Reno 2021 photo thread.

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Reno 2021 photo thread.

There's a lot of great work here. I've really enjoyed it all. Kennsmth's work here is spectacular too-- I love that shot of Race 31 taking off. Different tastes play a huge role in a thread like this.

I do find the current tastes in this photographic cycle very different from other cycles in the past. A lot of current work (not just here and not just in aviation photography) feels too saturated and often too dark for my tastes. I was educated photographically by old timers like Ansel Adams and such to value shadow detail, control of tonal range and often a certain overall brightness. My interpretation of your T-6 shot, Will, is more or less how I would see the scene in real life ( though I agree it's a little too bright, but not much). I think both interpretations are quite valid -- these are the decisions a photographer makes. I also never make any decisions based on what I see when I first open the image on my computer at home after the event. That's just a starting point in working up what I want the image to look like.

Neal

The light at Reno this year was really tough to deal with. The two days it wasn't smokey, there were clouds that worked really nicely for a front lit shot, but either caused a huge shadow or were just enough to over darken things with a backlit shot. With many of these shots I'm trying to make something from nothing. Either smoke and no good color, smoke and shade, smoke, haze and glare, (Friday... holy cow. I don't think anything from my afternoon race shots is actually useable.) I do try not to oversaturate colors, but every once in a while, I get carried away. That said, I am using a 100% adobe RGB capable monitor (both my laptop and my desktop screens.) and perhaps what I see on those looks different (possibly way over saturated in some colors) on a SRGB monitor? I am linking from facebook and their compression really screws with the images. What I see there, is not what I see in lightroom as I process the images.

Here is the unedited version of the T6 group. I came back to what I posted because no matter what I did with it, it looked over cooked in one way or another. Brighten the shadows, it got really noisy, bring the exposure overall up, noise and it looked washed out. What I posted was the best I could do with the tools I have. This is straight off the camera aside from lens correction. Is it a little dark? Yep, all attempts to fix it resulted in poor results. When I adjusted the noise out, I lost detail, I added sharpness in to fix that, and got noise.

[wingman]

Re: Reno 2021 photo thread.

There's a lot of great work here. I've really enjoyed it all. Kennsmth's work here is spectacular too-- I love that shot of Race 31 taking off. Different tastes play a huge role in a thread like this.

I do find the current tastes in this photographic cycle very different from other cycles in the past. A lot of current work (not just here and not just in aviation photography) feels too saturated and often too dark for my tastes. I was educated photographically by old timers like Ansel Adams and such to value shadow detail, control of tonal range and often a certain overall brightness. My interpretation of your T-6 shot, Will, is more or less how I would see the scene in real life ( though I agree it's a little too bright, but not much). I think both interpretations are quite valid -- these are the decisions a photographer makes. I also never make any decisions based on what I see when I first open the image on my computer at home after the event. That's just a starting point in working up what I want the image to look like.

Neal

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Reno 2021 photo thread.

I like the adjusted look myself, I might tone it down a bit but really well done IMHO...

GREAT WORK by the way!! Loving your shots!

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Reno 2021 photo thread.

"Backlight Hell"? Backlight can actually be quite interesting -- the shadowless light can actually look very good. I took the liberty of playing with a random Will Pylon 2 shot. A little color correction and a different crop, as well as pulling up the shadows a bit made a different photo. I hope Will does not mind my changing his image...

Neal

I don't mind you playing with it, but too me that looks terrible. I tried going that route and came to the same conclusion. It looks washed out, and very very fake. I went the direction I did as it looked closest to natural. Did I push the saturation of the color too far? Yeah most likely. Still, what I see here is different from what I see on the original pic on the computer. Compression does no one any favors. I'd love to find another place to park these besides FB.

Will

[wingman]

Re: Reno 2021 photo thread.

"Backlight Hell"? Backlight can actually be quite interesting -- the shadowless light can actually look very good. I took the liberty of playing with a random Will Pylon 2 shot. A little color correction and a different crop, as well as pulling up the shadows a bit made a different photo. I hope Will does not mind my changing his image...

Neal

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Reno 2021 photo thread.

Pylon 2 is not necessarily the best pylon to shoot from in the mornings. Sometimes it can work really well for planes coming up from pylon 1, giving you some really nice prop lightning. Other times its backlit hell.










Will

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Reno 2021 photo thread.

Hey, who parked an F15 in my shot... This was 1/13 hand held... So close, but so far.


Prop disks with prop lightning? Yep got that covered.




(Compression did not do that T6 shot any favors...)

Will

[PowerByPackard]

Re: Reno 2021 photo thread.

Awesome Pics Will!

Thanks for posting!

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Reno 2021 photo thread.

How slow do you need to go for a full rotor disk on an Osprey? Looks like... 1/20


How about an L39 at 1/30?


F-15s with afterburner? Yeah, I've got that too.



Enjoy,
Will

[kennsmithf2g]

Re: Reno 2021 photo thread.

Bronze race

[kennsmithf2g]

Re: Reno 2021 photo thread.

Silver Race

[kennsmithf2g]

Re: Reno 2021 photo thread.

Heat 2A

[kennsmithf2g]

Re: Reno 2021 photo thread.

From Heat 2A

[Air Boss]

Re: Reno 2021 photo thread.

I was born in Seattle and have been in the area for most of my life.

My dad flew for Cascade Airways from the day they started, until they were done (it was co-founded by my dad's cousin). When they closed the Seattle base, I lived in Walla Walla for my high school years. I spent a year in Phoenix and a few years in Dallas, but ended up back in the Seattle area for the last 25 years.

I retired last summer and we moved to Ellensburg. We're north of town, very near the edge of the Wenatchee National Forest, and love it here.

That's beautiful territory. Reecer Creek, Lion Rock, Blewett Pass...spent many a' nights camping in Wenatchee NF and further north in the Okanogan Territory. Enjoy!

[wadeh]

Re: Reno 2021 photo thread.

L

Born and raised in Seattle. Family history is from Cle Elum. Still own property there. You in Kittitas County? God's Country.

I was born in Seattle and have been in the area for most of my life.

My dad flew for Cascade Airways from the day they started, until they were done (it was co-founded by my dad's cousin). When they closed the Seattle base, I lived in Walla Walla for my high school years. I spent a year in Phoenix and a few years in Dallas, but ended up back in the Seattle area for the last 25 years.

I retired last summer and we moved to Ellensburg. We're north of town, very near the edge of the Wenatchee National Forest, and love it here.