1st Photo Post - Looking for C&C

[Jeff D. Welker]

This is my first photo post on AzAP. Looking for some serious C&C. No ego to bruise and I won't learn without some genuine comments.

[Lynn Evans]

Hi Jeff, it's a nice photo. I would suggest a bit of a crop on the bottom to remove the houses.

[Jay Beckman]

Couple of thoughts Jeff if I may:
1) It's a tad dark.  Maybe bump the exposure by 1/2 to 2/3 of a stop.
2) Shutter Speed is a bit high.  I can't see the EXIF Information (which IMO people should post or embed when asking for C&C) but I'm going to guess a shutter speed nearing 1/500 or so?  Just my preference mind you but I like to try and keep to no faster than 1/250 for props and slower if I'm feeling "in the zone."
3) Position In The Frame: Now this is a psychological thing really but you have the Osprey pretty high in the frame leaving room below it.  The mind wants the object in the frame to move into the available open space so that means we're landing here, right?  Well, the flap and engine pod position says climbing out so we've got a conflict of action Vs framing.  Just something to consider for future efforts.

Overall, a very nice capture that could be just a hair stronger with a little tweak, a slight change to technique and an eye for what the subject is doing Vs where you put it in the frame (which you can do via cropping if you miss it live...)

[Jeff D. Welker]

Hi Jeff, it's a nice photo. I would suggest a bit of a crop on the bottom to remove the houses.

Thanks for the suggestion Lynn - will give that a try.

[Jeff D. Welker]

Couple of thoughts Jeff if I may:
1) It's a tad dark.  Maybe bump the exposure by 1/2 to 2/3 of a stop.
2) Shutter Speed is a bit high.  I can't see the EXIF Information (which IMO people should post or embed when asking for C&C) but I'm going to guess a shutter speed nearing 1/500 or so?  Just my preference mind you but I like to try and keep to no faster than 1/250 for props and slower if I'm feeling "in the zone."
3) Position In The Frame: Now this is a psychological thing really but you have the Osprey pretty high in the frame leaving room below it.  The mind wants the object in the frame to move into the available open space so that means we're landing here, right?  Well, the flap and engine pod position says climbing out so we've got a conflict of action Vs framing.  Just something to consider for future efforts.

Overall, a very nice capture that could be just a hair stronger with a little tweak, a slight change to technique and an eye for what the subject is doing Vs where you put it in the frame (which you can do via cropping if you miss it live...)

Jay:

Thank you for the thoughtful comments.

I've done some cropping to address your and Lynn's comments on improving the framing. I've also tweaked the exposure slightly to brighten the overall image. I'm still trying to figure out how best to copy/import the EXIF data from LR3 - sorry. You were right-on with your estimate of the shutter speed; it was 1/500 sec at f/13. I too would have preferred a little more prop blur for this image. I think it would have conveyed the lift/power of the Osprey more effectively. Frankly, I was not confident in my ability to pan with the departing Osprey from my ladder, while maintaining sharp focus. Something I will need to work on in the future to improve my captures. Here is a copy of my edits.

[jslugman]

Nice improvement, looks like it is starting to wash out just a bit on my monitor, bumping the black point up just a skosh would fix that.

[Joe Copalman]

Houses, schmouses.  The background is a wee bit cluttered, but there's no monolithic object that dominates the landscape enough to draw the eye from the aircraft, and it's hard to get rid of the clutter through cropping and still have a balanced image.  At least we get to decide which sword to fall on.

In the first image, you managed to do something that is actually pretty difficult - you framed a photo of an Osprey in flight in a way that made the aircraft look balanced.  That's hard to do with Ospreys since they're so awkward.  I guess I disagree with Jay on this as well, as I tend to weight my framing by an approximation of where the aircraft's CG is, and, through my eyes, the fuselage is riding a teency little bit low in the wider-cropped image, but it works since so much of the space above it taken up by the nacelles and the rotors.  Jay is right though - there is a lot more empty space on the bottom of the image than on the top, but that's more a function of the Osprey's design than anything else.  When I look at the cropped image, it looks bottom-heavy, as if the aircraft is "sinking" to the bottom of the frame, or being anchored there, not rising to the top of it.

