Behind the scenes of a “鹰狮” air-to-air photo-shoot

当我们得到同意的时候, 第一步是找出我们的哪些鹰狮E飞机在可能的日期(一个计划日期和第二天的预留时间)可用。. 因为我们的鹰狮E是测试飞机, 它们安装了不同的硬件/软件版本，因此有不同的批准飞行包线. The dates from the 空气 force were fixed, as the C130:s are a sought after resource. 

The second stage was to consider the flight envelopes of all aircraft involved. The C-130 has an approved top speed with the ramp down of 150 knots. 对于战斗机来说, 尤其是测试飞机, this is quite slow which in turn restricts the load-out and maneuvers possible. 我们和我们的一位试飞员开了一次会，讨论在考虑到这些限制的情况下可能实现的目标. 有了这些知识，我们摄影师坐下来为我们想要的照片创建一个“愿望清单”.

规划文档.

最终结果.

这些镜头在3D中可视化，并描述了飞机应该如何定位和移动. 我们还必须考虑可用的飞行时间以及需要多少时间来设置不同的机动. Eight poses were selected and sent to the pilots for approval, making sure that our planned maneuvers could be conducted safely.

随着日子的临近，很明显，由于天气的原因，第一次约会是不可能进行的.  November is not the most reliable month from a weather perspective in Sweden. Driving over to the F7 wing at Såtenäs the day before the shoot, we did not have high hopes of being able to do any flying at all, something that was confirmed when we sat down to do the flight briefing in the  afternoon. The forecast called for a compact cloud cover up to around 9.000英尺. At that altitude you are close to the level where you need to use oxygen masks. 我们的上方也会有一层云层. 这将意味着图像将不像我们希望的那样引人注目，因为我们将无法看到地面，光线将在阴天变得平坦而暗淡. When shooting air-to-air you do not want a clear blue sky or a compact cloud cover. 理想的条件是分散的云层，这样你就有了一种尺度感，并参考了你正在拍摄的飞机. 尤其是在拍摄的时候, 靠近云层飞行会给你一种速度感, rather than the aircraft just hanging still in a great blue space. We drove back to our hotel in the rain feeling slightly depressed.

第二天早上从酒店出来, 令我们吃惊的是, we were greeted by a glorious sunrise with a scattered layer of clouds at about 3.000 ft. We could not believe our luck driving over to the base, and kept our fingers crossed that conditions would stay constant for a couple of hours. 那光很神奇, 11月在瑞典, you get a yellow-tinted twilight character to the light for most of the day, 而在六月，光线又硬又平，大部分时间都是极端的对比.  

What you can achieve when the weather gods smile at you.

We were greeted by the captain of the C-130 telling us the flight was on, and the load-master swiftly led us to the aircraft to set us up. 我们收到了用绳子系在地板上的安全带，这样我们就可以在坡道上走动了. We also got headsets so we could communicate with the crew and, 通过船长, 指挥鹰狮的行动. 大约在拍摄前一小时, 我们起飞去侦察Vänern湖上空指定区域的天气，做最后的准备工作. We used Canon R5 cameras together with Canon 70-200 f2.8和24-105 f4.0玻璃.

I was going to do the filming and my colleague shoot the stills. We strapped down a tripod to the ramp as my plan was to use it to get smooth video, 但在空中，我们意识到振动通过三脚架传播，使得视频晃动. 手持式游戏才是正确的选择. 为了使后期制作更灵活，视频以4K拍摄，每秒100帧.

任何计划在第一次接触现实时都无法幸免, and if it’s one thing you learn in this line of work, 它是随着条件的变化而适应和即兴发挥. 鹰狮战机将同时抵达C-130, but in reality the “鹰狮” E showed up about 15分钟utes before the “鹰狮” C. 然而，我们在坡道后面有一架飞机，所以我们开始做一些应该在拍摄后期进行的独奏动作. 你不能浪费这样的机会，因为让多架飞机在空中拍摄照片一点也不便宜.  

When the “鹰狮” C arrived we started to go through the poses. 除了给我们完美的视觉效果, the weather also helped us by being completely calm, 所以坡道非常稳定，可以在上面工作. If you moved to the edges of the ramp you got some turbulence around the ankles, 但条件很好，温度刚刚好，所以我们可以不戴手套工作, which is always a plus when fiddling with the camera controls.

拍摄当天的理想条件.

我们一直与飞行员保持联系，并指导他们找到正确的角度和位置，以实现我们计划的结果. 在进行空对空拍摄时，让我印象深刻的是，当你100%专注于手头的工作时，你的时间感知是如何变化的. It is as if time runs both in slow motion and really fast simultaneously. Slow motion because you are doing a lot of things at the same time; checking image composition, 焦点, 相机的设置, 你在这个项目中处于什么位置, 你接下来应该做什么等等. 快是因为一个小时真的不是很长，你必须产生足够好的结果来激励所有参与拍摄的人投入的成本和努力. 

What it looked like from the “鹰狮” pilots perspective.

Finally, the “鹰狮” E returned to base and we 焦点ed on the “鹰狮” C solo shots. 我们得到了一些非常好的特写，因为鹰狮C是一个完全开放的飞行包线的系列飞机, 而不是我们的鹰狮E测试机. This meant that the “鹰狮” C pilot could maneuver more freely, doing barrel rolls and coming in closer to the C-130. 当离开家时, the last thing the “鹰狮” C did was to light up the 后燃er and dive straight down, which had the C-130 vibrating with the powerful sound of a “鹰狮”. It also made for some unusual angles I have never been able to catch before.

It is not every day you get to see a “鹰狮” from this angle.

当我们回到Såtenäs着陆时，我们很高兴. Everything had come together to give us the perfect photo shoot. 云层的多样性和光照条件导致材料看起来像是六次不同飞行的结果. 两个很开心, 但也非常疲惫的摄影师开车回到Linköping，迫不及待地开始编辑我们存储卡上的所有好东西.

A one hour photo-shoot that gave us a smorgosboard of options.

更多鹰狮的精彩图片，请访问 “鹰狮”.com where you can find  images to download for your desktop or mobile phone.