Photography from the window seat of an airliner is becoming a controversial topic. Before we talk about how to get awesome photos, let’s have a chat… First of all, no one seems to look out the windows of airliners today, and many passengers give the evil eye to those who do not close their window shades. Fact: Future airliners may be made without windows at all. This saves manufacturing costs, and builders have realized that no one seems look outside anymore because they are staring at glowing screens or sleeping. Another fact: The Washington Post reported that part of a failed 2017 Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill contained a regulation banning all photography on airliners. Will that regulation resurface? When these windowless airliners are built, or if photography is banned, will anyone care? I know I will.
Above photograph: FUJIFILM X-T2; 14mm f/2.8; 1/1000; f/5.6; ISO 200
Photographs ©Todd Vorenkamp
In airline travel these days, it seems like there are two types of passengers: The first—the vast majority, according to my surveys—find that the light pouring in through the cabin windows only serves to create unwanted glare on their smart devices or seat-back TV screen. Some leave their blinds closed for the entire journey; never once looking out the window at the world outside. The second, the minority, are those intrepid travelers who realize that some of the most stunning scenes and scenery on this planet can be viewed from airliners.
For those who like travelling in metal cylinders with no windows, may I humbly recommend travel by submarine? This way, I will avoid the resentment of fellow passengers when I raise my window shade to admire the planet below and take a photograph. For those who appreciate the magic of air travel, enjoy the beauty of Earth from the air, and prefer to watch TV at home, here are some tips for taking photos from the passenger window of an airplane.
Preparation
Get a window seat—We can start by stating the obvious: you probably need a window seat to get good photos out the window. I have been known, when stuck in an aisle or middle seat, to ask if I could lean over my window-seat neighbor for a snapshot, but not everyone is amenable to that request. Once upon a time, I unbuckled, crossed the center aisle, and asked a nice woman if I could raise her window shade for a moment to get this image:
Study the route—With a fair degree of accuracy, minus air traffic control routing for weather and other air traffic, you can preview your route on a given flight. The Internet has many resources for this. What scenic areas or cities will you be passing? And, on which side of the aircraft are they likely to be sitting? Don’t pick a seat on the port side of the aircraft when the Grand Canyon will be off to starboard!
Time of day—Night photography is a bit tricky. Night photography from an aircraft is very tricky. This is due to the movement of the airplane. Think about your flight times as a photographer. Will you be witnessing sunset, sunrise, long shadows, or harsh midday daylight?
Weather—Studying weather maps just before the flight might give you a clue as to how much of the ground you will be seeing, or if you will be flying over undercast skies. Use this to manage expectations and to help prepare for the photos you may or may not get.
Where on the aircraft—Aside from a window seat, where you sit on the aircraft will affect your images. Exit row seats might have extra leg room, but you will likely find yourself over the wing, unable to see the ground close aboard. Use one of the airline-specific seat map websites to help you plan. Before we get specific, know that any seat will work for good photographs, but here are some considerations for the different options:
- Above the wing—All is not lost if you are directly above the wing, as you can still photograph toward the horizon.
- Forward of wing—Generally, this is the preferred shooting position, because…
- Aft of wing—Aft of the wing can be less preferable since, if on an aircraft with engines mounted below the wing, you can get hot jet exhaust blurring areas of the foreground in your frame. This is not the end of the world. A majority of my images are from aft of the wing, as I am not in the tax bracket that allows me to sit forward of the wing.
- Engine placement—The days of the tail-mounted engine configuration appear to be numbered, but if you are in an aircraft with tail-mounted engines, the position relative to the wing is less important.
Camera Nearby—Have your camera accessible. On one particularly lazy afternoon in the midst of a mid-life crisis, I boarded a plane out of SFO, departing an hour or two before sunset. Taking off to the south, turning, and climbing north over the San Francisco Bay, the entire SF skyline and Bay Bridge was cast as a stark shadow stretching across the shimmering sun-lit water. My camera was in the overhead compartment. Never again.
The Window
Clean—Have a way, or have a way in mind, to clean the window as much as possible. Forehead prints, hand prints, and more, find their way onto the Plexiglas windows of airliners. Grab a napkin in the terminal, or ask a flight attendant for one. You could use a lens cloth, but perfection isn’t needed. The end of a long sleeve shirt has been used by this photographer in a pinch, to the horror of my usual travel companion. Desperate times…
Condensation/Ice—Condensation, and then ice (at altitude), may form between the Plexiglas panes of the window. There is not much you can do to prevent this, but you may use it to your creative advantage, and it can make for a compelling macro subject.
