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The science of backlit photos

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  • The science of backlit photos

    Hi JP Team and fellow photographers,

    This morning to my surprise I had a photo of a Trislander landing at SXM rejected for backlit. I understand that screeners look at a hundreds of photos per day and sometimes one or two gets rejected by accident. Completely understandable. So, I politely appealed the rejection explaining that the sun is on the photographer's side of the aircraft and this image is not backlit by any means. Well, the appeal was also rejected and I was asked to check better before appealing because the tail is very clearly it its own shadow... so, here I am checking it again.

    This is the rejected photograph that I marked up to indicate that the sun, is in fact, on the visible side of the aircraft. The tail is in the shadow of the engine and not in its own shadow.

    Click image for larger version  Name:	Trislander.png Views:	0 Size:	130.7 KB ID:	1136920



    If this is not convincing enough I checked the sun angle and location on the date and exact time when this photo was taken that clearly shows the sun is on the photographer's side:

    Click image for larger version  Name:	Sun-position.png Views:	0 Size:	115.1 KB ID:	1136921






















    Could someone explain how this is still a backlit image? Where should the photographer be positioned to capture this image not in a "backlit" position?

    Thanks for your help. Kind regards,

    HA-KLS

  • #2
    Personally, I think it is a good photo, and I totally agree with your logic.

    What I will say is that I remember reading somewhere that they don’t like it if the tail is at all shadowed (not counting effects from engines, horizontal stabilizers, etc). In your case, the angle of the sun with regard to the orientation of the Trislander is too shallow to completely light the tail, thus creating a light shadow. I have this issue often in Phoenix, especially in the morning and evening, because the runways are horizontally oriented. I think that’s what they don’t like in this case. Please don’t count this as an expert opinion, I just remember reading this somewhere else in the forums.

    Edit: I found it. See the upload guidelines Section 5.1. The first photo (the Fiji A330) demonstrates what I was explaining above.

    https://forums.jetphotos.com/forum/a...S-New-version=

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    • #3
      Imho, the rejection is complete nonsense, as it clearly isn’t a backlit picture even at first glance without your complete documentation. Weird

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by fleckenmann View Post
        Imho, the rejection is complete nonsense, as it clearly isn’t a backlit picture even at first glance without your complete documentation. Weird


        In General,
        It does not matter that the Sun it not directly behind the Aircraft, the point is that the sun is quite far from being behind the photographer either and thus only a marginal part of the aircraft is actually being affected by the sun and the rest is simply covered in it's own shadow.
        Please dot take it as a hate, but rather a way for an improvement.
        Also you have a link to the upload guidelines directly at the upload page, thus please read them instead instead of starting arguments that simply lead nowhere.
        Or at leas you can try out pre-screening request before you perform the actual upload, where you can discuss the potential output of the screening and/or whether the image can be somehow improved.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by JuklicekCZ View Post



          In General,
          It does not matter that the Sun it not directly behind the Aircraft, the point is that the sun is quite far from being behind the photographer either and thus only a marginal part of the aircraft is actually being affected by the sun and the rest is simply covered in it's own shadow.
          Please dot take it as a hate, but rather a way for an improvement.
          Also you have a link to the upload guidelines directly at the upload page, thus please read them instead instead of starting arguments that simply lead nowhere.
          Or at leas you can try out pre-screening request before you perform the actual upload, where you can discuss the potential output of the screening and/or whether the image can be somehow improved.
          To be honest….backlit is backlit and not poor contrast. If any random photo is rejected for soft although it has a color cast, it should be rejected for the correct reason. Same reason here, it is still not backlit and If there is an issue with a shadowed tail it definitely should be rejected for an other reason then backlit.
          And HA-KLS has quite an amount of pictures in the DB and I am pretty sure he knows what he is talking about.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by tkolos View Post
            Hi JP Team and fellow photographers,
            Hi,

            As mentioned here, we request that you post your questions about rejected images BEFORE appealing:



            As such, I won't comment on this image specifically, but indeed as a quick rule of thumb to determine if an image is backlit, we will generally check to see if the tail is in shadow. If the majority of it is, this is usually considered backlit. Hope that helps for next time.

            Comment


            • #7
              I think the problem is that it's landing head-on into the sun. The light is hitting the front of the aircraft and not the fuselage. When you shoot like this, the rest of the fuselage will be in shadows as the light isn't able to reach it. It's like shooting at Vancouver (CYVR) in the summer time. As planes land, the sun only hits the nose and engine blades. Here's an example:

              N889NN. Boeing 737-823. JetPhotos.com is the biggest database of aviation photographs with over 5 million screened photos online!


              This wasn't rejected on the fact that this was taken more head-on and not side on. The sun hits the nose, engines, and partially the fuselage. My advice is if you want to shoot in those kind of conditions, Try going for a head-on or 1/4 side on (Example is that American 737), but keep in mind that if the fuselage doesn't look partially lit up, then It's not salvageable. Just my opinion.

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