No 56k: 2009 Join Services Open House - Andrews AFB, MD

flyinhawaiian

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As a few of you have seen in the "Lens Flair" thread, I just finished up a batch of photos from my "local" airshow. They really pull out the stops for this show, mostly due to the close proximity of Washington, DC and the various services use the opportunity to show off to lawmakers and Pentagon officials for more funding. Needless to say its impressive. Below are the highlights of the show, but if you're interested in the full set, I linked to that too. Out of the approximately 350 shots I took, the 18 I put on Flickr are the very best...

On a side note, the weekend before last, I went to the Red Bull Air Race in San Diego. I've attached a shot I took there as well, and there will be more to come. I haven't quite gotten to editing that lot yet :blink:

I don't post here too often, and its rare to get the opportunity to share my photos with such an international audience, so be kind. :p


Cheers!
-Jeff

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25174230@N03/sets/72157618389780636/

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A little underprocessed as you said they would be, but there are some great shots here!

The F22 nose-up is pretty awesome.
 
I'm still learning, and will always be learning, but what do you mean by "underprocessed"? If there are some tricks to make the pictures better, I'd totally love the help.

Its funny, a lot of people love the vertical F-22 shot, but its my least favorite. If the focus was sharper, I'd love it too, but the softness bugs the crap out of me! I guess I'm my own worst critic...
 
I'm still learning, and will always be learning, but what do you mean by "underprocessed"? If there are some tricks to make the pictures better, I'd totally love the help.
Photos usually don't look "complete" until they've been tweaked in post, adjusting mostly curves, contrast, etc. It's not really easy to explain, I just adjust things until it "feels" right to me for the message I want to portray in the photo.

I have no idea if this is in any way what you wanted from these photos, but here are a couple of edits:

https://pic.armedcats.net/e/ep/epp_b/2009/05/20/new-2.jpg

https://pic.armedcats.net/e/ep/epp_b/2009/05/20/new-3_001.jpg
 
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Photos usually don't look "complete" until they've been tweaked in post, adjusting mostly curves, contrast, etc. It's not really easy to explain, I just adjust things until it "feels" right to me for the message I want to portray in the photo.

I understand what you mean now. I usually fiddle with the photo first when I open the RAW file, make sure the exposure, tint, and colors are correct. Then in pshop, I'll adjust the light levels to match my personal preference of brightness and contrast (but using the manual sliders), followed by a good dose of unsharp mask.

Some photo's I'll add filters to, others I'll leave natural. I might mess with some of the ones I posted like you did at some point, but I'm hesitant to mess with something that already looks pretty good. I guess this is where personal preference for a photo really comes into play.

Here's an example of a photo (from last year's show) I tweaked to get the right "feel", as you'd say:

Original:
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VS Filtered
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The first didn't convey the message or whatever I wanted to convey, so I messed with it a bit... The photos I posted from this year were how I wanted them to be viewed by the audience. I do like the black/white idea for the backlit three-ship though. I might do something along those lines...

Thanks for the comments and help, I'm always learning!

-Jeff
 
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