Billion Dollar Airbus Photo Shoot: How It Was Made

Photography Tips

You don’t often get to witness the making of one of the most expensive photo shoots ever:

On September 29, 2014, Airbus organized an intricate flying formation of five huge A350-XWB jetliners in celebration of the new aircraft’s certification. The event was documented by Master Films, and photographed by S. Ramadier. (Via PetaPixel)

In the video you can see how much meticulous preparation went into that photo shoot. Formation flight isn’t anything new; it’s been done for decades. But usually it is done with planes made for hardcore maneuvers. Airbuses are passenger crafts, which focus on comfortable ride, so swift maneuvers aren’t their strongest side. That’s why the pilots and the photographers had to plan the whole shoot to extreme detail.

The angles and points of view, formations, movements, numbers, locations, sun position, and all those sorts of details had to be anticipated on the ground—the filming had to be done in one go. So many people working in harmony to create few pictures isn’t something you see every day.