Airbus A350-900 XWB

[Stagecoach]

The first of two new Airbus A350-900 XWBs for our national airline arrived on Saturday and although I was at home I had the camera ready just in case I could get a shot of it in the distance as it headed for a fly over of the city a few miles away.

As I watched it fly over the sea towards its destination on it's planned route I snapped off a few dots in the centre of the frame. Then to my surprise it started turning, and turning more. Wow, it's coming back towards me, am I really going to be lucky, yes.

No 1 - No 2 in the turn sequence of 7 shots


No 2 - No 5 in the turn sequence of 7 shots


These are about my 3rd attempt of processing and I'm not too happy about the colour balance of the full sequence so more work is required. I'm also split 50/50 on the ratio 16:9 or 3:2.

Comments and suggestions welcome as always.

[Shadowman]

Nice set, I think the 3:2 ratio works for the subject/shapes.

[pschlute]

Very nice, lucky you.

[xpatUSA]

Very good indeed, Grahame, quel chance!

You rose to the occasion like a champ ...

[Stagecoach]

Nice set, I think the 3:2 ratio works for the subject/shapes.

Thank you John, I think you are right with the ratio.

[Stagecoach]

Very nice, lucky you.

Thank you Peter.

[Stagecoach]

Very good indeed, Grahame, quel chance!

You rose to the occasion like a champ ...

Thank you Ted. If I'd of had the focus set up correct I would have had more keepers in the full turn.

[DanK]

Great captures.

I think I see what you mean; the white balance is quite different in the two shots. Just to see what happened, I set the top of the nose in the first one to neutral. It ended up in between your two originals.

If they were mine, I would crop more tightly, particularly the first. I usually pay no attention to the arbitrary aspect ratios of monitors and cameras and start by just picking what looks right to me. A quick and dirty--just following my taste--is these. You'll see that the WB is still not the same in the two. I think you need to view in the lytebox to see the actual aspect ratio.

[Stagecoach]

Thanks Dan,

To expand on the 'colour/WB' concerns I'm having is that whilst I can WB the planes individually to match in each of the 7 shots this makes a difference to the sky colour when done globally. When then viewed as a series the difference in sky colour appears odd.

I suspect this has been caused by the varying angle of the shots, roughly about 35/40 deg both horizontally and vertically to the light source. Possibly some light reflection variation in colour from the ground comes into play as well.

It could be that the only solution will be to 'equalise' planes and sky separately with masking.

[DanK]

Grahame,

Interesting. I hadn't thought of that.

I don't know whether you use Photoshop, but I just tried the new subject selection tool on your second shot. Seemed to work well. I just drew a rectangle around the plane, and it figured out what parts of the image to select.

Dan

[Stagecoach]

Grahame,

Interesting. I hadn't thought of that.

I don't know whether you use Photoshop, but I just tried the new subject selection tool on your second shot. Seemed to work well. I just drew a rectangle around the plane, and it figured out what parts of the image to select.

Dan

Yes I use PS Dan and actually had a go with the new selection tool options. They make a pretty good job where there is a good distinction in colour or contrast between the background.

I'm going to be experimenting with the selection further with the aim of producing a composite of the sequence, should be fun.

[Wavelength]

Wonderful....

[Stagecoach]

Wonderful....

Thanks Nandakumar.

[Tronhard]

Really nice shots Grahame, you did yourself proud! :-)

[Stagecoach]

Really nice shots Grahame, you did yourself proud! :-)

Thank you Trevor.

Whilst I'm pleased that I got seven usable shots I would have had a lot more if I'd had realised that the camera was in 9 point dynamic focus which is very poor with this combination of 80-400 + 1.4TC.