Blue Angels with fresh contrails.........

[IzzieK]

This is one DH's favourite shot. He had been egging me to do this kind with a fresh contrail as a background. Many times during the airshow he kept saying...hold it! take a shot with the contrails. It will be just another shot without it! OK..so he barked at me to press the shutter on his count. He likes it. That is the most important but I find this one dull...there must be some way to improve this shot without removing the shade of the airplane that made the contrail or cut off some empty space at the right...can anyone please help? I am not putting this up on his wall just like how it is now....half a page of nothingness...

[John 2]

Izzie,

1. Do you have the RAW file?
2. What software are you using?

You could crop some off top and right but to me, the fact that your contrails are burned out and the aircraft are in total silhouette is where you might improve matters. I have tried recovering the highlights and opening up the shadows in the jpg using CS6 but there isn't quite enough detail left in the posted image. There are also a few dust bunnies around but they are easily dealt with.

[MariaMaria]

I love the contrails (I assume that is the trail left by the clouds?) and I also like the silhouette of the planes. Maybe shifting the composition a bit so that it was not dead-center would be more interesting? JMO

[FrankMi]

This is one DH's favourite shot. He had been egging me to do this kind with a fresh contrail as a background. Many times during the airshow he kept saying...hold it! take a shot with the contrails. It will be just another shot without it! OK..so he barked at me to press the shutter on his count. He likes it. That is the most important but I find this one dull...there must be some way to improve this shot without removing the shade of the airplane that made the contrail or cut off some empty space at the right...can anyone please help? I am not putting this up on his wall just like how it is now....half a page of nothingness...

Smart idea Izzie! And as John says, if you have this in RAW, you could possibly bring out more of the details in the contrails and in the Hornets! I would repeat this kind of shot any time you get the chance as a lot of the impact is going to be in the angles and juxtaposition of the aircraft with the background contrails. Very will done!

Open the image in Lightbox, go to Expanded, and use your mouse to push the image around on the screen. You can then use the edges of the monitor to check out various cropping options and see if you find one you like.

[Mike Buckley]

Your husband is right (husbands always are ); his concept is fabulous. I've never seen it, not that I make a point of following aviation photography. Improved execution already mentioned in earlier posts would make the image terrific.

Regarding composition, my choice would be to tilt it about 25 degrees counterclockwise to produce diagonals in both sets of contrails.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[IzzieK]

Here's a fresh one I have been staring at for a few hours...I am whacking my brain here. I have Photoshop open and been cropping like hell, up down, down up, across I still cannot find anything creative in such a bland shot. No sharpening in this one. I think just a hint of the Hornets' position and a hint of the commercial plane that did the contrail is enough. Maybe this should be just a wallpaper not a printed picture in his den...too embarrassing.

[Saorsa]

Te problem wth the Angels and the T'birds is that they come late in the show. This means the air if full of show smoke from previous acts. If you are in a position where the aircraft is backlit this is what you get and not a lot of post processing will pull it out.

I had the same problem this year since they decided to do the simulated attack from a B-25 and P-51 this year which resulted in a really bad sky.

[IzzieK]

John 2...I've read your email this morning but I did not log on. Apart from taking care of my family needs for the morning, I've sit and sit and sit and stare at this image from RAW. I did not remove the dust bunny from this last one either. I'd do it before I send DH a copy...I just want it right for now...

Maria, yes contrails are those smokes that jets left behind as they passes through. In an airshow aerobatic airplanes with contrails as a background is sort of, very rare. I do not know why, but that was what hubby wants me to shoot...during the airshow last weekend it was a beautiful clear 90 deg sunny and dusty day that kept shifting all over the place. I should had brought three camera bodies instead of two. I was battling on what to use to get all that was happening in the sky...I do not know why, when some can use their iPhones and iPads to shoot at those airplanes??? I think what bothered me most was a guy nearby who brought his Jungle Jim camera (a Canon) complete with camo covers all over, a very strong heavy tripod with a 1000mm zoom. He had more of a frustrated look of a defeated face than the happy face of this woman next to us shooting with an iPhone. I kept looking at him wanting to take a photo of him but I can't. I do not want to add to his frustration. It is bad enough that he doesn't have anyone with him ... anyway, long story... for another day...

Frank I think I focus on the wrong thing here -- maybe I focus too much on the contrail instead of the planes? I hope they will have good weather in Chicago for the Air and Water Show so I can perfect some shots I did not get...

Mike...tilting will not work here. I am dealing with a Budd Davidsson's project of many years even if this one is just on his Buckaroo T35 and his Globe/Temco Swift...DH wanted to show this off to Budd. His wife(I) took it and it is important.(and I will hide in my den...)

Thanks, John and everyone from commenting. I do appreciate it very much...

[John 2]

Izzie, does your version of PS have the "Shadows and Highlights tool? That and a little bit of curves is what I have used in the version below. What I have achieved is a bit forced because the JPG just doesn't have enough information left to recover everything but if the original file is in RAW/TIFF/PSD, you should be able to do a better job.

[IzzieK]

Yes it does. This desktop have both CS4 and CS5.My laptop has CS5 and CS6. I got something similar to yours below but I thought the markings at the back had became too reddish. Maybe I am getting too critical of my work...??? Yours looks better than I imagined of my version??? Pretty much clearer too...I will try that...thanks.

Izzie, does your version of PS have the "Shadows and Highlights tool? That and a little bit of curves is what I have used in the version below. What I have achieved is a bit forced because the JPG just doesn't have enough information left to recover everything but if the original file is in RAW/TIFF/PSD, you should be able to do a better job.

[leslie1283]

How about a square crop?

