SR-71 Blackbird at the National Air and Space Museum.

I found out today that taking pictures in a museum is harder then I

thought. My Evolt-500 just doesn't seem to do it. Let me know what

you think of this picture please. Any hints/tips for indoor shooting

would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hi Mike! I found that shooting indoors at museums equally challenging this weekend when I went to the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, FL. I experimented with many different settings before getting some good pictures. Most of the aircraft in the museum I visited were lit with skylighting which provided nice natural sunlight, so I didn't have many problems with white balance settings. Using a flash on other aircraft that were in dimmer areas was hard because the flash didn't have enough reach in the huge building. I think every museum is going to offer its own set of challenges so without seeing what you were up against, I don't think I could recommend any improvements. I do like this shot of the SR-71 though. It's a beautiful airplane.

Hi Mike

 

I flew 8000 miles to visit the NASM in 04 - very special (but shyly admit to enjoying the SR71 on the carrier at Pier 91 in New York only because I could touch the nose). I think you have a good shot here, what follows is just my view on the world - ok? First I try and always use a tripod, monopod, or steady at a rail (such as you may have done here from the walkway) I do this so I can close down the aperture as much as possible in order to bring crispness into the shot detail. I also bracket every time by about a half stop. If this were mine, I'd convert it to pure B&W in PS or similar programme, sharpen the heck out of the wind louvre detail using contrast and silouhette the visitors. If that was looking good, I'd add some low saturation blue into the shadows only - s'funny but blacks with a touch of blue in them always look blacker to me. That said, this is just one man's view and at the end of the day, you've still got an interesting shot of the most beautiful thing to ever fly. Hope it's useful to you.