Falcon Field (MSC, KFFZ, FFZ)

[Jay Beckman]

Purdy...

(I think I'd clone out the lights and poles though...)

[Joe Copalman]

[Joe Copalman]

Kinda-sorta backlit a bit, you think?


Not sure how I feel about this one.  I tried to get the fuselage darker so it's not all hazy, but couldn't do it without making all or part of the sun look blotchy and fake.  Also not too happy about the lens flare on the main gear and underside of the fuselage.  Anyone know a good method of removing them? 

[CJPalmer]

Try planing around with the levels. In photoshop you can slide the black triangle on the histogram to set the black point. This should make it silhouette easily. The gray triangle in the middle sets the middle grays. In lightroom the levels tab has four sliders that serve similar functions. The levels might help with the lens flare, if not try using the burn tools. Photoshop has options to burn lights, mid tones, or shadows. This is the quickest thing that might help off the top of my head.

[Joe Copalman]

Thanks Chris - that's actually precisely what I did.  I slid the black triangle right to about 13 or 14.  If I went to 15 or higher, the "rings" around the edge of the sun became very pronounced.  You can make them out in this shot, but the further right I went, the silhouette got darker, but those rings just started looking worse and worse.  I used the select tool to highlight just the aircraft, but no matter how I adjusted the edges of it, there always seemed to be some "fringing" of the sunlight at the edges - VERY ugly. 

[Jay Beckman]

You could probably fix at least some of the green flare on the tires by copying .. flipping .. pasting a portion of the other landing gear and then leaving that patch on its own layer while you...

...get in close with a very soft brush and gently clone away the flare that's in the sky.  Having the tire fix on a layer of its own would allow you to work behind the fixed tires until the sky was cleaned up.  Then you can flatten or not as you desire.

[Joe Copalman]

[Joe Copalman]

[Joe Copalman]

One of CAE's Twin Stars on short final just before the sun dipped down behind the far side of the Sierra Estrella.

[Joe Copalman]

Same aircraft, a few seconds later.  (Sorry 'bout the lights, Jay).

[Jay Beckman]

Head On = Stunning
Tails Away = Wide enough to include the horizon which gives it context.  The lights don't bother me in this one.

[Joe Copalman]

Thanks Jay.  I actually did another edit of the photo at the top of this page in which I cloned out the lights, and it does look much better.  I'll post that sometime soon.

[Joe Copalman]

[Joe Copalman]

[Joe Copalman]

Bearcat taxiing out to participate in the fly-over for Eddie Packard's memorial service at Falcon Field: