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.
Jun 3, 2011 | Aviation
What do you do to top off an incredible flight? Well, when you have great light you shoot some more. When Mike came taxing up, I got the signal from Kevin to stage the Stearman for a sunset shoot. One of the great things about Stearman Field is all the grass and there was a great strip in front of the hangar or other then aligning the Stearman in the light, it was a snap. Now of course there was a little more consideration then that. You guessed, you know me to well. Yeap, the background was everything so parking the Stearman took a little hand signals, a little gas and then a little more gas just to get the Stearman parked with the best possible background. Kevin hopped out, grabbed his camera and we started to shoot. As the light changed as the sun set, I kept moving about the Stearman looking at just the glow on the side of the Stearman. I was using the RRS Ground Pod which has become my favorite for shooting static aircraft. The question I have for you is, how did I take and finish these images? And do I have a favorite? Not yet actually but the top image is in the contention. mtc
Photos captured by D3x, 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jun 2, 2011 | Aviation
A favorite shot, took a second to do. Is it in your arsenal of techniques? If not, come to class! mtc
Jun 2, 2011 | Aviation
I no sooner was on the ground and Kevin was in the Stearman and taxing down the grass strip for his trip. Stearman field is so cool, a step back in time in fact. Kevin has brought me there before and I’m making friends with some of the plane owners so I have no doubt you’ll be seeing more images from this great field in the future.
This is on of my favorite shots! The Stearman, you can’t help but see it in the frame even though it’s a microdot in the frame. Its yellow wings against the blue sky make it really pop. But what’s really cool is the story of the smoke trail. That’s what it looks like when you do the wing over. I can feel the G’s jsut lookin at it!
And when you’re all done with the maneuvers, the smoke tells the story. It goes by so quickly that it’s hard to remember it all once you’re back on the ground but seeing the smoke trail, I can relive the how thing. I wanna thank Mike and Kevin for making the flight happen. It’s one I won’t forget!
Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jun 2, 2011 | Aviation
Mike took us on some wing over maneuvers that were sick! Oh man, better then any roller coaster ride you might ever take. Before we took off, we talked a little bit about our flight. It was a huge help to have Kevin there since he had flown with Mike before and had great ideas for these Hero shots. The plan was during the wing over, Mike would turn on the smoke. As you can see I had a headset on so during the whole flight we were in communication so when it was time for the wing over, Mike told me and into the turn we went. Weeeeeeeeee!
The horizontal shot above is how the camera was in relationship to me the whole time because a vertical Fish portrait is just nasty! But the bottom shot is how the plane, me and the camera were when I went click. The smoke trail is cool because it shows where we just came from and the path we were flying. I’ll probably not use the bottom shot for other then fun because I think the viewer not aviation oriented would be visually confused by it since most don’t fly in that orientation. But for me, the client, I like the bottom because it really tells the story of the flight.
Photos captured by D3x, 16Fish on Lexar UDMA digital film
