#79 -- From the air

ghinson · June 16, 2011

OK. I am likely setting myself up to fail, but I am about to go up with a friend of mine to fly around the island of Nantucket for an aerial shoot! I'm psyched. I have the camera set to RAW+jpeg so I can have fun pics to process and, hopefully, a couple of keepers for the challenge. Never done this before so, again, I'm probably jinxing myself with this post. But, we'll see...

richtersl · June 16, 2011

ghinson wrote: »

OK. I am likely setting myself up to fail, but I am about to go up with a friend of mine to fly around the island of Nantucket for an aerial shoot! I'm psyched. I have the camera set to RAW+jpeg so I can have fun pics to process and, hopefully, a couple of keepers for the challenge. Never done this before so, again, I'm probably jinxing myself with this post. But, we'll see...

Have fun! And most important, be safe.

Looking forward to see what you come home with!

Dirquist · June 16, 2011

Good luck up there, sounds like great fun weather the pics come out the way you want or not.

Sorin · June 16, 2011

What lens are you planning to use?

ghinson · June 16, 2011

I'm taking the full gamut, a 14-24, 24-70, and 70-200, but will probably start with the middle one.

My brain's about to explode trying to make sure I have my settings right. I meet the pilot in 15 minutes.

konomaniac · June 16, 2011

great timing for the challenge - good luck

SeascapeS · June 16, 2011

Good luck - sounds like a great opportunity!

ghinson · June 16, 2011

OK. That was tough. Turned out to be too hazy to get more distant, whole-island shots. The pilot I was flying with does aerial shots for realtors. He's good. But, in spite of shooting at really high shutter speeds, he also has a gyro unit that attaches to the bottom of his camera. That device was amazing, holding the camera, it was hard to pan it, it held the camera so steady. (One of these: http://www.ken-lab.com/stabilizers.html.)

Alas, I didn't have one. I took a ton of shots. Here are some of the more fun ones. You'll see that several of these have processing already applied, so they are obviously not going to work for the challenge. A few are SOOC (the first three), so they're possibilities. But the catch rate was really low for me. Gave me appreciation for what this guy does.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7. Lastly my kids were waiting for me...

powder · June 16, 2011

Lucky you! what an awesome opportunity. I love the first one. ~powder (and the last is fun, of course!)

JR303 · June 16, 2011

4 & 6 are Tilt/Shift lenses?

Gotta get me one of those. And an airplane.

Very nice set, but those 2 stand out for me. A lot.

Dirquist · June 16, 2011

Super fantastic shots. I love them all but number 6 reaally gets my attention. And lastly having just had my first I can say wow, how cool is the last one. Thats one for the scrap book for sure. Glad you had a good time.

DsrtVW · June 17, 2011

I like number 6 it is like a model or something. Very nice I had the same question about tilt shift lens.

WhatSheSaw · June 17, 2011

Way cool! #7 warms my heart. What great kids!

#1 is a beauty. And I like #2 as well.

ghinson · June 17, 2011

The miniaturized ones are done in post-processing, not with a tilt-shift lens. I used to long for a TS, but later realized you could create the same effect, very simply, and with much more control, in Photoshop. It would've been tough to nail the focus with the actual lens, while flying. So these do not qualify for this challenge, for sure.

ic4u · June 17, 2011

Of your SOOC shots, #1 is my choice!. I love what you achieved in post with the other shots, hope you can share your technique at some point!
The last one of course is a feel good shot

Great set!

ghinson · June 17, 2011

Creating a fake tilt-shift miniature...

First, you need the right shot. It needs to be a wide angle view of a scene, preferably from a distant and looking down at a scene from an angle.

In PS, you do all of your usual corrections and then push the vibrance/saturation just a little more than you normally would.

Next you hit Q to get into quick mask mode. Choose the Gradient Tool and, up top, set the tool to do the reflected gradient (the 4th one in the tool menu). Start your gradient in the middle of the portion of the photo that you want to stay in focus and end up just outside the same region. You will get selection boxes. If you then go up to Filter/Blur/Lens Blur (and play with the settings if you want), you will get the shot you want.

Sometimes you have to play around with the gradient mask a few times to get the right area blurred.

It's fun.

I will sometimes do the same technique to shorten the dof in a shot that doesn't necessarily end up looking miniaturized.

Try it.

ic4u · June 17, 2011

ghinson wrote: »

Creating a fake tilt-shift miniature...

First, you need the right shot. It needs to be a wide angle view of a scene, preferably from a distant and looking down at a scene from an angle.

In PS, you do all of your usual corrections and then push the vibrance/saturation just a little more than you normally would.

Next you hit Q to get into quick mask mode. Choose the Gradient Tool and, up top, set the tool to do the reflected gradient (the 4th one in the tool menu). Start your gradient in the middle of the portion of the photo that you want to stay in focus and end up just outside the same region. You will get selection boxes. If you then go up to Filter/Blur/Lens Blur (and play with the settings if you want), you will get the shot you want.

Sometimes you have to play around with the gradient mask a few times to get the right area blurred.

It's fun.

I will sometimes do the same technique to shorten the dof in a shot that doesn't necessarily end up looking miniaturized.

Try it.

Cool! Thanks for sharing, I will definitely be trying this!

SeascapeS · June 18, 2011

4 and 6 are amazing. I couldn't stop staring. I think you did great!

kdotaylor · June 18, 2011

Yes, these are all stunning! For the challenge, I think #2 is lovely.

ghinson · June 18, 2011

Of course, now I have to figure out how to get them out of the camera without screwing up the exifs.

silversx80 · June 18, 2011

Very cool! I like 2, 3 and 7 quite a bit.

dlscott56 · June 19, 2011

Like all of your SOOC shots Greg. Very nice and sounds like a really fun experience.

MarkR · June 19, 2011

I like #1 and #3 best. Oops, do I need to pick one?

Either of them is a view not usually seen in the challenges, so either would work, I think ...

ghinson · June 19, 2011

OK. Now, with Sean's help, I know how to get these jpegs out of the camera without them being marked Modified. So, here's the ones I have to choose from...

A repeat...
1. Little Neck, Nantucket Island

...a new one
2. Coming Home

...and another option
3. Industry

ghinson · June 19, 2011

You know, one of the best parts about this challenge is that it forced me to clean my sensor!

travelways · June 20, 2011

Very nice images! I think for the challenge #1 is the best.

Happy to see that you resolved the uploading problem

sapphire73 · June 20, 2011

As usual, they are all good shots! While I am drawn to #2 and #3 more, I would agree that #1 is probably a stronger entry for this challenge.

MLangton · June 20, 2011

#4 and #5 really do it for me.

GretaPics · June 20, 2011

Couldn't wait to see your images from the air. Without knowing about the post processing creating the miniature look, indeed at first glance I did a double-take and thought they were miniatures! How fun. Of your SOOC's - for the pattern and different views on nature, I lean toward #1, then #3 for capturing an endearing visual (this latest group). I also love #1 in the first set if it qualifies. GP

#79 -- From the air

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