IWM Duxford Airshow 2013

I think both of you did a fine job, and I thank you for a fine trip to an airshow that I would not have seen otherwise!

Agreed, Meatloaf; me too. Karl, I think there are a few things that I might suggest, although I am not an expert, but I know what I like to look at in terms of aeroplane images. Part of the problem I can see is that in some shots you are photographing directly into the direction of the sun, which is causing your camera to sense too much light and is altering it accordingly. There might be issues with your camera, but if you change how you frame your subjects and where you stand when you take the pics you might get different results. Your camera has limitations that I can see and part of the problem with digital cameras is that some of them adjust lighting, resolution etc to their own set criteria and there is little you can do about this, but changing how you take a photo can change the effect. A big issue in this respect is the light on the day, which to me looks typical of DX and Terry's shots also show differing lighting levels, which change the image considerably with each frame, so that doesn't help. It might be an idea to talk to Terry or look at images on this site and around to see about composition and lighting when taking your images. For an example, your Buchon images look great, but half are shadows because of the direction you were pointing the camera.

Another thing that can help is the type of photo editing software you use to muck about with your images once you have downloaded them off your camera. I like to save each image as a raw scan then mess about with them if I'm not happy with them to see what end result I can come up with. Depending on your software you can change the nature of your images completely by zooming in, cropping bits here and there, adding or removing colour etc. Some say its cheating, but hey, they are your hpotos for you to do with what you like.

Here are some examples I stole from you guys. They have been done with Paint.Net, a free web photoediting software program; nothing flash done to them at all, just a little snip and tuck here and there. The thing with these images is it took me literally less than a minute for each one. So if you learn how to use the software properly you can do marvellous things if you take your time about it. These pics are just me messing about and are not perfect, mind, but the time it took me was none at all.

Here's your original Spitfire pic I mucked about with. Once you start messing about with images, you begin to realise that composition of the original is important. (Like I said; my cropping is not perfect and blurriness is due to the distance the subject was from you and the camera's resolution settings, but you can still have fun with it):



And:



A few more of yours I liked:







A couple of Terry's I liked. I went for a flight on this Rapide once.







One thing I didn't do is alter the resolution or the size of the images since posted on the forum means there are limitations at any rate, but working from the originals you can do this to produce sharper and clearer images. I've also found that of the ten or so years I lived in the UK, I went to very few airshows where the lighting was perfect. I like to muck around with Sepia and black and white settings because you can mess about with lighting and contrast to produce some real snappy results that might look a little bland in colour.

Like I said, I'm not criticising yours or Terry's work, but offering tips that might help overcome any limitations that your camera might have. You can still produce fantastic images even with a real sh#te camera.

Thanks very much Paul, and you're very welcome. There's lots more to come yet !

Grant, some good advice for Karl there. I was trained in professional, audio visual, and graphics photography, having spent a fair chunk of years with the 'Big Yellow Box', although I'm relatively new to digital imaging. I've been using a Fuji bridge camera (same as Karl's) for the last four years, and recently bought a Nikon DSLR and lenses, to replace my two Olympus OM1 35mm SLR's and lenses. (I really miss the ease of operation of those little gems!)
When Karl comes over to my place again, I can show him a few things, and also show how to crop, re-align, alter colour balance, contrast and resolution etc. This is not much different to programming a traditional film printer, or 'dodging' in hand enlargement, with traditional film and negatives, although I admit it's a lot easier !
The majority of my pics posted so far, have been cropped, and some have been re-aligned using 'fine rotation', as 95% were taken whilst sitting down on 'Blunerbird One' - not the best stance for action photography, especially when panning !
As I've mentioned elsewhere in this thread, there is a definite loss of quality when uploading to the forum, however slight, with pixelation and 'aurora' showing which isn't on the originals. No problem though, as I save a 'master' file of un-altered originals, as well as the file with those which have been adjusted for the forum.

Anyway, here's a few more, with some early morning static shots, followed by Brendan O'Brien ( he of the coiffured hair styles!) messing about in one of his Piper Cubs.
These aircraft have had their wing span shortened by eight feet (!), allowing him to do silly things close to the ground, including landing and taking off from a moving platform, towed at a fair clip down the (hard) runway.

Terry, thanks regarding the advice. I have no formal photography training, but have spent time talking to both aviation phtographers and artists. For me it's purely from the point of view that I know what I like to see in an airshow photograph, having, like yourself, spent a lot of time over the years taking photos of aeroplanes.

One thing that might help with the loss of image quality when you put them on the forum is if you post your images on a remote site like Picasa or Photobucket, from which you can post links to the images and the forum will do the rest, rather than use the forum's own facility for this. I did notice the cross hatching in some of your images. Also that the clarity of your images is fantastic.

Take a look at this reproduction of the post above; this is what is written:

A couple of Terry's I liked. I went for a flight on this Rapide once.

{IMG]http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i423/nuuumannn/Forum%20Images%202/TerrysRapide1_zps29c8e1a4.jpg[/IMG]

{IMG]http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i423/nuuumannn/Forum%20Images%202/TerrysB-171_zpse1accd8f.jpg[/IMG]

{IMG]http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i423/nuuumannn/Forum%20Images%202/TerrysTiger1_zps0299cf15.jpg[/IMG]

Click to expand...

