Head Spinning - Newbie DSLR Purchase

[James Cutting]

Probably wanted to be closer to 1/800 - 1/1000 for jets with yesterday's light. BUT - It's an experience and to learn

[Archer]

I ran shutter priority with about 1/2500 shutter and manually upped ISO quite high to 1000/1600 but they're all dark. I played around with different metering modes, typically using spot or center weighted. I was clearly doing something wrong as others with similar settings were getting much better shots. I should have tried exposure compensation maybe?

If it was a grey day, you may not have needed a lot of exposure compensation. It's also dependent on where the sun was though. As for exposure, it sounds as if you should have started out at a slower speed. Putting the camera in P and panning across the sky with the shutter half depressed to trigger the metering will give you an indication of what you need on that day. Also: keep an eye on the light meter at the bottom of your viewfinder. It should be centered, but I suspect that at that shutter speed, it drove the aperture to full open and was still short on light.

[planehazza]

Yep, 100% pilot error. But it's a fun learning experience. 4th time at RIAT and I go with my girlfriend and going for more than one day would be suicide; she'll only tolerate so much of it. Wish I'd had two days so I could have tried again. By all accounts, Sunday's weather was better.

I did manage to get a couple. Here's an unedited, but cropped JPEG or two.

RAF F-35B in hover - https://photos.app.goo.gl/7zrHSCpKuwWpTJn89
Gripen on final - https://photos.app.goo.gl/Td7ozc8qFLxryr7u8
Solo Turk landing - https://photos.app.goo.gl/PTT4BMyVo1Lv7AoX8

I'll have a go tweaking the RAWs. The latter one especially needs a bit of sprucing up.