k5083

Simple image but with graphic strength and good use of limited DOF. I like your attention to detail in all the pics in your Air Power series.

Nice use of form and lighting. I think it would have been stronger if the DOF had encompassed the entire visible part of the plane. Even with 6x7, it looks like there was enough light to stop down and get that. But anyway the shot brings out the character of this bird.

Excellent and sensitive use of lighting and weather. Best airplane shot posted for critique yet this month.

 

Very good. The guy checking her out in the passing car makes it a great picture.

Fond memories as airshow season fades.

Very good. The interest in the picture is that the engines are so much the same, yet each is actually quite different from the other on close inspection. It is a photo that rewards time taken to appreciate the details of the subjects.

Not bad! Normally I don't care for the oldie treatment but it doesn't offend me here, I guess because there are no obviously modern elements to throw it off. The old-style construction of the hangar is what makes this one work.

I'm not sure you intended to capture the walking person reflected in the fender, but it's actually the most interesting thing about the picture.

 

It's a good study. Obviously the people on the right are a distraction. You might have been able to screen them with the wing by crouching down for a lower angle. I might also be tempted to retouch out that antenna at the upper left, because it really draws the eye and it's a modern, inauthentic touch.

From this batch of photos you had a good day at Rhinebeck I see. This is a good looking pic; I like the way the trees in the corners frame it, although the one on the left dominates the pic maybe more than I would prefer. The particular tone of sepia you have chosen doesn't drive me wild, either.

 

What's the source of the vignetting in all your pics, camera or post processing?

 

Always a good angle for an aerial shot, and the traditional Duxford weather helps make a great photo when you don't crop it too tight.

So what you've got going on here is symmetry and angles, which is a characteristic feature of this plane with the folded wings and the propeller in the symmetrical position. You picked the right angle and the framing is just tight enough. But when symmetry is the point, you have to take care to frame it level and center it exactly, because slight tilts and shifts are very apparent to the eye in such pictures. Here your pic is rotated about 1 degree counterclockwise and shifted slightly to the right of center. It's not always easy to frame these perfectly under the circumstances, but before showing this photo, I would have rotated and cropped it so that it was as symmetrical as possible.

 

The other feature that distracts are the orange safety pylons in the lower right corner. These also are easy to fix in post-processing. Just select the area where they are, select only the color range that pics up the orange and yellow of these objects, and dial down the saturation. They'll still be there, but once desaturated almost to gray, they won't draw the eye.

 

Quite a decent picture, and I like how you didn't pump up the colors in the currently fashionable style.

Geneseo, 7/11/08.

Dan, thanks for the comment. Normally I avoid sharpening my scans too much as I think that many pic displayed on the web are over- or pseudosharpened, but in this case I think you were right. Also, when I looked closely at the image I saw that I had failed to clean a few dust specks and scanning artifacts, so I have done that, sharpened it a bit, and replaced the image.

Geneseo, 7/11/08.

Geneseo, 7/11/08.

Glad you guys liked this. I personally thought that the four color bands of sky, trees, short and long grass, and the water highlights in the long grass made it one of my better pics of the weekend.

 

David, one can only roughly estimate the rpms of the props, and most aeroplane snappers just use the slowest shutter speed they feel they can get away with. The engines were idling in this situation so getting a lot of blur would be tricky but I probably could have managed a little more.

 

Well caught, nice 3d effect with the side lighting on the smoke.

Very nice pic Alex, perfect separation between the planes and nice evocative cloudy sky.

Geneseo, July 2008.

Dan, very interesting picture, the lack of depth cues really throws off your sense of scale with this one. Well caught. It does seem a bit unnaturally vivid and contrasty though. Using Velvia by any chance?

Pretty good human interest warbird picture. I like the inclusion of the feet of the adult explaining the plane to the kid. I guess technically it would be a little better if the top of the kid's head were clear of the bottom of the plane, but you can't have everything perfect in a grab shot. Really good work.

A composition of three classic British fighter planes.

It's an interesting picture because of the incongruity of the airplane and its surroundings; this massive weapon looming over what otherwise would appear to be a pleasant, green suburban park. The posts under the wheels make it clear that the aircraft is not resting on the ground but actually suspended over the ground, again making it seem out of place, and not of the world it inhabits. The absence of any people in the picture makes it eerie. Even though there are other warplanes on display, they seem unobtrusive and less at odds with the environment. Many diagonals make it an active composition. An image worthy of attention.