Side Lit

[NF Spotter]

Folks

Is this type of shot acceptable? I like the dramatic early morning lighting from the side but I guess it could be considered back lit?

thanks

Mark

[Shanwick]

In MIHO I would say the angle of lighting is ok but the picture is very dark and contrasty...it needs to be lightened up.

[PMN]

In MIHO I would say the angle of lighting is ok but the picture is very dark and contrasty...it needs to be lightened up.

What he said!

The problem with shots that have such strong reflections is they confuse the camera's metering into believing the scene is brighter than it actually is, generally meaning the subject ends up really quite dark and lacking contrast, as is the case here. For me personally this shot would be a bad contrast/dark/underexposed rejection because the aircraft itself is lacking a lot of contrast due to it being dark and the general conditions of the shot, i.e. the fact it's just a normal daytime shot don't really make it interesting enough for that lack of contrast and dullness to work. Had it been shot at dusk and the reflections had been from the last minutes of a fading sun then it would probably have been acceptable, but I don't think this particular one is unfortunately.

That said, at least you've shot a DC-8. I've been wanting to catch one of those beasts for years!

Paul

[brianw999]

Adjust the the right hand baseline arrow on the histogram to where the graph leaves the baseline. That will immediately cure the contrast issue.

[PMN]

Adjust the the right hand baseline arrow on the histogram to where the graph leaves the baseline. That will immediately cure the contrast issue.

It will, but it will also leave a massively overexposed strip down the side of the aircraft. This could be burned in to tidy the histogram a little but it will probably still look quite unnatural.

Sometimes having sun just ain't a good thing!

Paul

[NF Spotter]

Thanks Gents,

I am going to leave this one be. I thought I would give it a shot as this particular DC-8 is one of my nemesis subjects.

CYQX sees roughly 2 Murray Air DC-8s a week . They fly both 60 and 70 series birds. I have shots of both types in their livery but in terms of in flight shots I have not caught their 70 series a/c in good light.

DC-8s are now fairly rare and living near CYYT my only chance of catching them is when I venture home to CYQX (3 + hour drive). Had this flight landed on 21 rather than 31 the light would have been perfect.... next time

cheers

mark