A few questions from a beginner...

[jazzyspreetsingh]

Hey everyone,

I just got into aviation photography (I am 14), I have been learning to get out of auto mode on my camera, and have been going to the "advanced" modes, like Priority, Aperture, Shutter Speed, and Manual, I have a fujifilm S700, which is a 7mp 10x optical camera, and I enjoy it very much!

I have a few questions to ask about photography

1. Is there a good photo editing tutuorial for Gimp out there? (I would use photoshop, just don't have the $$$)

2. How do I know when there are dust spots on my camera? I have e-mailed pictures to someone, and they said they can see dust spots in them, but I can't!!!! and the only time I can, is barely noticeable!

3. What are some of your tips about spotting?

a. if you all can go into detail the airports I visit are MCI, SFO, SJC

Thanks everyone! I will learn, and hopefully get a photo accepted on this site one day!!!

[seahawk]

Here are a few Gimp tutorials were you will find parts that will be useful for aviation photo editing.

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/

http://www.gimpguru.org/Tutorials/

http://world.std.com/~mmcirvin/gimp_tutorial/

If you do have little money I would try to get a copy (does not need to be the newest) of Photoshop Elements.

- The best way to check for sensor dust is to set the camera to aperature priority mode, set it to 8.0 or higher (if it can go higer) and take a pic of the sky. Then open the pic in the editing software and equalize it. (I must admit I have no idea how that function is called in the gimp though)

[z740]

3. What are some of your tips about spotting?

a. if you all can go into detail the airports I visit are MCI, SFO, SJC

Thanks everyone! I will learn, and hopefully get a photo accepted on this site one day!!!

Try to figure out when the aircraft of interest come into our local airports. This will eliminate the guess work out of what you plan to see when you go out to spot. I would suggest familiarizing yourself with the callsigns for certain airlines and then get an airband scanner from your local Radio Shack and program in the airport frequencies. This will also help you to figure out when certain aircraft are getting ready to depart/arrive so you know you need to be on your toes.

Here are some spotting locations for your local airports.
San Jose:
http://www.spotterswiki.com/index.php?title=SJC
San Francisco:
http://www.spotterswiki.com/index.php?title=SFO
http://flygga.tripod.com/SFO.html
Kansas City:
http://www.planespotting.com/airports/plmid.html#KCI

Last but not least, welcome to JP!!! I hope you'll like it here.

-Chris

[jazzyspreetsingh]

Thank you for the links, info, and welcome!

The 2nd link has been really helpful so far!! thanks