Airplane takeoff

[griffmcgrath]

Hi all,

I took this photo at the Rhode Island Air Show on Sunday and thought it looked really cool in black and white because of the retro planes. What do you think of the shot? What would you do differently?



Camera Nikon D3100
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/9.0
Focal Length 92 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash No Flash

You can see the full-sized image at the link below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/griffmc...n/photostream/

[JFSanders]

Have to bump up your SS or you get a bunch of airplanes without propellers. Somewhere around 1/1000 or so. Bump your ISO to 400 or 800 to get the SS and go about f/8 or f/5.6 to get more light. Your panning is ok but needs practice. They are soft focused. Nice and smooth and don't forget to follow through. Put it on machine gun mode and mash the shutter and follow them up. Hope and pray your buffer doesn't fill up just before you get the good one!

Nice try and I do love those old planes!

Jim

[Jim Fox]

Add a little grain and soften the focus a bit and you'd be close to a WWII photo.

[dlambert]

I appreciate seeing a little blur in those props, but I think you could have gone just a bit faster w/o losing that. The B&W works well here, but the sky seems pretty washed-out. Do you think there's any detail to be recovered in the clouds?

[Jim Bryant]

What you don't want is to capture an image of planes and helicopters with their pro blades perfectly still. It makes them suspended in the air with no movement.

[subsonic]

Agree with nice period aviation effect due to B&W. Depending in how you did the conversion, you could play with it a lot to get different effects.

For example, if you used SIlver Efex Pro 2, you can get an idea of the amazing range of B&W looks that are possible - some look straight out of a museum and would fit this shot.

Also feel that you need some movement in the propellor to get a sense of flight/movement with helos and aircraft. By using continuous shooting mode ("machine gun", as JF mentioned), you might have had the choice to catch the middle plane in a subsequent frame where it's wheels did not appear to be touching the ground.

The sky does appear a bit featureless but this is always tough at airshows. I've never tried to use an ND filter in those types of circumstances, probably be tricky to use given moving subjects and horizon lineup, plus the subjects would be in both zones.

Anyway, nice work and the formation/composition (except for the GEICO labels) really evokes the look of a training sortie back in the day...