Last weekend I went down to Paine Field, Everett, WA, (yes where they build the larger of the Boeing aircraft). Paul Allen's Flying Heritage Collection was hosting a Fly Day featuring their Mitsubishi A6M3-22 Reisen (Zero).

I am still very impressed with the capability of the DA☆ 60-250mm f4 . The focal length here was 250mm.

Any comments/suggestions would be much appreciated. I'll admit I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of any comments at all on my Grumman Hellcat photo, but as we say here in North America - whatever.

A medium sized version and the much larger original finished file processed at 100% of the RAW file's size.

[daacon]

Don't be discouraged by lack of comments that is an excellent shot.

[kcmadr]

super sharp shot. well done

Thanks Scott.

Well done! I didn't even know there were any airworthy Zeros left...

(And I learnt a new word - and got to read up a bit on die grensoorlog)

Thank you. There are a few airworthy Zeros now. I've seen five, but one is basically original landing gear and manufacturer's plate with the rest of it being all new build.

Here's a photo I shot at Chino in 2012. You can see the one with the original Hayabusa engine leading the other two.




And on the ground.

Sorry I missed the Hellcat shots, but these are pretty amazing!

Thank you Tim!

I believe Planes of Fame has the only flyable one with the original engine.
I see duplicate shots above, though both are awesome :-) You may get more comments if posted in the critique forum.

Yes you are correct. See the photos above.
Yes, in this thread I wanted to share the small one and the original to show what sort of detail one has to work with from this combination of lens and body.
The critique forum kind of implies "I want you to tell me how to make this picture better." People observe the image in a different light when you challenge them upfront to improve it. That's not necessarily what I'm after.

Nice shot of a nice plane!

En grappig dat ik als Nederlander het Afrikaans ook een beetje kan volgen !

Thanks! En jy moet onthou dat Nederlands is die vader van Afrikaans. Afrikaans altyd verander, en daar is baie verskil tussen die taal wat ek op hoerskool geleer het en die moderne taal wat hulle nou praat.

Beautiful shots!
I, too, am a fan of the WWII warbirds.

Thank you Vince!

I appreciate the composition -- you left just enough room in the front and a little behind it to make it feel right in the dimensions of the photo space.

Things I'd work on:

1) Noise. The background is really noisy. A tip, if you use Lightroom, is to hold down the ALT key (in Windows -- different key in OSX) to get hidden support for some sliders. For instance, if you hold the ALT key down while moving the Masking slider under the Sharpening parameters, you will see the black and white masking effect on your image.

I like to add just enough noise reduction (in the form of increasing the Luminance slider) and then holding down the alt key while moving the masking slider on the sharpening section until I'm sharpening just the object of focus in the image (The focal point -- the airplane in this example) and not the other portions of the image (the sky in this example)

If you play with the sliders enough and get a good feel for it, you can smooth out the sky fairly well in the background while keeping the airplane sharp and pretty in the foreground.

2) Shadows. This one is more personal preference, however I feel the shadow on the side of this plane is too dramatic. I'd lighten it more to show off more of the plane instead of hiding it in the hard, mid-day sun it seems to currently be in.

Thanks. The composition is the easy one. I always give myself a bit of room to crop nicely and rotate if absolutely necessary. This particular composition just makes sense to me and feels right.

1. Uh, I'll be honest with you and say that the noise in the sky wasn't a big concern for me until you mentioned it. It's still not, but I see exactly what you're referring to and I agree it can be slightly distracting. My finished product here was really the smaller image with the larger image showcasing the performance of the lens and camera combination. Any noise reduction on the large image would probably take away from the detail as well and preventing this would involve masking the subject off from the background - a skill I need to improve on. For my editing I use primarily ACR (sometimes Raw Therapee) and the majority of my work is done in PS CS6 also using a couple of plugins. Thanks to your comment I will look for and attend to this area in future images.

2. You're absolutely right about the shadow area. It is a personal preference, and even my own preferences vary from day to day. The light was harsh at the time - direct sunlight - and this produces harsh shadows. To soften it up seems somewhat unrealistic, so a balance needs to be struck. After reading your comment I had another play around with blending modes, and yes I could have lightened it a tad more but that was not my preference when I edited it originally. I find the darker shadow gives it a bit more depth. Fill lighting is one thing on stationary objects, but on a plane flying past at 200 km/h, does fill lighting seem natural? My feeling is no, it does not. But in agreement neither do black shadows. My monitors are "calibrated" and I am able to see a lot of shadow detail, so perhaps that is where the difference lies? Either way it seems we are in agreement.

[kcmadr]

is nie so moeilik nie hoor!

Ek wil vir jou sê dat dit 'n bietjie mooiliker is om so 'n foto te neem as dit lyk.

Sonder grappies wil ek vir jou ook sê dat jy moet onthou Afrikaans die mees soos Nederlands as enig andere taal lyk. It's no surprise then that given the major similarities of language structure and spelling that Dutch and Afrikaans speaking folks can readily understand one another, with a bit of patience thrown in!

[kcmadr]

Afrikaans = kitchen Dutch!

It's a little known fact the very first book ever published in Afrikaans was a Muslim prayer book. We used to learn Dutch in school in South Africa as part of Afrikaans Higher Grade. So many words are the same. One difference I've not been able to figure out is "I am". "Ik ben" vs "Ek is" Hoe gaan/gaat ons van "ben" na "is"? Never been able to figure that one out!

I also completed Afrikaans on the Higher Grade but we never touched Dutch.

As they say "If it ain't Dutch, it ain't much."

[kcmadr]

Don't be discouraged by lack of comments that is an excellent shot.

Thanks Dave!

Love AB BTW. Icefields Parkway is just spectacular.

[MarkJerling]

Any comments/suggestions would be much appreciated. I'll admit I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of any comments at all on my Grumman Hellcat photo, but as we say here in North America - whatever.

Super sharp shot, the Grumman Hellcat too!

[kcmadr]

Super sharp shot, the Grumman Hellcat too!

One of my favourites from the day's flying.

I also posted another image of the Zero taxiing which had excellent detail... similar in quality to this one.

[MarkJerling]

One of my favourites from the day's flying.

I also posted another image of the Zero taxiing which had excellent detail... similar in quality to this one.

Nice. How long have you been in Vancouver? (Nice city - I visited once.)

[dcmsox2004]

excellent captures... crisp detail of this vintage bird... dave m

[cpobuttons]

so i will comment...nice catch...were you at the windsock...

[Rupert]

They look plenty good to me! Nice shooting! Must have been fun too!
Regards!

[kcmadr]

Nice. How long have you been in Vancouver? (Nice city - I visited once.)

I have lived in the Vancouver area for... 17½ years. My goodness has it been that long?...

excellent captures... crisp detail of this vintage bird... dave m

Thanks Dave. She is a beauty.

so i will comment...nice catch...were you at the windsock...

Thanks! I was not that far down... probably 20 ft away from it. The security personnel on top of the low roof were directly behind me. Were you there as well?

They look plenty good to me! Nice shooting! Must have been fun too!
Regards!

Thanks Rupert. It was a bit of work, but worth the effort. When I get home and look at the photos, that's when the fun starts!

[8540tomg]

Great capture of a very rare bird.

Tom G

[andreas_johansson]

Fantastic photos WOW

[kcmadr]

Great capture of a very rare bird.

Tom G

Thanks Tom!