[IzzieK]

We were at airshow center...very good position, very dusty with the sun sometimes on top of our head...I had very good shots of the T'birds at Scott's AFB two years ago too...You have a great advantage there in FL--the playground of the Blueys...you can always go to their practice if you want, when you want...

Leftover smokes had always been a problem and I always thought I can remove some in PP...most times I am not good enough especially there are so many things that I have done in Photoshop throughout the years from version 4 upwards that I forget to use in most of my images. Then someone would mention a certain function and I have to google how it is done and once I saw the procedure the AHA moment came ... it must be old age...

Thank you for your nice comments...and the T'birds...that's a good one! I have lots of them...when you live with someone who is airplane mad, you'd probably feel like me --- run to the other direction!!! Quick!

Te problem wth the Angels and the T'birds is that they come late in the show. This means the air if full of show smoke from previous acts. If you are in a position where the aircraft is backlit this is what you get and not a lot of post processing will pull it out.

I had the same problem this year since they decided to do the simulated attack from a B-25 and P-51 this year which resulted in a really bad sky.

[Saorsa]

Maybe but Pensacola is 564 miles (about an 8 hour drive) from where I live so I don't get to see them except here and at Lakeland for Sun n' Fun. For reference, London to Edinburgh is 406 miles. If I go the other way on I-75 its another 177 miles and 2.5 hours to get to Miami.

Florida is a bigger state than it looks.

BTW, I've also seen the long lens afficionados at an airshow and see them having problems tracking. I seldom use anything over 200mm.

[IzzieK]

Thank you Leslie...it is very nice but it will not work with my boss. I totally ruined this one. Might give it another shot in August at the Chicago Air and Boat Show...

[IzzieK]

Maybe but Pensacola is 564 miles (about an 8 hour drive) from where I live so I don't get to see them except here and at Lakeland for Sun n' Fun. For reference, London to Edinburgh is 406 miles. If I go the other way on I-75 its another 177 miles and 2.5 hours to get to Miami.

Florida is a bigger state than it looks.

BTW, I've also seen the long lens afficionados at an airshow and see them having problems tracking. I seldom use anything over 200mm.

DH's best friend lives in Cedar Key, where we got married 4 boys ago. We go to Sun n Fun (read this as "dragged to" ) every year because we have a display there for the Swift association. This year I did not go because of our sick dog. Lakeland is just 45 minutes from Cedar Key using a Piper Arrow which we fly to the event. Nice plane. This year as a fund-raising event, they tried to sell a donated Swift airplane that DH and his membership fixed.

I'd like to see more of your airplane shots...would be interesting. I'd like to learn more and go back little by little to what I used to do before (for my husband's sake) and also expand on others like landscape, flowers, birding and insects. Lots of monarch butterflies over there at Cedar Key...so that when I get sick of airplanes, I can always turned to something else...

Yeah....I brought my 300mm on that Saturday and I missed a lot not only because of position at the show but the 300 is very cumbersome and tiring to the armpits. So the next day I just brought my 200mm zoom and the 18-55mm for crowd shots. Airshows are handheld events, not tripod unless you are really that good and I do not profess to be good , just passable.

[Saorsa]

Yeah....I brought my 300mm on that Saturday and I missed a lot not only because of position at the show but the 300 is very cumbersome and tiring to the armpits. So the next day I just brought my 200mm zoom and the 18-55mm for crowd shots. Airshows are handheld events, not tripod unless you are really that good and I do not profess to be good , just passable.

You might want to consider a monopod. I use mine and leave it a little loose at the top and short. That way I can use to take the weight between shots but still lift it to track. I may use it in a more conventional way if I can predict where the will be like takeoff and landings.

I have some airshow shots in my blog here.

This is my favorite Blue Angel shot.



and another

[jcuknz]

My suggestion was pretty quick to find* and I cropped left and bottom to place the planes on left vertical third but with height as-is to still show the big one upstairs.
* moving picture on screen to side and lower rather than doing an edit.

[IzzieK]

Excellent shots! I got some good ones of the Thunderbirds two years ago at Scotts AFB and this weekend of the Blue Angels too. I was trying to catch the crossovers this time around that was why I went...and of course the splits which I have lots of. Next time I will try the afterburner shots which I do not have yet...the one that is exactly right at the back of the plane. When they did the afterburners, I was at center area. I tried to find my shot but I got distracted. Since I have done a lot of airshow shots throughout these many years since my husband and I got married, I only want to get shots I have not done nor have. The adrenalin at airshows are tremendous and would like to enjoy watching it too and plan on the shots I do not have yet in my collection.

Anyway, our next sedate outing will be next month at the Wright Bros Air Force museum at Dayton, Ohio. I am slated to be in one of the planes taking air to air shots without any doors nor sliding canopy open. No adrenalin push there even though the main organizer is a Commander of the Air Force in his time. So off to read up on museum photography. And with all the restrictions on what to shoot in a military facility, it's going to be a boring week. Big Brother will be watching us (Hope not.)

[IzzieK]

Hi JC...'Been awhile since I've seen you post or respond to any message...hope you are OK..

Unfortunately, no solution is available but try to get another shot of going to another Blue Angels show to get a similar kind of shot. I may not get it, but these kinds are very rare so it is need in this household to have clear one. I have ruined the shoot and admit it. Before this, husband like it. When I finally showed my image on a full size tv (is there one??) connected to my laptop, he finally admit that the shot is good but the plane is too red. I said it s supposed to be a sillouette...then the red can disappear. My boss wants a perfect one so I am giving up on this one.

Thank you for commenting and offering help...'will have to do a reshoot in Chicago on August...hopefully after we came back from Australia.

My suggestion was pretty quick to find* and I cropped left and bottom to place the planes on left vertical third but with height as-is to still show the big one upstairs.
* moving picture on screen to side and lower rather than doing an edit.