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Critique request provoked by the critique thread for

href="http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=5082127">this

photo

Well, yeah, but I do wonder what you folks think of this one in the context of Alex's one-and-a-half-Spitfires picture. Obviously I had a great opportunity with this picture and I pushed the button at the right instant, but I have always considered this picture a missed chance because my lens was too long and clipped off both ends of the foreground airplane, plus I would rather have had the nearer airplane sharp than the farther one. But even though in that sense it's a dud, I keep coming back to look at the picture because it does convey to me more of the sound and motion I was experiencing than a lot of my more technically correct takeoff shots do. So please, I really would like thoughts on whether this photo has merit or not.

This photo leaves me... wanting. Unfortunately, I can't get over the "close, but no cigar" feeling I get.

It draws my eye, I keep coming back to it... but I would be lying if I said I am satisfied when I do. I completely undersand why you took it - I would have too if presented with the chance. But its a case of too many little things that add up to a photo that does not work for me at all.

I don't know if I would have had the presence of mind and reflexes to do this - so keep in mind I DO realize its easy for me to sit here and spew all these wise remarks with a cup of coffee and all the time in the world - but, here is what I think:

The focus is fine, its a matter of what you wanted to show - I happen to like it this way.

The composition bothers me and ultimately ruins the photo for me. There are two things that would have fixed it, and with your lens/position, you could have only done one of them. The first, keep one airplane whole (which you couldn't have done). The second is keeping the whole nose of the foreground plane at the expense of the tail, intentionally. To me, that would work. Unfortuantely, without one of those two conditions being satisfied I don't think this photo lives up to the high standards set by a great majority of your work.

In context of the other photo (the Spits), I don't know how objective I am being, but I think it works where this one fails for precisely the reasons listed above.

Of course, these are just my thoughts. Cheers.

I'm glad to see that these pics have sparked such a debate!

I posted the Spits pic because I thought - well, I'm not sure if this works, so I'll ask for someone else's opinion. I was actually surprised, albeit pleasantly, to get such a positive repsonse. Well, from most :-) Just goes to show how subjective photographs can be.

My initial reaction to this is "nice P-51D x2 shot!". Then, I notice there's something missing, like a bit of nose(s) and tail. Somehow, my brain seems to fill in the missing bits, and I generally think nice pic as there's nice focus on the farthest plane. OK, so it will never make a magazine cover, but is it nice to look at? It is to me!

I think wherever there's something in focus, and exposure/contrast are all there, then a bit of creative cropping might recover something from the shot. Just a thought....

Thanks Alex. I was actually thinking of an even more severe crop.

When I look at this picture, one of the things that intrigues me about it is the way you can see the pilot in the near aircraft checking out the position of the lead aircraft, as a formation pilot should. So what about a crop that really zooms in on the two pilots, like this one. I think in this context, it makes sense that the far aircraft and its pilot are in "focus", because that is what the near pilot is "focusing" on.