DullesGuy From United States of America, joined Jul 2000, 247 posts, RR: 1 Posted (12 years 11 months 3 days ago) and read 922 times:
Hello all, I've been really struggling with getting my pics to look crystal clear. I'm using a 70-300mm lense..i guess my question is how do you all do it?? Is the sun just blasting right behind you at a perfect angle every time? And what about those days when the sun isnt at a perfect angle? How do you make them look airliners.net acceptable?
Stephen
"..the joy of the Lord is your strength" Nehemiah 8:10
Nikonman From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 1, posted (12 years 11 months 3 days ago) and read 716 times:
What's your speed on the lens? f/4-f/5.6?
I always keep the sun at an angle to the subject (95% of the time, sometimes it's not possible). Try metering off the ground, if you're stuck shooting into the sun.
Scooter From United States of America, joined Jun 1999, 837 posts, RR: 2 Reply 2, posted (12 years 11 months 2 days 17 hours ago) and read 699 times:
Well, to get a sharp and clear scan, you need to start with a sharp image. There is a reason why some 100-300mm lenses cost $150(US) and others are $2000: image quality. No, I'm not saying that you NEED one of these fancy "whiz-bang" lenses to get pics accepted here (most of my stuff is shot with a peice of sh*t Canon 28-85mm)...I'm just saying that it helps a TON.
Once you have a sharp image, you can get a clean scan with pretty much any decent scanner (though scanning a negative or slide will provide the best results). The key word here is PATIENCE. Some people just scan the image, save it as a .jpg, and upload. There is SO much more to it than that!! Sharpening, adjusting color balance and levels, cropping...it all takes time. Photoshop 5.5 is the best tool out there for this kind of stuff...but any good photo editing package will do. You'll be doing yourself a HUGE favor by learning one of these packages inside and out. Patience, patience, patience. In my opinion, getting a sharp picture is only 30% of the battle...post-processing is where the magic happens.
Anyway, yeah...I too am amazed at what some people are uploading to this site. Every now and then, as I sit and browse through the new pics, I find myself mumbling something like, "how in the world did that guy DO that???!?!?!" There are some great photographers here, and I feel like I've learned so much just by closely examning their pics and comparing them to mine.
Ckw From UK - England, joined Aug 2010, 545 posts, RR: 17 Reply 4, posted (12 years 11 months 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 655 times:
A thought - is it your PRINTS which are poor? Try changing processors or get one of your favorite negs hand processed - in many cases, automated film processors don't get aircraft shots right because the pic doesn't conform to "average" conditions.
Rindt From Germany, joined May 2000, 930 posts, RR: 14 Reply 5, posted (12 years 10 months 3 weeks 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 648 times:
I think it all has to do with skill. There are some photographers I know that spent $3000 on the camera/lense, and their pictures aren't nearly as good as you'd expect them to be for that price. I find that using a slow film is the best, because the image itself has the best chance of being sharp when shot properly. For years I've been using a 28-300mm F4 lense (which is slow, but it was a cheap lense) but after a lot practice, I got great results, even with the cheaper lense. About a month ago, I finally had to get the expensive stuff, which yes, does give even better results, but knowing how to shoot helps out a lot. BTW, I use Kodachrome 64 - for me, 100 is too fast, 25 is the best possible speed for sharpness, but it's VERY slow. This is when the "fast-glass" comes in handy.
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