I've altered the first bracket on each image text otherwise the computer will think its a command and turn it into images, when I want to demonstrate how the link to the site is made.

Thanks Grant. I'm not keen on the idea of using an image hosting site, for various reasons, but it is a useful option.
The main thing is, of course, that my original images are fine, which suits me . The rest of you oiks will have to make do with what the forum presents. In the nicest possible way of course, old chap !

The B-17 Sequence.

Duxford's long term resident, B-17G 'Sally B' was airborne again later in the day, when it finished its display with its now customary 'damaged, and wounded aboard' salute, smoke streaming from the port engines. Again, dramatic cloud scapes provide some atmospheric images.

This aircraft was in natural metal for many years, devoid of all turrets, and carried the markings of the 457th BG, 8th USAAF who, during WW2, were based at Glatton, UK.
With the late Don Bullock at the control in years past, displays by 'Sally B' were always worth watching, and more than once, during the early 1980's, I saw this large aircraft almost drag a wing tip through the grass, as it flew past extremely low, one wing down to allow the crowds to see the full aircraft.
The 'Sally B' was one of the stars of the 1990 movie 'Memphis Belle', and still carries that famous 'Fort's' markings. Part of the 'fee' for appearing in the movie was taken as restoration and painting, with a B-17F upper turret fitted for the movie, which is still in place, and a new ball turret. The chin turret was re-fitted when filming was complete.
Currently, this is the only B-17 flying in Europe.

great shots Terry.

and i certainly wont take any offence for all the free advice on camera skills i've been getting, thanks everyone who's chipped in.

i did notice i was getting lots of silhouetted pictures especially of aircraft on finals and what i started doing was half pressing the shutter whilst focusing on a row of private light aircraft parked near the runway threshold and then catching my chosen subject when they neared the same spot and that improved the shots a lot and then cropped and centered most of the decent pictures.

to be honest my little Fuju s1000 does sterling work getting some of the pictures it does, often at the extremes of it zoom and focus and in dodgy lighting conditions !

great shots Terry!

Thanks very much Wayne. I'll post some more very soon, but I've got to get some kip first. Been up about 30 hours so far - no sleep last night due to bl**dy pain!
Karl, the Fuji we both have is a cracking little camera, and it never ceases to amaze me how good the results are - and, as you know, I haven't tried all the 'bells and whistles' yet, even after having it for over four years. I'd go so far as to say that, in average conditions, set on 'Auto' or 'N', it's every bit as good as my Nikon DSLR and, in some cases, actually better.
I reckon once you/we get the settings right on your's, you'll get even better pics.

Next batch of pics should be the Patrouille de France, once I get them sorted.

Excellent shots guys!

Great shots guys. Looks like it was a great show.

5 pages of catch-up. Great shots Terry and Karl. With regards to some of Karl's photos, some look a little over exposed and perhaps the problem might be with the exposure compensation setting.

Geo

Thanks very much chaps, and yes, it was a good show, despite the rapidly changing conditions, and a smaller line-up than usual. This is the first Duxford show I've been to for quite some time, and I'm always impressed by the general organisation, and the fact that you're 'in among it all', with aircraft being moved around from hangars to flight line, the museums and the pure atmosphere and history of the place. Pity there isn't a spare room to rent in the tower - I'd gladly live there!
I'm nearly done sorting the next batch, and hope to post them later tonight.

Patrouille de France.

The French Armee de L'Air attended the show on Sunday only, in the form of the aerobatic team 'Patrouille de France', their graceful Alpha Jets adorned in the colours of the French national flag.
These demure little aircraft might not have had the impact of the faster, noisier, Hawks of the RAF's 'Red Arrows', which closed the show, but they put on a superb exhibition of precision formation flying, with some extremely smooth formation changes, at all angles, which were a joy to watch.
This is the first time I've seen this renowned team live, and Karl and I were impressed with the display, enlivened by the typically Gallic commentary from the Team's Colonel.
Thanks for the kind comments so far, and I'll post some more from the show, tomorrow.

Good job on those tricky shots Terry.

The Patrouille de France always look good and a very different display to the Reds. Well captured, Terry. I haven't been to a DX airshow since 2004; at every one I've been to there's been something I've never seen before. It's a big show well organised. I also like the Veterans' Enclosure, where you can meet some of the old guys.

Thanks Andy and Grant.
I'll try to get some general ground shots posted either later tonight, or tomorrow, as a 'fill in' whilst I sort some more of the aerial displays, with the next lot showing the Hurricane and Buchon tear-arsing around the sky, chasing each other, and having a generally fun time.

Spitfire Miscellany - Part One.

OK, whilst I sort some more of the aerial action shots, here's a selection celebrating the beautiful Spitfire, a number of which are based at Duxford, the airfield where this graceful aircraft first entered service, with 19 Squadron, RAF.
There were six displaying, not including the pair from the BBMF, including a MkII, two MkVb's, a T.IX and MkIX, and the MkXVI from Holland.
Part Two to follow shortly.

Spitfire Miscellany - Part Two.

And some more Spitfire pics, including some Black and White, where I struck lucky with the background or sky scape.
Tomorrow, the Hurricane and Bf109 (OK, Buchon!) do battle ....

Very nice tribute Terry, very evocative images. No Griffon engined Spits? Where are the XIVs that live there?