Reflections—Especially when it is getting darker outside, internal reflections from the cabin (overhead lights, no smoking signs, your bright-colored clothing, and your neighbor’s seat back TV) wreak havoc on photographs due to fact that the multiple sheets of Plexiglas reflect back toward you and your lens. Get ready to fight them or use them to your benefit. The closer you can get the lens, the fewer reflections you might get, except for…
Vibrations—Internal engine vibration and external turbulence combine to make steady shooting difficult, if not impossible, on longer exposures. Keep the lens from touching the Plexiglas, if possible, to avoid transmitting those vibrations from the window directly into the camera. Turbulence happens.
The Gear
Camera—As you’ll see from the image captions, I’ve shot with a variety of cameras over the years, primarily Nikon and FUJIFILM brands, yet any camera will work. Smartphone cameras, point-and-shoots, mirrorless, DSLR, medium format… well, maybe not large format.
Lens—I find that anything from ultra-wide to moderate telephoto works great for airliner window photography. Wide-angle lenses can capture expansive scenes, but you might see more of those reflections I just mentioned. Moderate telephotos (90mm, 135mm) reach out to get some semi-distant details, but longer telephotos sometimes lose the battle of vibration and turbulence—even with fast shutter speeds and image stabilization. In addition, long lenses can be difficult to manage in the super-small accommodations of modern airliners.
Filters—Unless you absolutely love rainbows, leave the polarizer in your bag; you will get weird rainbow artifacts from the Plexiglas. UV filters, ND filters, color filters, and others can certainly be experimented with.
Accessories—One useful accessory for the airliner window is a large rubber lens hood. Press it against the window and it might cut down on reflections while not transmitting all the vibration back toward the camera. It might also keep you from scratching the window with your lens and messing up the window for the next photographer-passenger. Larger hoods or lens skirts have been used with success, as well. Even with larger hoods, you may still get reflections, especially at night. The best solution is to cover the entire window, but you might want to stay relatively discreet, and flight attendants might question seeing a tent placed over the window at Seat 24A.
Tripod—Tripods are usually too cumbersome to erect at your seat, but you could always try a monopod or tabletop tripod on the seat-back tray (bad vibration) or armrest (vibration as well). Remember, any support touching the aircraft will transmit the vibrations of the aircraft to your camera, but for long exposures, you could always give it a try. You have nothing to lose but room on your memory card!
Camera Settings
Shutter speed—With the speed of jet travel and the movement from vibration and turbulence, the faster the shutter, the better. Exceptions can be made for low-light motion blur, streaking, and experimenting.
Aperture—There is nothing wrong with shooting at your sharpest mid-range apertures. However, even the world’s sharpest lens gets less sharp when shooting through non-optical-quality Plexiglas. So, knowing that you won’t be super-sharp out of the box, you can certainly open up your lens to grab a faster shutter speed.
ISO—This setting should always be as low as possible. But, depending on the lighting conditions, you might need to increase ISO to preserve shutter speed in the hopes of avoiding motion blur or blur from camera/airplane shake.
Focus—Your friendly autofocus system should be able to lock onto the sharp edge of a wing, or a clearly defined cloud or landscape feature, but be ready to take over manually if the camera struggles.
Time lapse—Use your camera or smartphone to make a cool time lapse of a portion of the flight.
Subjects
Wing—Some purists prefer aerial photos that do not include a wing in the frame but, as an aviator myself, I know that without the airfoil there would be no heavier-than-air flight. This appreciation leads me to see the wing, not as an eyesore, but as an artistic sculpture. It is often the subject of my photographs or intentionally included in the frame. Of course, an unobstructed view of the Earth’s beauty is always nice. Look at the surface of the wing for reflections and shadow. One thing to note: If the wing is in your frame, pay attention to its configuration. During takeoff and landing, the wing is in the “dirty” configuration with slats, flaps, and spoilers (landing) extended. In cruise mode, the wing is “clean.” Both can make for compelling photographic subjects.
Clouds—Photographically, clouds are sometimes taken for granted, or perhaps seen as a nuisance that blocks the landscape, but the right type of clouds in the right lighting can be stunning. Clouds make wonderful photo subjects.
Water—Seascapes from the air can be stunning, as well.
Cities—Day or night, big cities can look amazing from the air. Depending on the weather and the amount of haze, I find that cranking the contrast on a black-and-white version of the image brings out the texture of urban areas.
Plains—Flat areas of the planet aren’t always begging to be photographed. However, look for lonely roads traversing a plain, patterns of crop circles, or other items of interest on the flat ground.
Mountains—The perspective of seeing mountains from above, to me, is just as striking as seeing them from the ground, if not more so.
Shadows—Depending on the time of day, shadows can be long or short. Look for them and get ready to crank the contrast in post-processing to emphasize the tonal range. The airplane in which you are sitting casts its own shadow on sunny days. At altitude, you won’t see it, but on approach to landing, the shadow races across the ground to intercept the aircraft. At takeoff, it races away. Look for it. Photograph it.
Moon—Always a favorite subject of mine. It is best captured before it gets too dark outside, due to the movement of the aircraft and the need to preserve a fairly fast shutter. As part of your preparation, it helps to pay attention to the moon’s phases and various rising and setting times. A big gibbous or a full moon might allow you to keep shooting long after sunset.
Sun—Do NOT look through an optical viewfinder at the sun, nor point a camera at it for more than a moment, due to the risk of harming your sensor. Yet the sun, and its flare on the Plexiglas, can be a great subject or compositional element in the frame.
Sunballs—The sunball is a shadow cast by the airplane into a cloud. It usually looks like a very blurry outline of the aircraft surrounded by a rainbow-tinted halo. Keep an eye out for it when on the down-sun side and flying just above the cloud tops. You might see sun dogs, too!
Vapor—When the wing is generating a lot of lift (usually when dirty for takeoff or landing) or during dynamic maneuvering, depending on the atmospherics, a reaction called Bernoulli’s Principle dictates that the drop in air pressure on the top of the wing or at the wingtip results in a corresponding drop in air temperature, known as Boyle’s Law, and instant condensation. Depending on the part of the wing where this occurs, it might make a good photo subject—or a cool “special effect” for a video.
Air to air—Closing speeds of jet aircraft at cruising altitudes can reach almost twice the speed of sound, so if you catch opposite-direction air traffic with your camera, you’re either really prepared, or really lucky. Crossing traffic streaks by, as well, but occasionally you will settle in behind another airliner heading in the same general direction, which might stream a contrail. Keep your eyes peeled for these transient subjects.
Compositional Considerations
Wing—If the wing is out your window, you need to figure out where it is going to live in your frame. Is the wing the subject? Will the airfoil dominate the image or distract? Sometimes more wing is better than a sliver of wing. Will you avoid it all together? If you are forward of the wing, don’t be afraid to get the leading edge of the surface and/or the engines in your frame. If you are over the wing, start thinking creatively. And, if you are aft, decide how much wing you want in the frame.
Horizon—Careless non-level horizons are one of my photographic pet peeves. In the air, however, sometimes there are multiple horizons. The Earth is always a fixed horizon, if you can see the horizon. The cloud bases are usually parallel to the Earth, but there are exceptions. And, lastly, the aircraft might be cruising at a nose-up pitch, or banking, or changing angle of attack, depending on the phase of flight. My rule is that I try to keep the Earth’s horizon level (or correct the image in post-processing) unless the aircraft is in a dynamic phase of flight, or I am feeling especially creative. Sometimes leveling the Earth’s horizon puts the wing at an awkward angle. You’ll have to be flexible at times.
Window—There is no harm in including the window frame in your image and making it a part of the composition. Don’t forget this framing device! Again, it all depends on what your compositional goals are.
Courtesy/Rules
Remember, an airliner is not public property. You are a paying guest of the airline and subject to their rules and regulations, as well as international laws, and the regulations of your nation’s governmental aviation authority. You cannot do whatever the heck you want whenever the heck you want—regardless of whether you are creating art. Follow the instructions of your cabin crew, obey the overhead placards, and don’t be a menace. If a flight attendant asks you not to take photographs out the window, you must follow those instructions. Also, as painful as it is to say this, be conscious of your neighbor’s desire to sleep or catch up on all the TV shows they don’t have time to watch at home because of the time they spend looking out the window at their front yard.
What are your tips and tricks, successes and failures, and tall tales of photographing from airplane windows? Let us know in the Comments section, below!
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