Stansted - first attempt @ plane photos

philthejuggler

philthejuggler

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Hi all,

This was a first attempt a plane photography @ Stansted today. Bit of a nightmare as it's difficult to get a good viewing angle.

I'm interested in thoughts about the shot & answers to this question - when I look closely at all the shots I took in Lightroom they all look a bit fuzzy when I zoom in, although ok when filling the screen. I've not micro-adjusted my 50D, but the focussing on it seems ok with my 300L. I wondered if the atmosphere around airports affects the contrast / clarity of the shots? Maybe my shutter speeds weren't high enough. Maybe it was because I was slightly precariously balancing on a fence?

Thanks in advance,

Phil

50D, 300L IS, Canon 1.4xII, 1/320, f5.6, ISO 400 (handheld)

 
No one?
 
Can see you where having trouble. Wait till this evening for more responce as the plane lovers will be out and about themselves getting photos. Nice shot
 
I like it, the sky is really nice! It could have been framed better, but bearing in mind your positioning...it's understandable :D
 
for me the comp is what spoils an otherwise fairly nice shot..

It looks reasonably sharp at this size, 1/320 isnt a very fast shutter speed, but the IS should be able to handle that.. but its a moving target, and at F5.6 the dof isnt going to help, albeit the plane is far away so the dof will be deeper, what focussing mode did you use? is there any part of the image that is sharper than the rest? it could just be that the lens had focussed on say the wing tip.. that may leave the rest of the image looking soft.. just a few things to think about.. theres quite a few things that could effect the sharpness..

I remember hearing that the 50D neded more sharpening than other cameras.. iv never used one so i could be way off..
 
Now this rarely happens but I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with Mr Fraggle!

The shot itself doesn't do a whole lot for me but technically its nice enough. I think the composition is good, right on the rule of thirds and in my opinion probably the best way to balance the blown sky on the lower right.

The image looks plenty sharp to me* and the choice of aperture is suitable, if the Jet was 400 meters away the DoF is about 200meters for 420mm@F/5.6 so there are no problems there at all. Even half that would still be ok with the tip in focus**.

The 50D doesn't need to be sharpened more, it doesn't retain as much pixel per pixel info (if you believe certain reviews) but thats only relevant at 100% which results in a huge image anyway and it has all those extra pixels so its retaining more info than say a 40D anyway.... all very silly!

You should be pleased with this shot mate, as a first time out you've done very well. The image doesn't work for me because of the colour cast from the evening sky and the burnt lower area but in terms of technical achievement I'd say you nailed it - well done (y)

*Trying to judge sharpness from web images is silly
**The proviso here is that your lens is sharp at that aperture
 
Thats fine Rob, as i said the pic looks sharp enough to me at the size shown.. i was only going through some things that "may" have affected the sharpness.. it looks sharp but we cant see the real image. not by any stretch was i being scientific about dof.. :puke: its all above me!! lol..

As for the comp, i would have rather seen it in the bottom right corner, with a little space for it to 'fly into'.. but that's all down to personal preference.. as it is it looks off balance..

:)
 
Thanks for the comments! I would rather have had a different composition but a combination of a very flat sky above the plane, lots of lamposts to the lef & restrictions where I could stand meant I had few options!

Phil
 
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