Ok, I give up... what the heck am I doing wrong?

manaheim

Jedi Bunnywabbit
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I've spent two full nights trying to correct the images I took from my helicopter flight around Boston. A couple of them came out pretty good, but by and large they all look kinda hazy and crappy.

It also seems that the relatively minor color variations between my monitor at home and other monitors are severely amplified with these images, but really not with most other images I have. (I have one of those crappy uber-fast but marginal on color-reproduction panels that is MOSTLY corrected, but evidently not quite corrected enough).

Anyway... what am I doing wrong? Or did I just do a bad job shooting? Give it to me straight, doctors, I can take it. :)

== 1 ==
hc1.jpg


== 2 ==
hc2.jpg


== 3 ==
hc3.jpg
 
Just a thought:

Helicopters are extremely noisy beasts that vibrate a great deal at a great many frequencies.

Could the lack of sharpness be the result of a much higher than normal frequency camera shake?
 
What kind of gear are you using? Did you use a UV filter?
 
It looks like you overshot the infinite focus point to me, but I could be wrong.

Could you explain what this means? Sorry.

Just a thought:

Helicopters are extremely noisy beasts that vibrate a great deal at a great many frequencies.

Could the lack of sharpness be the result of a much higher than normal frequency camera shake?

That was definitely making it harder to take pictures. I SHOULD have been in manual and setting the exposure by hand, but it was such an overwhelming experience that it was hard to concentrate on what I was doing.

A curves or levels adjustment might help with the hazeyness.

I've never used that part of PS. I will have a look. Any specific suggestions?

What kind of gear are you using? Did you use a UV filter?

I was using:

Nikon D300
Sigma 10-20 4/5.6
Nikon 28-100 3.5/...
Nikon 70-300 4.5/...

The sigma is a pretty decent lens. The two nikons are "ok".

I didn't use any filters.
 
try running a levels edit on the shots = use the auto levels setting and that should get the job done very well. I will say levels is a very good tool and one that I use on every shot when I edit - really removes that haze well
 
here this is shot one with a levels edit set to auto:
hc1levels.jpg


and this is the level edited shot with colour curves adjusted (auto option darken hilights)
hc1darkenhighlights.jpg


for me (elements) levels editing is in the layers pallet as a new layer option whilst colour curves is in Echance - Adjust Colour - Adjust Colour Curves
 
I know with older lenses, many of them actually focused past infinity resulting in a slightly out of focus image.

But....I also do not know a whole lot about modern lenses, only what I have read and accounts vary from complete lack of infinite focus, to infinite being accurate to some surpassing it so.....like I said I could be wrong.
 
You're seeing both pollution and atmospheric haze in your shots both of which are contributing to a slightly washed-out look. Next time use a polarizer-especially where you have a lot of reflective surfaces like the glass in all those buildings.
Your colours will be more saturated and vibrant and the sky will appear a much deeper blue. I keep a polariser on pretty much all the time.
 
How were you shooting? On a bright but hazy day like that, I'd probably be in shutter priority with a CPL.
 
I would hazard a guess that the helicopter was the major contributor to your "focus" woes. What was your shutter speed out of curiosity?
 
I'm a little embarrassed to say I was shooting in Program mode... I tried manual, but quickly found there was too much to concentrate on in that environment that I was unfamiliar with to be flipping settings. To some degree, I know part of this is because of that.

The exposures were mostly 1/400th of a second or thereabouts.
 
don't be - most people tend to shoot in Aperture priority mode anway and not full manual - that I find is fine when you have the time to full compose a shot, but tends to get a little tricky when you have to focus change aperture shutterspeed, ISO, an shoot when on the move. Auto modes take a lot of the strain off the photographer.

Obviously its easier with practice and time and more practice ;)
 
As far as I understand, shutter priority is the standard for aerial photography.
 

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