I had a great opportunity a few weeks back to photograph a TBM-3U air to air. With that as a bases, I’m now out collecting “pieces” or photographs to finish an article based on that TBM-3U air to air flight. The TBM as you can see from this photograph carried torpedoes which it launched from the air against enemy shipping. It accomplished this by launching from aircraft carriers like the Intrepid. So when I saw this one on display on the Intrepid, I shot it every way to Sunday! Having photos of a TBM on the hangar deck of WWII aircraft carrier is a great addition to the article!
With that goal in mind, how do you go about getting the shot? I shot at ISO800 with the D3s because I didn’t want to use a tripod. Because of the exhibit lighting, I did a 5 image HDR capture. When I took the shot, I would position myself so all the flood lights on the ceiling where hidden by either parts of the TBM or other fixtures. Then I used Photomatix Pro to assemble the HDR, ACR and PS to finish. The one biggie was to remove all the standards around the TBM to keep the public back and the other person standing there reading the signage. I normally don’t spend more then 2min with a photo in PS but when I went click, I knew it would take longer then 2min to finish this one. It was about a 10min job to remove the standards and the person but it was worth it. While not 100% accurate to WWII history, it’s as close as we’ll ever get and a great addition to the article.
In the Bag:
D3s
24f/1.4 AFS
Lexar 32GB UDMA 600x