So Jake & I are walking around the show, talking with folks, running into friends and thankfully, doing some business and to top that all off, having fun shooting when we walked up to the P-64. I looked like it was staged by the pilot, not really sure but there on the wing was a helmet and flight suit. It was in the sun, backlit but in the sun. Standing back and shooting at 400mm, you could get the flags on the fuselage in the frame. It was a cool detail shot that I look for at air shows, the reason why I carry the 200-400VR2. It permits me to shoot over and through folks. I had two major issues when I took the photo, which format and the backlighting. The format problem I fixed by doing both horizontal and vertical. Now that they are finished, I like the vertical the best. The helmet & flags in the background relate the best in the vertical. That left the backlighting. I didn’t have a flash and even if I did, there was no way with the crowd I was going to apply it in the limited time I had. That left finishing in post and that, I can do.
You probably don’t see a real big difference between the finished and unfinished photos and that’s the way it should be. But if you look carefully at the highlights and shadows, even in sRGB you can see a difference. Next, look at the flags, you’ll see in the finished image the flags have more color and punch. The final biggie is the helmet and flight suit. Notice in the final image the browns and richness there that is missing in the out of the camera image? I got that without sacrificing the backlighting highlight using OnOne Photo Tools Tint with Clean Whites. These are all small details but that’s how I like to work. They add up and the final viewer on the image if done right will never know, just enjoy.
Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film