Hi Matt,
I’ve been observing your shots recently, but have had too much to do with A-levels etc to spend much time advising you. This afternoon I have just had half hour to take a proper look at your shots, and see what I can help you with.
Firstly, after looking at the EXIFs, I’d say your settings are pretty much perfect for the weather you were shooting in. So it’s not the settings you’re getting wrong. Can I ask an obvious question……are you taking them on the camera in the highest quality jpeg? Just double checking!
After saying that your settings are pretty much right, I think it comes down to editing. Can I also ask….do you use some kind of ‘auto’ levels or colour adjustment on irfanview? Because one of the most striking problems with the photo edits is their rather extreme yellow/green cast, and I wondered whether that was from an automatic colour editing function.
I took 3 shots at random, to see what I could do with them just to demonstrate. I’m afraid these examples aren’t perfect, because I’m trying to re-edit an already edited shot, and then compressing it even further by saving again! But here goes…..
Eurocypria 738
As mentioned, there is a rather extreme yellow/green cast. This meant adding lots more blue and magenta. I then lightened the belly a little (using mid-levels) whilst trying not to overexpose the nose. A tiny bit more sharpening, saturate the blue and yellow to make the livery stand out, and then a bit of contrast to define the colours a little better.
Before:
After:
Air Canada 767
Same situation with the colour cast, adjusted as on the Eurocypria. A little more sharpening on some features such as the windows, and the nose of the aircraft. Saturate the reds and blues to help the livery stand out, and lighten up the belly a little. Some contrast and here we go…
Before:
After:
OAI DC-10
Pretty much the same as the last two. Although this one didn’t really need any extra sharpening, aside from maybe a little extra on the nose (this could have been solved by increasing the aperture number slightly. I see it was on f/8.0 for this one, f/10 should have got that nose nice and sharp). Other than that it was fine really,just those colours!
Before:
After:
Quick Conclusions
The weather looks awful, which doesn’t help at all with sharpness. It also makes it difficult to brighten up colours, and make liveries look as nice as they should. Settings look just about fine, so I wouldn’t worry too much there. So really, you may need to practice a little with editing colours, and trying to get the colours looking the way they should. Nothing to be ashamed of, I still don’t get it and I’ve been practising for 3 years! When you’ve got some spare time, look up on google a few tutorials with regards to colours, and how they all work with each other in a photo. And then just go back through old shots (or go out and test some new ones!) and keep on going until you can compare two of your own edits, and honestly see an improvement.
I hope I didn’t sound patronising and that I’ve been of help. Aside from all that, great shots, and keep it up 🙂
Day two took us from Stansted – Cork – Dublin and then back to Stansted (Paul flew home to Leeds).
Here’s the first shot of the day onboard EI-DLR, taken whilst turning over my home town of Bishops Stortford. My house is just underneath the wing, and the airport can be seen towards the top of the frame.
And the cabin enroute.
The nice, new and airy terminal at Cork.
As opposed to the old redundant one…
And a nice background of fields and cows.
We then boarded EI-CTA for our flight up to Dublin. Here’s an overview of Cork’s new terminal as we depart.
And the cabin enroute at FL170 for this 29 minute hop.
The cockpit of EI-CTA upon arrival in Dublin.
It was then round to the mounds, although photography was very much hampered by some serious heathaze. Here’s what did turn out:
After a couple of beers in the terminal it was time for my final flight, which happened to be EI-CTB wearing the ‘Say NO to BA Fuel Levy’ titles.
Here’s a wingview on departure from DUB, you can see the airport below the wing.
And then to top off a great couple of days, I was treated to this fantastic sunset somewhere over the Irish Sea…
I hope you enjoyed this, I tried keeping photos to a minimum so as to not break the server! The next thread you’ll see from me is from my recent trip to Arrecife/Lanzarote, where I have just returned from for my 11th time!
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