Typhoon at night

Circuit Hero

Circuit Hero

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Name
Graham
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A shot I've been waiting to release since January:



Hope you like it!
 
What an amazing subject to be able to work with honestly what I'd give to have been there shooting with you for this, there are things however that I'd have done differently I'm not sure exactly where this was shot but I'm going to guess you've used a lowish ISO or a smaller aperture or combination of the two shooting at a wider aperture and higher ISO will see you getting a much higher number of stars to build up your star trail...if possible I'd have also looked to get a lower PoV and also a little to the rear of the aircraft rather than side on so your about 30ish degrees to the rear from being side on if that makes any sense, this would have just about put it so that Polaris was just to the front of the aircraft and then there would have been a tunnel of stars for the typhoon to fly down

Matt
 
Thanks for the critique. :) I'll expand on some of the points raised, as I appreciate I operate in a different environment to most and rarely post any background information about my work.

-I didn't want to go for the 'sheer-numbers' look of typical star-trails images, but rather a dozen or so striking trails. Hence the low ISO. The idea behind the shot was to create a commercial night shot of some hardware that was different, but I also wanted a more minimalist-look to the shot which above all else looked clean and simple.

-The POV is actually lower than it may appear (I was sat on a gorilla-box with the camera just below knee-height).

-The shot was taken on an active aircraft pan on a foreign base in the Middle-East with other on-going aircraft movements, so I was very limited in terms of location, space and most importantly the operational security of our presence in that location. The combination of this meant I had an area only slightly larger than the aircraft itself to work in along with a working knowledge of the things I wasn't allowed to include, which primarily involved anything that could tie us to a particular location given the unrest in the surrounding areas at the time and anything which could identify any of the other foreign nations operating with us at that time. I was fortunate enough that in this very restrictive sand-box I had to play in, Polaris was in almost the position I wanted and that nothing compromising was in the background.

-It's a subjective one, but the Typhoon (as with anything else) is devastatingly pretty from some angles and ugly from others. Having worked in and around these aircraft now for several years photographically, I have my favourites and the side-profile of a single-seater is one of them. The rear 3/4 shot seems to work well on the twin-sticks as the fuselage coming away from the canopy towards the tail is much more pronounced, but it makes the single-seaters look strange and elongated.

Taking images in this environment can be extremely rewarding, but inevitably also extremely frustrating and difficult. With more 'usual' constraints as above, there are also the ever-shifting political implications which often (and indeed in my case) lead to hundreds of images being held because the motivation or political image of those involved has changed. Happily, this one has since been cleared for release although has yet to be utilised for anything other than a couple of small articles.

Apologies for the long and boring reply, hopefully that clears up some of the limitations I operate in before I can even consider those of the camera! :LOL:
 
Circuit Hero said:
Thanks for the critique. :) I'll expand on some of the points raised, as I appreciate I operate in a different environment to most and rarely post any background information about my work.

-I didn't want to go for the 'sheer-numbers' look of typical star-trails images, but rather a dozen or so striking trails. Hence the low ISO. The idea behind the shot was to create a commercial night shot of some hardware that was different, but I also wanted a more minimalist-look to the shot which above all else looked clean and simple.

-The POV is actually lower than it may appear (I was sat on a gorilla-box with the camera just below knee-height).

-The shot was taken on an active aircraft pan on a foreign base in the Middle-East with other on-going aircraft movements, so I was very limited in terms of location, space and most importantly the operational security of our presence in that location. The combination of this meant I had an area only slightly larger than the aircraft itself to work in along with a working knowledge of the things I wasn't allowed to include, which primarily involved anything that could tie us to a particular location given the unrest in the surrounding areas at the time and anything which could identify any of the other foreign nations operating with us at that time. I was fortunate enough that in this very restrictive sand-box I had to play in, Polaris was in almost the position I wanted and that nothing compromising was in the background.

-It's a subjective one, but the Typhoon (as with anything else) is devastatingly pretty from some angles and ugly from others. Having worked in and around these aircraft now for several years photographically, I have my favourites and the side-profile of a single-seater is one of them. The rear 3/4 shot seems to work well on the twin-sticks as the fuselage coming away from the canopy towards the tail is much more pronounced, but it makes the single-seaters look strange and elongated.

Taking images in this environment can be extremely rewarding, but inevitably also extremely frustrating and difficult. With more 'usual' constraints as above, there are also the ever-shifting political implications which often (and indeed in my case) lead to hundreds of images being held because the motivation or political image of those involved has changed. Happily, this one has since been cleared for release although has yet to be utilised for anything other than a couple of small articles.

Apologies for the long and boring reply, hopefully that clears up some of the limitations I operate in before I can even consider those of the camera! :LOL:
Click to expand...

I don't find the response boring in the slightest, and do of course appreciate that there operational constraints that the majority of photographers really don't have to deal with :bang:

I think maybe if you'd put a little about your aim or intentions for capturing the image with the photo that would have helped (y) I'm just as guilty of not doing that always though, indeed for use with advertising/editorial, this is spot on because it leaves plenty of space of overlaying text where as I was looking at the image exclusively from a cosmetic perspective if that makes sense (y)
 
A truly mind blowing picture that is so crisp and detailed.
Thanks to Matt for some pertinent questions and to yourself for the detailed answer.
Great work as always.
 
Hi, Absolutely stunning image.(y)
 
I love aircraft and i thought I had seen it all with typhoon pics!

How wrong I was....WOW WOW WOW this is a SUPERB shot :clap::clap:

Well done sir.. I am sure it took a lot of time and effort...but it was definitely worth it!!

Thanks for sharing

Regards

Ben
 
Impressive work
 
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