My photos are crap!

B

babrees

Guest
OK, I'm not the best photographer (BIG understatement!) and photographing planes are definately not my "thing", but I go coz hubby likes them.

Went to Duxford Battle of Britain last Sunday. Very cloudy day but was still bright.

Here is my EXTREMELY poor attempt at photographing the red arrows who opened it at 2pm. I shall be adding other photos I took that day a bit later.

http://www.nikond90.co.uk/nikond90-pictures-gallery/transport/red-arrows-duxford-battle-of-britain/

Taken with my trusty Nikon D90 and a Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G AF-S VR IF-ED NikkorLens, which was set to Shutter Priority. I used Spot Metering. ISO was on auto with a minimum of 200.

So, can any of you help to tell me how to take better photos?

Jill
 
I would of used Aperture Priority in such a case over shutter priority.
 
The weather conditions don't help, grey overcast skies don't lend to great images, and especially aircraft against a grey sky unless the aircraft paint work really stands out from the background (example Belgium display F16 or “Miss Demeanour” - Hawker Hunter

I never use spot metering for aviation, prefer TV to AV so at least you have control over the shutter speed, as you need to control this for certain types of aircraft, i.e. creating prop blur rather than a frozen prop.....

Maybe play about with the ISO settings, you can go up to 400/800 before IQs start to drop off, and i.e. noise starts to become more visible in your images.

If you can't achieve your desired shutter settings due to the conditions, then perhaps its better to put the camera away and just watch the display, good light is always the key to good images.

I wouldn't be over critical of your images, not bad from a f5.6 lens in those conditions.
 
Are you seriously running yourself down for these there are some very nice compositions here that a really sharp,to be honest I think a tweak in phptoshop or whatever you use for PP and you have a set of shots you can be really proud of
 
Looks like a hard day.

Shutter priority was the right move ... (y)

Not sure about the spot metering though.

You don't say what processing you did to these shots. A few need a bit of WB adjustment and some could be sharpened a bit more if you have not done it already.

Other than that i'd have to say that theres nothing much wrong with them.
 
You're being a bit too hard on yourself.

Good composition and technically fine photos. The sky let you down more than yourself... Hope for better weather next time, until then, this was good practice :)
 
gee, I didn't expect that! Thanks people!

Shutter priority was being told to by hubby <G> Mainly so that I would get propeller blur, that is on planes that HAVE propellers! :LOL:

Spot metering was also his idea. So what metering would you have used - matrix?

Oh, I also had turned my VR off as hubby said I didn't really need it - is that right?

Processing? I did a bit of touch up with brightness and contrast on most (not all) of them as they really were quite dark. I'm not brilliant on processing, I use Corel PhotoPaint - an old version! As with my photography, I need more practice!

THIS is the sort of photo I was hoping to get http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=258546 :D
 
Well, you need to have a bit more confidence in yourself, because they are actually great shots. Damn, I can hardly make a shot that good of something that is still, never mind planes flying along.
 
snapzz said:
Is it me or deo they look like they have a "warm" colour caste?
Click to expand...

Well spotted!!! I just checked the camera settings and the white balance was on shade!!! Lord knows how long it has been on that as I don't remember changing it. I usually have it on auto as I have never had great success when trying different settings
 
CaptainPenguin said:
Are you seriously running yourself down for these there are some very nice compositions. You have a set of shots you can be really proud of
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more, the compositions are spot on with no tail fins etc missing, and with a bit of photoshopping you could sort out the sky/colour casts....wish I could do half of what you have done!
 
What they said.

I don't know what you're moaning about, they're lovely. :)

Lisa
 
Thank you! As to raw, hmm. The last air show we went to I shot in raw and jpg. This one I just shot in .jpg Murphy's law! But I'm learning! If we have bad skies another time I will remember to shoot raw!!
 
I would be made up with them, pretty much everything I take ends up straight in the recycle bin :)
 
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