Photo request

[Nemesis]

Hello All,
Patricia and I are looking for one of THOSE shots of the NemesisNXT the "Pink Beast". We have this area above the flat screen TV that is begging for a shot that can be blown up to 36"-48" or more wide. You know one of those shots of the Beast in a bank around a pylon, about to take a pylon judges head off......,or whatever anyone has that you would be willing to share. Obviously credit will be given, and would even like the photographers name/signature on it. We have no idea of how to enlarge a photo and can use any suggestions on that.Thank you for the help.
Jon and Patricia Sharp
Nemesis Air Racing

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Photo request

I'd wager someone here has something exactly along those lines Jon...Good to hear from you!!!!!

[wingman]

Re: Photo request

Hello Jon, and Hi Trish!

Your request may be harder to fulfill than meets the eye. To make an eye-popping big print you need pixels. The state of the Nikon art in your era (does that make you feel old, Jon?) was 12-16 Megapixels. That's plenty to work with even for pretty large prints if you can use the full frame.

Our problem is partly your racing style. You always tended to be a bit high and a bit wide -- worked great with the right airplane in IF1 and was the same in Sport. Your Pink Baby is also a bit smaller than, say, a Sea Fury. The result of all this is that Nemesis was almost always pretty small in the frame. I don't like to enlarge too much beyond what's called "native print size" which is simply what will print from an unenlarged image file straight from the camera. For my cameras at the time this was about 10 inches by 15 inches. With my longest lens (420 mm) Nemesis filled about 1/4 of a frame, which would give a straight print of maybe 4 in by 6 in. For my equipment there's no way I could give you a four foot print from a pylon shot like this. It would never look good enough for what you're looking for. I think this will be true for most of the pylon press of the time.

I'd try to get hold of Victor Archer -- he should be findable -- I don't think he comes around here much these days. He had longer lenses than I could ever hand hold, and I think Canon had some higher megapixel cameras which is what you need here.

Here's an example of the issue. This is one of my better Nemesis shots, from 2009. It is really sharp (sorry!) and would make a great 8x12 but not a whole lot bigger. The problem's not the tech, but the physics. The blow-up looks great, but I also give you the full frame and you can see why really big enlargement could be a problem.

Sorry to go on and on, but what you need may be hard to find. Try Victor.

Neal

[Nemesis]

Re: Photo request

Hi Neal,
WOW! THAT IS A GREAT SHOT!!!! WE LOVE IT! Thank you for the education. Yea understand that what we are thinking will not be the perfect clear shot when blown up. What we are thinking is will no doubt not be that crystal clear. The Pink Beast was always a fast blurr.... Where we are putting this is above our TV and would be viewed pretty much non stop by us at about 10 feet. What you guys do with cameras is amazing! The planes go by at over 400MPH. I can't even imagine following a plane going that fast holding pounds of stuff... Anyway that is ONE COOL SHOT! And THANK YOU for sharing it here!
Jon and Patricia

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Photo request

There might be a way to blow a small pic up to the size needed. I haven't used this software, but it might do the job. I don't know how big one can go before the image falls apart, but it might work.

https://www.topazlabs.com/gigapixel-ai

Will

[wingman]

Re: Photo request

Thank you Jon and Patricia. I think we on the ground always seem to figure you 400 mph hero types up in the air must have access to all sorts of great images of their exploits. I'm often surprised...

Well, I got to thinking after my post above that I might be a bit too dismissive of this image. I will play with it some more and try a couple of ways of upsizing a file. I want to look into that Topaz software Will came up with too. There used to be a couple of upsizing programs -- I know Wayne used one. I never liked those earlier versions for critical work (such as large prints -- they were great for magazine work). Topaz seems to take a different approach that seems promising. It is a fine image so I think worth it.

I still think you should try Victor, though.

It helps a lot that you could specify a viewing distance. I tend to think of a kind of get your nose to the print and look for flaws kind of quality when I think larger prints. When the usual viewer distance is 3 or 4 feet or more something like this file can look really great.

It's going to be a week or so, though. I have 2 other things going (one is a likely couple of articles coming up on Tsunami, which is why Texas Air Race shots have been turning up here). Nemesis will come after all that gets settled. I guess you'll just have to watch this space for word.

Sorry about the delay -- I go months at a time without commitments then several things are suddenly happening at once. This retirement thing is interesting...

How's the golfing been, with Covid, drought, and summer monsoons?

Neal

Photos both by Birgitta