2011 Windsor Airshow

ComputerWhiz · Dec 27, 2013

These are some photos that I have taken in the 2011 Windsor Airshow.
They were taken using a Kodak EasyShare M531.
They are old, but I just Photoshopped them yesterday.

Any feedback and tips are welcome.

If you are referring to a specific image, please state the title of the image.

D-B-J · Dec 27, 2013

They are ok… but there seems to be some significant degradation in the quality of these photos.

Jake

SCraig · Dec 27, 2013

Very soft, very noisy, very high contrast, very low resolution. Sorry, but they just don't do anything for me and I love airplanes.

goodguy · Dec 27, 2013

The two guys on the 3rd shot seem to be locked in a high dive fight to the death or doing something naughty :mrgreen:

Braineack · Dec 27, 2013

ComputerWhiz said:
They were taken using a Kodak EasyShare M531.
They are old, but I just Photoshopped them yesterday.

Unfortunately they look like they were taken with that $20, then beat dead in PS for no reason.

ComputerWhiz · Dec 27, 2013

Maybe the low quality is from my Photoshopping.
Here are the originals.

Was it the Photoshopping?
Tell me what you think of the originals.

And yes I understand I used a cheap low quality camera.

cmhbob · Dec 27, 2013

I like what you did with the A-26. The crop and the color work make the aircraft pop a lot more.

The F-18 in the original is kind of meh, and the edit I think over-emphasizes the quality of the camera. Not sure what you could do to improve it. And I know what a pain it is to shoot an airshow with lower quality P&S cameras. You frame up what you think is going to be a great shot, and the system lag in the camera kills it. Like with the pair of Snowbirds with the one breaking vertical: a half-second sooner probably would have looked a whole lot cooler. I had several like that.

ComputerWhiz · Dec 27, 2013

It is very difficult.
Unfortunately there is no longer an airshow in my area, so I won't get a redo with my new camera. :grumpy:

SCraig · Dec 27, 2013

ComputerWhiz said:
Maybe the low quality is from my Photoshopping.
Here are the originals.

Was it the Photoshopping?
Tell me what you think of the originals.

And yes I understand I used a cheap low quality camera.

Look at your originals critically. The only one that shows any detail is the B-25. The first shot of the Hornet shows no sharp detail at all. Lots of motion blur, but the detail just isn't there. The same goes for the two shots of the Snowbirds. The originals show a lot of graininess (it doesn't look like digital noise, just grain) however the Photoshopped versions are much, much worse. Look at the cloud just below the two aircraft in the Photoshopped last shot. It almost looks like it is a 256 color GIF file or something because there is no smooth transition in the tones of the clouds as there is in the original. The jumpers is perhaps the worst of the group. There is so much pixelation in the shot that any detail is gone. Plus the Photoshopped version has halos around the jumpers and parachutes that is not present in the originals.

These were poor shots to start with, most likely due to the camera you were using, but you went overboard with the processing. Processing needs to enhance the originals so take it easy. Be subtle in your edits. You can't turn a poor shot into a great shot with Photoshop you can only make it less poor. The saturation and contrast in the edited versions is excessively high, tone it down some. Try some subtle noise reduction to see if it will help somewhat. Your originals are good subjects for practicing your editing because they need a lot of help, but don't be so heavy handed with your edits. Take it easy, be subtle. The final versions shouldn't look like they were edited.

ComputerWhiz said:
It is very difficult.
Unfortunately there is no longer an airshow in my area, so I won't get a redo with my new camera.

I can relate. We used to have a couple of airshows each year around here but now we are down to one every two years. It's really depressing because I LOVE airshows.

hamlet · Dec 27, 2013

Everyone starts out small. Just keep it up and you'll be a regular Quentin Matsys in no-time.

ComputerWhiz · Dec 28, 2013

SCraig said:
Look at the cloud just below the two aircraft in the Photoshopped last shot. It almost looks like it is a 256 color GIF file or something because there is no smooth transition in the tones of the clouds as there is in the original.

That was the goal when I Photoshopped the image.
I was hoping to give it a watercolour/painting look to it because I know that the quality of the image isn't very good.

SCraig said:
The jumpers is perhaps the worst of the group. There is so much pixelation in the shot that any detail is gone. Plus the Photoshopped version has halos around the jumpers and parachutes that is not present in the originals.

My point-and-shoot camera only had x3 optical zoom.

I had to use the digital zoom to snap a picture of that one, and we all know how crappy digital zoom looks. :lol:

SCraig said:
These were poor shots to start with, most likely due to the camera you were using, but you went overboard with the processing. Processing needs to enhance the originals so take it easy. Be subtle in your edits. You can't turn a poor shot into a great shot with Photoshop you can only make it less poor. The saturation and contrast in the edited versions is excessively high, tone it down some. Try some subtle noise reduction to see if it will help somewhat. Your originals are good subjects for practicing your editing because they need a lot of help, but don't be so heavy handed with your edits. Take it easy, be subtle. The final versions shouldn't look like they were edited.

Thank you for the feedback.

I'll remember that for all of my future Photoshopping experiences.