“鹰狮”战机空对空拍摄的幕后照片
Executing a successful air-to-air photo-shoot requires quite a lot of planning and a bit of luck with the weather. At Saab Aeronautics communications department we made a formal request to the Swedish 空气 force to use one of their C-130 Hercules and a “鹰狮” C aircraft to be able to shoot footage of the “鹰狮” C and “鹰狮” E flying together.
当我们得到同意的时候, the first step was to find out which of our “鹰狮” E aircraft would be available on the possible dates (one planned date and a reserve slot the day after). 因为我们的鹰狮E是测试飞机, they have various installed hardware/software versions and thus different approved flight envelopes. 来自空军的日期是固定的，因为C130是一种受欢迎的资源.
第二阶段是考虑所有相关飞机的飞行包线. C-130的批准最高速度为150节. 对于战斗机来说, 尤其是测试飞机, 这是相当缓慢的，这反过来限制了装载和机动的可能性. We had a meeting with one of our test pilots discussing what would be possible to achieve bearing in mind these limitations. Armed with this knowledge, we photographers sat down to create a “wish-list” of the shots we wanted.
The shots were visualized in 3D with descriptions of how the aircraft should position and move. We also had to consider the available flight time and how much time is needed to set up the different maneuvers. 8个姿势被挑选出来并发给飞行员批准, 确保我们计划中的演习能够安全进行.
As the day approached it became clear that the first date would not be possible to use due to the weather. 从瑞典的天气角度来看，11月并不是最可靠的月份. 在拍摄前一天开车到Såtenäs的F7翼, 我们对能够进行任何飞行都没有很高的期望, something that was confirmed when we sat down to do the flight briefing in the afternoon. 天气预报说会有9级左右的密集云层.000英尺. 在那个高度，你接近需要使用氧气面罩的高度. 我们的上方也会有一层云层. This would mean that the imagery would be less striking than we hoped as we would not be able to see the ground and the light would be flat and dull from the overcast. 当拍摄空对空时，你不会想要一个清澈的蓝天或紧凑的云层覆盖. The ideal conditions are scattered clouds so you get a sense of scale and reference to the aircraft you are shooting. 尤其是在拍摄的时候, 靠近云层飞行会给你一种速度感, 而不是飞机静静地悬挂在一个巨大的蓝色空间. 我们在雨中开车回旅馆，心情有些沮丧.
第二天早上从酒店出来, 令我们吃惊的是, 3点左右，我们看到了灿烂的日出，天空中散乱着一层云.000 ft. 我们简直不敢相信自己开车到基地的运气, 我们祈祷天气能保持几个小时不变. 那光很神奇, 11月在瑞典, 在一天的大部分时间里，你会得到一个黄色的暮光角色, as opposed to say in June when the light is hard and flat with extreme contrasts most of the time.
C-130的机长向我们打招呼，告诉我们航班开始了, 装卸工很快地把我们领到飞机上，准备把我们安置好. We received harnesses with cords to be attached to the floor so we could move about on the ramp. 我们还带了耳机，这样我们就可以和剧组沟通了, 通过船长, 指挥鹰狮的行动. 大约在拍摄前一小时, we took off to scout the weather in the designated area over lake Vänern and do our final preparations. 我们使用了佳能R5相机和佳能70-200 f2.8和24-105 f4.0玻璃.
我负责拍摄，我的同事负责拍剧照. 我们在坡道上绑了一个三脚架，因为我打算用它来拍摄流畅的视频, but in the air we realized that vibrations were transmitted through the tripod making the video shake. 手持式游戏才是正确的选择. To make for more flexibility in post production, the video was shot at 4K, 100 frames per second.
任何计划在第一次接触现实时都无法幸免, 如果这是你在这一行学到的一件事, 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, 但实际上，鹰狮E比鹰狮C早15分钟出现. Never the less we had an aircraft behind the ramp so we got cracking doing some solo-maneuvers that were supposed to come later in the shoot. You do not waste an opportunity like this as keeping multiple aircraft in the air for a photo shoot is anything but cheap.
当鹰狮C到达时，我们开始做姿势. 除了给我们完美的视觉效果, 天气也让我们非常平静, 所以坡道非常稳定，可以在上面工作. 如果你移动到坡道边缘脚踝处就会有气流, 但条件很好，温度刚刚好，所以我们可以不戴手套工作, 当摆弄相机控制时，这总是一个加分项.
We were in constant contact with the pilots and directed them to get the right angles and positions in order to achieve the result we planned. What always strikes me when doing an air-to-air shoot is how your time perception change when you are 焦点ing 100% on the job at hand. 就好像时间以慢动作和快速动作同时流逝. 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. Fast because an hour is not really that long and you have to produce results good enough to motivate the invested cost and effort of all those involved in the shoot.
最后，鹰狮E返回基地，我们专注于鹰狮C的单打. We got some really nice close-ups as the “鹰狮” C is a serial aircraft with a completely opened flight envelope, 而不是我们的鹰狮E测试机. 这意味着鹰狮C飞行员可以更自由地机动, 做桶滚，靠近C-130. 当离开家时, 鹰狮C做的最后一件事是点燃加力燃烧室，然后直接俯冲下来, 是什么让C-130像鹰狮战斗机一样震动. 它也创造了一些不寻常的角度，我从来没有能够捕捉到以前.
当我们回到Såtenäs着陆时，我们很高兴. 所有的东西都凑在一起，让我们拍出了完美的照片. The variety of the clouds and the lighting conditions resulted in material that looked like it could be the result of half a dozen different flights. 两个很开心, but also very tired photographers drove back to Linköping and could not wait to start editing all the good stuff we had on our memory cards.
更多鹰狮的精彩图片，请访问 “鹰狮”.com 在哪里可以找到要下载到桌面或手机上的图像.