Boeing 767 with condensation over its wings: C&C and postprocessing question

[biggerben]

I went to the airport to try out my 18-200mm lens, and took this photo (NIKON D90 at 1/1000s, f/8, ISO250, 95mm (35mm eff: 142mm)):

I took this through a hole in the fence. In easier conditions I would have the plane further to the right in the pic ...

I played around a bit in gimp (levels, contrast, sauration, sharpening, cropping) and got this:

I uploaded it to planespotters.net, but it got rejected because it is "too soft" and "bad crop". I'm not here to complain about my photo being rejected, but I would like to know so I can better myself if need be: is my shot bad, or do I suck at post processing?

It was quite hazy (big surprise with all the condensation over the wings ...) so i wouldn't surprise me if my photo is as good as it can get ... however I can't help thinking I could have done a better job post processing. Also, how do I make the image less soft? Run it through the unsharp mask another couple of times?

If one of you wants to play around with the original: it can be downloaded here (sorry, no direct link). If someone actually does a much better job than me at post processing I would be most grateful to see it, or at least hear what I could have done better!

 

[Gaerek]

If it's too soft out of the camera, there's no post processing out there that I know of that can bring the shot back in focus. All unsharp mask does is increase the contrast between the transition areas in the shot. If you overdo it, you get all sorts of nasty artifacts that will make it look bad. Your best bet is to try again.

If you weren't already using it, I'd recommend a tripod. It might also be worth bumping up your shutter speed a bit also. It looks like you have some room to open up your aperture a bit more.

About the crop. If you're shooting a moving object, you almost never want to have whatever is moving on the same side of the frame as the direction it's traveling. I know you wanted to ephasize the condensation trails, but your original crop would have been better. In your new crop, the plane doesn't have anywhere to 'go' in the frame.

 

[biggerben]

If it's too soft out of the camera, there's no post processing out there that I know of that can bring the shot back in focus. All unsharp mask does is increase the contrast between the transition areas in the shot. If you overdo it, you get all sorts of nasty artifacts that will make it look bad. Your best bet is to try again.

Maybe I'm confusing "soft" with something else. What does it mean exactly? Out of focus and/or blurred? Is my shot too soft out of the camera? In my eyes it looks sharp (low enough shutter speed and in focus), albeit pretty hazy due to what was left of the fog. Do you see it differently?

About the crop. If you're shooting a moving object, you almost never want to have whatever is moving on the same side of the frame as the direction it's traveling. I know you wanted to ephasize the condensation trails, but your original crop would have been better. In your new crop, the plane doesn't have anywhere to 'go' in the frame.

almost never, I completely agree. I tried several crops, this one looked the best to me as I really like the condensation trails. Maybe it's a matter of opinion here.

 

[Gaerek]

If it's too soft out of the camera, there's no post processing out there that I know of that can bring the shot back in focus. All unsharp mask does is increase the contrast between the transition areas in the shot. If you overdo it, you get all sorts of nasty artifacts that will make it look bad. Your best bet is to try again.

Maybe I'm confusing "soft" with something else. What does it mean exactly? Out of focus and/or blurred? Is my shot too soft out of the camera? In my eyes it looks sharp (low enough shutter speed and in focus), albeit pretty hazy due to what was left of the fog. Do you see it differently?

Soft usually just means blurry or hazy or something like that. It could be improper focus, motion blur, camera shake, haze in the sky, or any number of other factors. In this shot, it's hard to tell. It really looks like motion blur to me. Just remember, these aircraft are moving fast. 1/1000sec might seem fast, but it's very likely that plane can move several feet (I don't feel like doing the calculations) in that amount of time.

About the crop. If you're shooting a moving object, you almost never want to have whatever is moving on the same side of the frame as the direction it's traveling. I know you wanted to ephasize the condensation trails, but your original crop would have been better. In your new crop, the plane doesn't have anywhere to 'go' in the frame.

almost never, I completely agree. I tried several crops, this one looked the best to me as I really like the condensation trails. Maybe it's a matter of opinion here.

Personally, I liked the crop of the original better. But like you said, it could be a preference thing.

