Novice with a new toy

[rude girl]

Hiya all

Took the 350D to work with me today (in the mistaken belief that I might get chance to read more of the manual at lunchtime ). I've always loved the Frank Whittle Monument at Lutterworth (that and a particularly beautiful tree brighten my dull 110 mile round trip to work) so I stopped off on the way home tonight.

First things I learned:
**It's no good carrying a camera in the car if you have to trek 100m over mud and ballast in 3" spike heels to get a vantage point - wagon drivers will honk and laugh at you (it's on a roundabout)! Keep a pair of trainers in the car!
**Need to use a tripod
**Need to slow down and think what I'm doing.

Here's one of the pics as it came out of the camera:


Then I had a bit of a playtime just for fun; took the lighting columns out, moved the tree over, cropped it, made the dark bits darker and fannied about with the colour of the sky:


Next time I'm passing and it's a pretty evening, I'm going to have another go, so any advice? Be aware that I'm a total novice. Things I thought I might put on the list are:
Tripod
Get closer or use a zoom
Think about what's in the background
Get some different angles (jeans and trainers!)

Right, I'm going to clean my work shoes Really looking forward to getting some tips for my next attempt

[rico]

I like those pics

Gorgeous clouds and a nice silouette.

Nice work

[simpo two]

rude girl said:

3" spike heels to get a vantage point

3" spike heels at work? What is your profession?!

rude girl said:

**Need to use a tripod **Need to slow down and think what I'm doing.

Tripod depends on the focal length and shutter speed; IMHO you probably didn't need it for that shot, but it's a useful thing to have anyway, especially for close-up work. If your focal length is, say, 100mm, then you need to have at least 1/100th second shutter speed to avoid the dreaded camera shake. As for slowing down to think, yes, a DSLR is a powerful tool but suddenly there are an awful lot of things to juggle and remember... like on Saturday I suddenly realised I was so preoccupied with a new lens and flash braket, I forgot to bounce the flash...

rude girl said:

Next time I'm passing and it's a pretty evening, I'm going to have another go, so any advice?

Well, a silhouette is a silhouette - and that's a Gloster Meteor if I'm not very much mistaken. You could try moving round it, maybe getting in closer with a wide-angle to emphasise the shape of the plne...? You're not just taking a photo of a plane on a stick, you're capturing a whole scene so as you say, it's worth looking at the b/g as well as the subject and positioning yourself to get it as good as possible.

[rude girl]

Thanks Simpo

Actually, one thing that struck me was that I wasn't really expecting to get a silhouette. The evening was still quite light (about 1950 hours).

And I'd be delighted to tell you what I do for a living, but I'm sure that what's in your head is more interesting Let's just say that my work is completely inconsistent with wearing high heels, but it (or wearing red nail varnish) sometimes has to be done for tactical reasons Besides, when you're doing a man's job it's nice sometimes to remind everyone (and yourself) that you're actually a woman, and not just an honorary bloke

Edited to say Gloster E28/39. Details here www.whittle-lutterworth.com/intro.htm

>> Edited by rude girl on Monday 11th April 23:45

[dcw@pr]

simpo two said:

If your focal length is, say, 100mm, then you need to have at least 1/100th second shutter speed to avoid the dreaded camera shake.

how quaint

not any more - don't forget to take the focal length magnification into account too....

>> Edited by dcw@pr on Tuesday 12th April 01:48

[Podie]

rude girl said:

Next time I'm passing and it's a pretty evening, I'm going to have another go, so any advice?

Certainly not "advice"… but a suggestion…

Why not take the photo from a different angle - so you can see the wingspan of the plane..? If you crouch down low enough, and look up at the plane; to make it appear as if it is taking off….

[Tuna]

If you get a tripod you could try taking two photos - one exposed for the sunset, and the other to get some detail on the 'plane. Put them back together in Photoshop/Paint Shop Pro and see how it looks.

[simpo two]

rude girl said:

Actually, one thing that struck me was that I wasn't really expecting to get a silhouette. The evening was still quite light (about 1950 hours).

Ah, but the plane was very much darker than the sky. The camera assessed the whole scene and exposed for the sky as that was dominant. Now you see where cameras fail when eyeballs don't... you need to decide what to expose for, plane or sky. Or take two shots and composite as already suggested.

rude girl said:

And I'd be delighted to tell you what I do for a living... Edited to say Gloster E28/39.

Vamp plane spotter evidently

[te51cle]

A slightly lower angle would help separate the aircraft's tail from the surrounding foliage. But beware of searching for just the right angle because then you might be tempted to remove the aircraft's display mounting, then you'll think it'd look good with a proper exhaust, then you'll have to go looking for another aircraft to go with it and you'll be well on the slippery slope towards creating something like this:

[CVP]

I think they are good early efforts. Mr Simpo has given some great advice.

The only thing I can think of would be to go there and then just try walking around the plane looking at various compositions and see what works. More often than not it's not the first thing/view you think of that makes the best image.

Have fun

Chris

[V6GTO]

rude girl,
You don't say whether you have a flash or not. One of my favourite techniques is to put the camera on a tripod, set it to the minimum apature, say f22 of f32, thus giving you a long exposure time(hopefully arount 20-30 seconds) Then you trigger the camera release, and walk around the plane firing the flash on different areas. Keep moving and the camera will not "see" you (but it can see your sillouette so be carefull) This 'Painting with light' is great fun, but it will take quite a few goes 'till you get it right. But that's the beauty of digital! HTH

Martin.