Showcase photographs

[red750]

I've received a number of comments on the photos in the showcase (all good), so I thought I'd tell you how I select them.

 

Firstly, a lot of them are my own photos taken during years of visits to airports (back into the 60's) and numerous airshows (Avalon, Melton, Lilydale etc.). Others are obtained from various websites. After collecting the photos, I then edit them by cropping to a 16:9 format and resizing to the showcase standard 750 x 422 pixels. If I feel they need it, I may adjust the exposure levels, rotate the image slightly if it looks uneven (walls not vertical, etc), and clone out unwanted obstructions. Having contributed to airliners.com who had very exacting standards, I learned to look critically at the photos.

 

The images I try and avoid are -

photos in hangars which are usually cluttered or poorly lit

photos with objects obscuring the aircraft

 

 

photos of aircraft with sun shades

 

photos where the subject is too far away and cropping would result in blurring the aircraft

 

 

photos that are not in focus. On the second photo, despite the color similarity, you can read QUEST, where you can't on the first

 

 

photos with part of the aircraft cut off. Had the photographer taken one step back and aimed more carefully, he could have included the tail.

 

 

Some problems can be overcome by cropping and cloning.

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by red750

[red750]

Further to the above, I may have to look at 15 to 20 photos to select five. Sometimes what looks like a good photo in the thumbnail may turn out to be too small. If you try to resize it, it becomes blurred.(See below) Sometimes there is no larger version available. Resizing down is no problem. Most of my own photos are 4000 x 3000 out of the camera and resize nicely to 750 x 500, then cropped to 750 x 422.

 

 

The other problem that you may encounter is watermarks, intended of course to discourage you from downloading.

 

 

16:9 is a good format for aircraft photos because it allows you to show the length or width of the aircraft without excessive sky or foreground.

[red750]

Thought I'd do a profile for the Vans RV-8, as I had a photo of one I had taken at Avalon (Bernie Knight's plane). Looking for VH registered aircraft, I thought airport-data.com would be a good place to start. Entered Vans RV-8 in the maker/model search field. a-d has a limit of 1000 entries on a search, reached 1000 in the mid N numbers. Checked the Australian register - 55 RV-8s listed. I was looking for another tricycle plane photo. Half of the listed rego's are not on a-d. Of the rest, only 5 had photos. Three were tailwheel models, two were tricycle - my own photo of Bernie's plane and one of a plane in a hangar with the engine cowl off. Nearly an hour wasted.

[pmccarthy]

That is the same sense of frustration that I get from Guess This Aircraft. Quite a few hours wasted, determination is not enough!