A lot of people who fly rockets also like to take photos of rockets. Most people are relatively successful at their attempts but I thought I'd put down some tips just the same.

What camera to use?: Well, any will do! But a digital SLR is the best. Rockets in flight are hard subjects to photograph. In fact, the only subject I've taken photos of that is more difficult is astronomy photos and thats why I say to use an SLR - you have the control that you need to get that great photo and digital SLR's make it so much easier. And that's the sort of camera that these tips will be based around but many digital cameras will have the same settings.

What settings to use?: Rockets are fast. Very fast. That's what makes them difficult subjects. Here are some considerations for various settings.

• Film: If you still use film, what film should you use? Tricky question...I go for faster speed films - mostly asa 400 but you might also get good results with slower film such as asa 200 or even 100. Try them all and see what works for you. Faster films such as 400 and 800 are more sensitive to light and that's a good thing when taking high speed photos or using large zoom lenses but the photos they produce are a bit on the grainy side...asa 200 might be the go if there's plenty of sunshine.
• Speed: You need a fast shutter speed. I use 1000th/sec for most shots or sometimes 1500th/sec. Play around with the shutter speed from maybe 600th/sec to 1500th/sec. If your rocket looks blurred while in flight, you need to increase the shutter speed.
• Aperture: This sets the diameter of the iris inside the lens and controls how much light is collected. The higher the number (f22) the smaller the lens iris will be, thus restricting the amount of light collected by the lens. When taking high speed photos, the shutter is open for only a fraction of a second - that's not much time for light to hit the film/CCD, so you will want to have a fairly fast aperture setting - something like f5.6 or f8. Again, play around with this setting but you will probably want to keep the f value low so that you can catch as much light as possible in the short time the shutter is open. Aperture also controls depth of field, but this is not important unless you want distant clouds to be in sharp focus along with the rocket - low f values will blur the back/foreground
• Light: Ok, this is not a camera setting but I'm putting it here because it relates to the aperture setting. When taking high speed photos, you need lots of light, otherwise your images will turn out dark. I fly in the late afternoon because that's when the wind dies down - this is not a good time for taking photos of rockets in flight. There is just not enough ambient light for a good shot. Clouds are also high speed photo killers. Take your photos in the morning or any time when it's bright.

Taking the shot: You've set your camera and now it's time to snap some rockets!

• Framing the shot: This is where most people come undone. Firstly, turn the camera on it's side so you get a portrait shot - not a landscape shot. This gives you 'more room' for capturing the rocket as it leaves the pad. You are interested in the vertical plane not the horizontal plane. The same is true if you are taking a photo of the rocket leaving the pad or in mid flight or decent, so get in the habit of taking photos with the camera at 90 deg. Do not zoom in too close to the rocket unless you are after a specific shot - if you just want a nice shot of a rocket leaving the pad, pull back a bit so you get all of the launch pad and about 5 meters of space above the top of the launch rod. You will have the most success this way. If you zoom in too close, you will take an awful lot of photos of smoke trails and no rockets. But of course if you want a close up of the motor as it fires up, zoom right in and expect to take a LOT of photos to get what you are after. Remember, if you have a scanner you can always scan a small area of a photo and blow it up or if you have a high megapixel CCD you should have plenty of room for cropping, so you can still get a semi close up photo without actually taking a close up.
• Pressing the button: Count down - 3 -2 - 1 - launch/shoot...right? Errr, well...sometimes! Are you taking photos of a rocket launching on black powder or amonium perchlorate? Black powder will almost always go off right away, but AP motors take time to build up pressure - sometimes up to 3 or 4 seconds! So when taking photos of AP rockets, I count an extra second or two before pressing the button. This brings me to the continuous drive function of a camera - keep your finger on the button and snap away until the rocket has gone. Use continuous auto focus if you have it and another nice thing to use is an IS (image stabilized) lens or camera if you have the option. You are going to take a lot of dud photos but that cant be helped. You might take 10 photos to get one good shot. I average 6 duds for one reasonable photo and 20 frames for one good photo. But that's cool - I am only after that one good shot and I don't mind sifting through all the duds.

That's about it as far as my photo tips go. I might just add that taking photos of small estes type rockets is harder than taking photos of the larger ones. Don't be afraid to play around with your camera settings, but keep a note pad handy and jot down the settings that you use for any given shot and note the lighting conditions at the time as this will help you to take consistently good rocket photos or use RAW mode if you have it as this will record the info for you.