I like the shot, don't get me wrong. I just want to tell you what I think could have been done differently to get the shot submitted to that site.

 

[Felix0890]

If you want to get rid of some of the softness, try using the High Pass filter.

In case you don't know how to use it, copy the original layer, go to filter > other > High pass. Enter a number that will give you the following effect:

Just adjust the bar when the preview panel comes up to adjust it so that the outcome is an outline of the subject. The higher resolution the image, the higher the value of the high pass needs to be. Make sure you don't see anything besides the outlines. If you start seeing color, the value is too high. If the value is too high, there will be a lot of noise in the final image; if it's too low, you won't see that big of a difference.

After you pick a good value for the filter, turn that layer into Overlay or Soft light (both are very similar so just use whichever you prefer). You can adjust the layer's opacity if you want to adjust the intensity of the changes. Also, you can always use a layer mask in order to erase the effect from areas that you want to keep soft (a person's face for example).

When you finish this, use the "eye" button to turn the filtered layer on and off so you can see what a big difference it can make. I know you can't fix a soft image 100% but his is pretty close IMO.

 

[biggerben]

Soft usually just means blurry or hazy or something like that. It could be improper focus, motion blur, camera shake, haze in the sky, or any number of other factors. In this shot, it's hard to tell. It really looks like motion blur to me. Just remember, these aircraft are moving fast. 1/1000sec might seem fast, but it's very likely that plane can move several feet (I don't feel like doing the calculations) in that amount of time.

wolfram alpha to the recsue

Wolfram|Alpha shows 8 cm (3 in). I personally think it's haze and not motion blur as the fog had only just cleared. Next time i will definitely try to shoot at 1/2000 s or even 1/4000 s though!

thanks for your comments!

 

[biggerben]

If you want to get rid of some of the softness, try using the High Pass filter.

thanks for that, actually works quite well!

 

[altitude604]

these guys already covered good tips.

planespotters.net, airliners.net, jetphotos.net and those folks are REALLY REALLY REALLY picky about submissions. i've only got about 5 photos accepted to jetphotos.net myself out of about 20+ that i've submitted. (jetphotos.net i'm on there as ErikF)

keep at it and eventually you're technique will improve. location is key for this kind of stuff. shooting through fences is a pain in the butt.

 

[biggerben]

these guys already covered good tips.

planespotters.net, airliners.net, jetphotos.net and those folks are REALLY REALLY REALLY picky about submissions. i've only got about 5 photos accepted to jetphotos.net myself out of about 20+ that i've submitted. (jetphotos.net i'm on there as ErikF)

keep at it and eventually you're technique will improve. location is key for this kind of stuff. shooting through fences is a pain in the butt.

yeah, I've kind of figured that out too that they are hard to please

I've submitted about 10 and they acceped 2: here and here. One day I'll succeed in getting another one accepted

Your photo with the firefighing helicopter is awesome, btw!

 

[TJ K]

If you want to get rid of some of the softness, try using the High Pass filter.

In case you don't know how to use it, copy the original layer, go to filter > other > High pass. Enter a number that will give you the following effect:

Just adjust the bar when the preview panel comes up to adjust it so that the outcome is an outline of the subject. The higher resolution the image, the higher the value of the high pass needs to be. Make sure you don't see anything besides the outlines. If you start seeing color, the value is too high. If the value is too high, there will be a lot of noise in the final image; if it's too low, you won't see that big of a difference.

After you pick a good value for the filter, turn that layer into Overlay or Soft light (both are very similar so just use whichever you prefer). You can adjust the layer's opacity if you want to adjust the intensity of the changes. Also, you can always use a layer mask in order to erase the effect from areas that you want to keep soft (a person's face for example).

When you finish this, use the "eye" button to turn the filtered layer on and off so you can see what a big difference it can make. I know you can't fix a soft image 100% but his is pretty close IMO.

is that windows 7?

 

[Brian L]

Windows 7 rocks. Using 64 bit my self.

The second picture of processing looks fine to me. Good job. They were probably just jealous of your good picture. who knows. haha.