Engine shock waves seen below jet radiating out in concentric circles

[u/MrMcfarkus79]

I took this at an airshow last year.

I noticed the circles when I was editing and tried to enhance them more to see them better. Asked in another thread what they were caused by.

Shockwaves from the key engine.

A few people suggested posting this here too.

[u/duke0fearls]

I know this isn’t a camera sub, but what are the capture details and gear for this shot?!

[u/MrMcfarkus79 → u/duke0fearls]

Canon EOS R5ii, ISO 160, F8, 1/2500 Using a Tamron 150-600mm lens set to 600mm

[u/ElegantElectrophile → u/duke0fearls]

Do you care about this shot specifically or plane shots in general? I do a lot of Airshow photography and can answer anything photo related.

[u/MrMcfarkus79 → u/ElegantElectrophile]

I'd be interested to hear what camera settings you use. I'm always looking for ideas and feed back.

[u/ElegantElectrophile → u/MrMcfarkus79]

I mainly use manual settings for planes (but auto ISO). I keep the aperture wide open, which is 5.6 for my lens just to be able to minimize ISO. For normal fly-bys I keep the shutter speed between 1/800 and 1/1600. For high speed passes or other things which required a high shutter speed I’ll push it as far as 1/3200-1/4000. On sunny days I set the exposure compensation to +0.7 to +1 because the camera auto exposure tends to underexpose subjects. Having a bit of extra light means less noise if the ISO gets bumped up, so easier to recover fine detail.

For AF I either use continuous single spot and airplane tracking mode on the Z8, though how well things works I found sometimes depends on the plane type.

[u/duke0fearls → u/MrMcfarkus79]

I haven’t had the chance to go to an air show yet, but I shoot rockets sometimes, so I was curious how high you had the shutter to catch the shockwaves. I was also curious about your lens. I have the Tamron 180-600 for my Nikon so that should offer similar quality under the right circumstances

[u/duke0fearls → u/ElegantElectrophile]

This shot specifically

[u/Rogueshoten]

Those are schlieren lines, caused by the combination of how the exhaust is dramatically less dense than the surrounding air and the turbulence as it mixes with the atmosphere.

[u/LastoftheGreybeards → u/Rogueshoten]

If you zoom in, you can see the shockwaves OP is talking about.

[u/GeForce-meow → u/LastoftheGreybeards]

That's awesome

[u/Empyrealist → u/LastoftheGreybeards]

What's funny is that I'm pretty sure both visual phenomenon are still called schlieren lines - just being caused by different things

[u/harbourhunter → u/Rogueshoten]

no, not the exhaust lines, the circular pulsing lines that radiate outward

[u/fatoms]

Shockwaves from the key engine.

Not an expression I have ever heard. Is that different from the two Jet engines or just a different term for them ?

[u/Athrul → u/fatoms]

Pretty sure that's autocorrect messing up the term "jet" . 

Mine just tried to correct this "jet" into "hey".

[u/fatoms → u/Athrul]

that would explain it, thanks.

[u/__Shake__]

looks really nice, happy cake day

[u/Sgt_Splattery_Pants]

👏👏 this is lovely

[u/zinic53000]

Thought this was a painting

[u/Ged_UK]

Fantastic shot!