Regarding shutter speed, try easing into the prop blur thing, starting at 1/320 or 1/250, then as you get more comfortable, dial it back even further.  Ospreys are problematic since their rotors are so large and rotate so slowly, so even a shutter speed of 1/60 or so won't yield results that are worth the diminished keeper rate.  At least with helicopters, there's usually a tail rotor that spins faster and gives a better sense of action/motion at lower shutter speeds.  Unless I'm committed to being a hero and going for full-disc shots, I typically shoot 1/125 to 1/160 for helos and 1/160 to 1/250 for prop aircraft.  Those shutter speeds tend to yield much better keeper rates while still showing enough blur to indicate motion. 

You should try heading to the Coolidge Fly-In on February 5th.  Lots of prop stuff to practice on, and lots of brains to pick.

[Jeff D. Welker]

Houses, schmouses.  The background is a wee bit cluttered, but there's no monolithic object that dominates the landscape enough to draw the eye from the aircraft, and it's hard to get rid of the clutter through cropping and still have a balanced image.  At least we get to decide which sword to fall on.

In the first image, you managed to do something that is actually pretty difficult - you framed a photo of an Osprey in flight in a way that made the aircraft look balanced.  That's hard to do with Ospreys since they're so awkward.  I guess I disagree with Jay on this as well, as I tend to weight my framing by an approximation of where the aircraft's CG is, and, through my eyes, the fuselage is riding a teency little bit low in the wider-cropped image, but it works since so much of the space above it taken up by the nacelles and the rotors.  Jay is right though - there is a lot more empty space on the bottom of the image than on the top, but that's more a function of the Osprey's design than anything else.  When I look at the cropped image, it looks bottom-heavy, as if the aircraft is "sinking" to the bottom of the frame, or being anchored there, not rising to the top of it.

Regarding shutter speed, try easing into the prop blur thing, starting at 1/320 or 1/250, then as you get more comfortable, dial it back even further.  Ospreys are problematic since their rotors are so large and rotate so slowly, so even a shutter speed of 1/60 or so won't yield results that are worth the diminished keeper rate.  At least with helicopters, there's usually a tail rotor that spins faster and gives a better sense of action/motion at lower shutter speeds.  Unless I'm committed to being a hero and going for full-disc shots, I typically shoot 1/125 to 1/160 for helos and 1/160 to 1/250 for prop aircraft.  Those shutter speeds tend to yield much better keeper rates while still showing enough blur to indicate motion. 

You should try heading to the Coolidge Fly-In on February 5th.  Lots of prop stuff to practice on, and lots of brains to pick.

Thanks for the comments Joe.

Some of your thoughts speak to the challenges an old film turd like me faces when using LR3 or CS5. I'm so used to thinking in terms of 4x5, 8x10, 16x20, etc; that I have trouble going to non-traditional crop ratios. On the one hand, I really like the post processing freedom LR3 & CS5 gives me. But I must admit that when I cropped this original capture, it felt weird. That being said, I also am learning to enjoy breaking away from traditional thought processes and exploring the full potential of my images. The original framing was intended to capture the relationship of the Osprey to the runway and I like seeing as much of the exhaust blur as possible - the hoped for combination of both suggesting that bad boy was leaving. I wasn't concerned about the background being too distracting or cluttering the image.

It was interesting to give Jay's suggestions a try and see how I reacted to the changes. This is the really fun part of digital photography for me; no wasted paper, chemicals or negatives. Just experiment, experiment, and experiment. The worst case scenario is I go back to my original RAW and try something else. That being said, sometimes I do miss the smell of developer on my hands 

Thanks for the suggestion on the Coolidge fly-in - I've got it on my calendar.