Photography in the rain

[Ruggerbugger]

Last week I spent a morning at Birmingham Airport photographing the flights in the relentless rain. I'm pretty pleased with the spray and crosswind shots I got, but I find myself wanting more. Is it possible to really show the actual rain? I know this probably isn't easy, but I think it would really add something.

[TheAnimus]

+1 for any suggestions, I spent a while sat in a 172 waiting for the rain to pass long enough to run to the FBO, wondering if I could make a good photograph, by the time I got the shutter fast enough, focusing only on the detail of a strobe with a telephoto, I had far too much noise thanks to the sensitivity required for the shutter speed.

[g8ina]

Manual focus, flash, try f10. Set it about 6 feet in front of you, or focus on the floor and then half press to lock it ...

[Giraffe]

Years ago I read that filming rain is difficult unless the rain is very heavy.
For the song and dance "Singing in the Rain", apparently a small percentage of milk was added to the water so that it showed up. If you could do that at the airport...!

[dream234]

By "show the actual rain" do you mean the individual raindrops? If so, do as g8ina says. You'll need a super short exposure to freeze the rain sufficiently, 1/1000th+ ideally. Because you tend to get rain on overcast days this will naturally mean you're likely to need the flash.

What kind of camera are you using?

Also, what kind of protection have you got for the camera against the rain?

[Ruggerbugger]

Well, not so much individual drops for my sort of photographhy, but when the rain's heavy I feel like it doesn't come across well in my shots. Ambient light is obviously a problem, but I don't think pilots would appreciate me firing the flash at them I'm using a 450D with a 70-200mm L most of the time. If I feel like I need protection I'll usually wrap a sheet or bag around the camera and feel my way through, although I'd be interested in a more "permanent" solution if there is one; my ghetto set up seems to have worked fairly well so far.

I'll try those tips some time.

[Bobster]

got some rain on Sat