Apologies - more Duxford 2008 photos

[RAF_Quantum]

Hopefully you are not too bored viewing all these Duxford pictures. These pics were taken on Sunday and although the clouds look ominous it was actually quite nice and hot with a lot of sunburnt folk around. The clouds did make the lighting a bit difficult at times though. Not the best quality pictures, I'm still trying to get to grips with my new camera and could really have done with a longer lens than the 18-200 that I have. The pictures don't do justice to the event, for those folk that have never been to a Flying Legends display at Duxford it is worth the effort to try and make it next year.



























































Regards

John

[Chris Sykes]

they are a damn site better than my Waddo ones!!! Its a shame those planes are in the background of the two Spits taking off, as a BnW one of that would be a cracker

[RAF_Quantum]

Hi Chris,

Waddington was my first proper outing with the camera and I was bitterly disappointed with them but it was 'pilot error' as I had the shutter speed way too low. These were all at shutter 1/400 at ISO400 and came out a lot better. I'll try some a bit faster next time I go out with it. I'd love a longer zoom but will have to wait quite a while before that happens.

Regards

John

[Garry Russell]

No appology needed John

Great to see more shots

I've always liked the Dragonfly and this is such a beautiful example. Lovely name for it as well

Never seen it for real though :-(

Garry

[Kevin Farnell]

I'm still trying to get to grips with my new camera and could really have done with a longer lens than the 18-200 that I have. The pictures don't do justice to the event,
John

Hi John

Firstly, you have some cracking shots there and they certainly DO do justice to Flying Legends.
Secondly, the shots show that your 18-200mm lens is more than capable of capturing the action. As with any set up, you need time to learn it's strengths and weaknesses. As you become more familiar with your kit, you'll know when and when not to take photos (I often see people with huge lenses who can only take shots whe the aircraft is miles away). Many of your photos fill the frame, whilst remaining sharply focused - you can't ask for much more than that.
I opened one of your pictures with Nikon editor and discovered that you are using a Nikon D200. This is an awesome camera (I use the same) and will repay you with superb clarity and exposure.
My advice, for using the D200 is -

Always shoot as RAW files (not JPEG) - this will allow you much greater scope to process the pictures later.
Set metering to centre weighted and add +0.3 eq of exposure compensation.
For props, use Shutter priority set at 1/320th - 1/400th, this will give prop blur, though you may lose some shots to camera shake.
Learn to use the supplied Nikon Editor software to process your RAW files (this should be supplied with your camera and is great for colour/contrast correction as well as sharpening the image) and progress onto Photoshop (elements) etc later.

Thanks again for the great shots. You should be very pleased with these results.
If I can be of any help in using your D200, please ask.

Regards

Kevin

[DaveB]

Indeed Garry.. all the 'important' aircraft covered there. Dragonfly.. Hurricane 7L and the Hawker Nimrod.. 2 x Navy and one Dh

John..
I never use an ISO as high as 400 (which I would have done had I been using film). My 300D's are locked at 200

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Paul K]

Great photos, and yep, you can never have too many pictures of aeroplanes. I think you've got the whole display just about covered there, John.

[RAF_Quantum]

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for that info. I looked at RAW and got frightened with the file size/no. of pics per memory card and didn't want to run out of cards - digital makes you a bit lazy/snap happy and I wanted to take as many pics as possible for the practise. Do you have yours set up RAW + jpg or do you not bother with the jpg as well? What ISO is best at those shutter speeds 1/320 and 1/400? I've got capture NX 1.3 as well as Adobe Photshop CS3 but haven't used them yet.

Regards

John

[Kevin Farnell]

Hi John

Yes, the RAW files are quite big (around 15Mb), but the ability to alter exposure settings on the PC is a great advantage. I forked out for 2 8Mb cards, which gives me around 975 shots (not cheap, but think of what the equivalent in film would cost).
I haven't used RAW + JPEG yet, but would do so if I wanted to look at shots quickly and didn't have access to processing software (e.g. a works event, where my colleagues may want to look at the shots straight away).
As Dave B advises, use the lowest ISO setting that will work in the lighting conditions. I use 100 and go to 200 if the light levels drop so that the shutter speed gives a 'low' reading. I'll use 400 if I absolutely have to, but anything higher will increase digital noise quite considerably.
I believe Capture NX is an excellent piece of software, but when I bought my D200, it wasn't included. CS3 is also excellent, but very expensive. I chose Elements 6, which seems to do most of what I want.
The best advice is to keep shooting and experiment. If you open your photos with Nikon software (and probably others), you can view all of the settings (ISO, shutter speed, aperture, focal length etc) of each photo. This will let you see the effects of different settings.
Hope this is of help and I look forward to seeing you future shots.

Best wishes

Kevin

[Chris Sykes]

I wish i took my laptop to Waddo to check them at night as my shutter and ISO were also very low... Ill think ill try again with higher settings like you said around 400...