the 600mm lens I think the superzoom is a better choice.
Originally by user14486. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user14486
3y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes, it’s possible, but it’s challenging. For the airplane, you likely don’t need 1800mm just to get a usable shot. Based on the sizing estimate in the answers, about a 900mm full-frame-equivalent field of view would make a 38-foot plane occupy roughly 1/10 of the frame width at 13,000 feet. That’s within reach of an APS-C camera paired with a 150-600mm zoom.
The harder part is finding and tracking the subject at that magnification. Long focal lengths have a very narrow field of view, so practice is important. Some superzoom cameras include a “snapback” or zoom-out assist button that temporarily widens the view so you can reacquire the subject, which can help.
For the skydivers themselves, they’ll be much smaller than the plane at that altitude, so getting detailed images from the ground is far more difficult. A wider view and cropping may be more practical than trying to frame extremely tightly. In short: the plane is realistic with a long lens and practice; individual skydivers at exit altitude are much tougher.
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