Air Show Roulettes

[Prue]

This was taken at our local air show held yearly. I had just been given my new camera last year a few days before the air show. This year I wanted to try out a circular PL. I did notice the difference in the shots but a lot seemed really dark. I like the attached shot but wonder if there is anything else I can touch up PP to make it better?? composition??


Canon 50D
ISO 100
1/200
f/6.3
250mm

[dlambert]

I think the photo is pretty good technically. You can try playing with stuff like contrast, clarity, or even fill light to lighten the shadows on the cockpits. Recovery might pull out some more detail in the clouds, too, but I think that's all really fine-tuning stuff.

Air shows are pretty tricky, because in terms of lighting (and to some extent, composition, too), you're at the mercy of the performers. In this case, there isn't a thing you can do about the lighting. You might be able to do some things with composition to improve a bit, though. This formation shows the precision of the air team very well, but it's not super-interesting in a static shot because the straight smoke lines don't suggest movement as well as curves do. I'd try cropping just a bit on the top, bottom, and left, and see if you don't get a little more sweep from right to left this way. You could also try shooting a formation like this with a different angle -- I've seen something like the attached work very well (pardon my crude photoshopping).

[Prue]

Thanks David. Your right the cropping and angle change do give the image movement. I was playing with different compositions all day but as you said we are at the mercy of the performers. It didn't help that I had a 2 year old and 2month old there with me. Think I missed a few good shots to mummy mummy mummy!!

[dlambert]

Originally Posted by Prue

Think I missed a few good shots to mummy mummy mummy!!

The more I shoot, the more I come to appreciate how hard it is to incorporate photography into other activities. I shoot while hiking a lot, and I've got a thousand images that I look at and think how much better they might have been if I hadn't been trying to squeeze off a quick shot while stomping along a path.

Repetition helps, and it also helps to see the work that others do. The angle I used in that crop was one I saw on 500px, I think, and it's a totally unnatural angle to use when you're shooting unless you already know you want that shot. You can get some sense for that by looking through your own images and making some mental notes about the sort of shot you want to get next time, too.

I think that with enough practice, some of that stuff almost becomes a reflex. I'm not nearly good enough that I can say that about myself, but I have noticed that I'm getting better at seeing composition without putting the camera to my eye, which helps when multitasking.

[dlambert]

Originally Posted by dlambert

The more I shoot, the more I come to appreciate how hard it is to incorporate photography into other activities.

BTW, in the interest of clarity, I'm not saying "don't do that" -- I'm just acknowledging that it's tricky.

[spookie]

Prue, I see you're on Canon and the 250 lens. Not sure if it's also the Canon lens? Alot of the Canon lenses, twist as they rotate out, and with a polariser on them, the camera sometimes freaks out on exposure as the filter spins also. I also use the Canon lenses and most of the time just skip the polariser because of that reason, unless it is a well thought thru shot, set up wise. On those I reach around and manually spin it to get what I want.
By the way, Nice shot.