Jun 6, 2011 | Aviation
Gotta make something of this great opportunity. You’re on the flight line with 22 Osprey, how to sum up the experience in one click? That often goes through my mind, summing up the experience in one click. An Osprey spooled up and taxied over to warm up. Can you tell? You can’t because the rotors are hidden by the background. Damn…
OK, it lifted off. I made a quick click because I had no clue how long it would be there.
After that click, took another moment placing the Osprey where I knew I’d want it finishing it with the Split Grad in ACR. But man, gotta make something more of the opportunity. Time to move, walk down the line to get a better position.
I get back to where I started, an image with all the Osprey “bills” all stacked up shooting at 400mm. Luckily the Osprey was still hoovering so I made the first click. I’m liken it better but it’s not what I had in mind.
I move down the line more and find a hole in the photographers and I make the next click. I think about the exposure and a took another click lightening it up. I’m getting closer but I need to move again.
I get down to the left and found a hole and made the click I had in my mind. Is it the most amazing photo of a V-22 Osprey? Well, it is in my files but not in the world. The elements weren’t lining up to make the world’s most amazing Osprey photo and with no control and total lack of movement, all you can do is make the most of what’s presented you. The light is the light, the time with the subject is predetermined so you’ve gotta take a moment, take it all in and then come up with a course of action. All the images on today’s blogs were taken over a 15min span of time. So to come away with this one vertical for a 15min investment, I’m pretty happy. I could have walked away with nothing which does happen. And I’ve learned somethings so when a better opportunity comes along, I will have the tools to take advantage of it.
Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital fiml
Jun 6, 2011 | Aviation
OK, moving this thing forward with the panic starting to set in as the clock tics by, I walk the line. I’m looking and looking and I see this lone Osprey. With a little Content Aware fill, I made a shot, moving it forward a little. There isn’t any other way they could position those large ass rotors but they make the photo, their position and size. And while I made a click, it’s still doesn’t have much drama, much pazzaz!
OK, now we’ve got something going for us. Light isn’t any better but with a little Content Aware Fill, getting those big ass rotors spinning and a person, we start telling a story. To make this whole thing work though, those big ass rotors gotta be spinning otherwise they look like the top image. Those rotors spin mighty slow compared to a prop on a plane so in order to get a blur to talk about movement, I had to shoot at 1/30. Yeap, I’m hand holding the 200-400VR2 at 1/30 to make the image. At the same time I’m hoping the crew member doesn’t move because at 1/30, it takes very little body movement to make him soft.
Now compare the bottom two photos, both with movement but one is definitely stronger IMHO then the other. This bottom image to he has a number of problems. The first is the background, next is the attitude of the V-22 and lastly there is no story, it’s just doesn’t do a thing for me. OK, the minute is about to hit the bewitching hour, what can we pull out?
Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jun 6, 2011 | Aviation
Simple enough, start photographing the pilots and crew. Can’t walk out on the flightline and stage them, too far for flash, so you make the most of it. Watching, waiting, using long glass and constantly moving to set up the angles between the people and the Osprey is key. Thinking about using the Split Grad in ACR to control the light in post since you can’t in camera is another option. And the outcome? You now have little more visual interest because when you see someone, you visually stop to see what they are doing. Placing them in the right space you give a little visual depth. And finally, they give some scale to the Osprey. You’re no closer, lighting no better but with the simple addition of the human element, the opportunity is improved. Can we do better? mtc
Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jun 6, 2011 | Aviation
On our ISAP field trip as I mentioned, we went to MCAS Miramar to photography the V-22 Osprey. We could photograph the two in the hangar and all of them on the flightline, but we couldn’t go past the hangar doors. Just like a nat’l park where you have limits how close you can get to a critter, we had the same invisibly line here. Even worse, we were going to be here just an hour and the light is what you saw, it wasn’t going to change. So, how do you make a photo from this? Basically a once in a lifetime opportunity, it ain’t going to happen again, what do you do? Well, comeback by today and I’ll show and explain how I went about making the most of this opportunity. mtc
Photo captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jun 3, 2011 | Aviation
What was lighting the side of the Stearman that had me moving around was this sky. It wasn’t this great when I started shooting but as you can see, it was for a few moments killer. Now here’s the photographic problem, how do you end up with this photo? Look at the light, where’s it coming from? From behind right, this is a backlit subject. If that’s the case, how can this side of the Stearman be all lit up. You might be saying “You have a big bank of flash” but then you’d say to yourself, “Moose isn’t going to work that hard.” And you’d be right, I keep is simple, easy and fun. So then….
If you “expose” for just the great sky and that is why I moved to this angle, just for the sky, what happens to the subject? It’s still cool as a silhouette but it’s not what I wanted for a final photo.
If then you expose for just the subject, you loose the whole reason why you moved to this side of the plane. And here’s the deal you can never loose site of. The light came and the light went, had this killer stuff for just a heartbeat, there wasn’t time to experiment or play, you either got it or you didn’t. You’re probably now saying, “It’s HDR but man, it sure doesn’t look like HDR!” You’d be right on both counts, it is HDR and it doesn’t look like HDR. This is a 7 image bracket assembled in Photomatix Pro and then finished in Photoshop. I’m finding in my travels that both the camera part and the finishing part is eluding photographers and I can understand why. That’s why we’ve started a new class, Photoshop for Shooters which is a helluva of a lot more then just a Photoshop class. It’s a photography class talking all about light. Once you get a handle on light, the shooting and the finishing just fall into place. If you wanna learn how to make all that work, call, now, don’t hesitate 760.924.8632! And hopefully this litl lesson will help your images take flight!
Jun 3, 2011 | Aviation
This photo was actually taken right after the first photo in this series. Now how can that be you must be asking? I mean, it doesn’t look anything like those other photos. That’s what photography is all about, looking at the light and moving with it. If you’re wondering how this image came to be, you’ll have to check out the next block.
