Went to a Blues show this weekend (C&C) (image heavy)

[ballr4lyf]

So, I've had my T2i for about a year now, and I haven't touched it since about July. Well, I finally dusted it off and took it to a show this weekend and I finally got some pictures I finally like!

Just a couple of disclaimers: (a) for the most part, all I did with these was crop them and pump in just a little bit of saturation with Picasa and (b) when I say "Blues", I wasn't talking about the music genre.

1. I just kinda like this one. I don't even know why. It's the only one I've named. I call it "Guardian Angel"

IMG_1865 by rdrathbun, on Flickr

2. They look like toys, but I guarantee you they're real.

IMG_1870 by rdrathbun, on Flickr

3. One of only a few action shots that didnt' have horrible focus (you try focusing on something moving at 400+ mph )

IMG_1880 by rdrathbun, on Flickr

4. Celebrating 100 years of Naval Aviation

IMG_2011 by rdrathbun, on Flickr

5. HEY, HEY HEY!!!!

IMG_2121 by rdrathbun, on Flickr

6. Group Shot

IMG_2177 by rdrathbun, on Flickr

7. Diamond Formation.

IMG_2182 by rdrathbun, on Flickr

8. Again, not the best focus, but I thought the shot was pretty cool.

IMG_2212 by rdrathbun, on Flickr

9. They finally slowed down to about just above stalling speed... Hence, better focus.

IMG_2302 by rdrathbun, on Flickr

10. This is the only one where I pumped up the shadows a lot. No matter how hard I tried, everything else I did ended up washing out the photo. So I figured, silhouette!

IMG_2328 by rdrathbun, on Flickr

11. Just thought this one was pretty cool.

IMG_2374 by rdrathbun, on Flickr

Feel free to edit these photos. Let me see what you can do with them.

Also, these were all shot with the 55-250 kit lens (times are tough... still can't afford that 70-200 f2.8 Sigma). I did not add any vignette or halo effects. All were converted from RAW, and all the RAW images had the vignette/halos.

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[Forkie]

I won't comment on all as there are quite a few, but I think the first one of the A-10 is a little distant and lacks drama. I like the second, but you need to crop it a bit and fill more of the frame with the aircraft. Too much sky in aircraft shots can drown out the subject.

The close up shots are nice, but the best by far is the Herc. I liked it so much I had a play with it! I'm not for a moment suggesting you should do this to it, but I often go overboard on the drama in my aircraft shots, particularly low-level flight, there's so much you can do with them! It's a shame about the blown out highlight on the top of the fuselage, but I managed to at least tone it down a bit:

[fjrabon]

I think the toy look effect is coming from having 0 motion blur, which takes away a sense of movement, especially if there is no jet exhaust. Thus making them look like toys hanging against a sky background. I don't think it necessarily detracts from the shot, it's different, but I think that's why they look like toys in a few cases.

[TwoTwoLeft]

Nice and sharp! You have some good stuff to work with! That 55-250 does a pretty good job for kit lens. A stopped prop on a flying airplane is not usually a good thing... With prop-driven aircraft in flight, the power settings are usually high enough to start to get prop blur around 1/500. To get that nice prop disk you'll need to more around 1/90. When shooting a low shutter speed in bright daylight the aperture will be stopped down to f14 or more. At this point you can start to lose sharpness and detail (which is important when photographing aircraft). A ND filter can get you back around f8. Situations like takeoff and high-speed passes the prop is turning a higher RPM so you can use a slightly faster shutter speed. If the airplane is landing propellors are usually turning a lower RPM so you'll need to slow the shutter down a little. It's really a balance of how steady a shot you are, how good you are at panning, and are you willing to waste a TON of shots to get one good one?

Good settings to use are: Burst mode, AI Focus or AI Servo for the AF, pick a AF point, and set the T2i up to use the * button for AF and Metering and the shutter button to just fire the stutter.

[ballr4lyf]

Thanks for the C&C guys! Very helpful!

There was so much going on, I forgot to up the f-stops (I was shooting in Apperture priority). When I did, I didn't want to go too high, because I wasn't really sure what the 55-250 was capable of.

Thanks again!