Airliner over heathrow

[RichardtheSane]

Hi all.

I don't post many for critique, but I think it is about time I started!

Here is a shot os an airliner on approach to heathrow just after sunset. I have tweaked the saturation a little, and I would like to hear what peoples thought are on the image as a whole.

http://www.richardlindley.co.uk/images/airliner_approach.jpg

Comments welcome :)

[freakboy]

I absolutely love that shot. I especially like how the sky is brighter above the wings. the perspective is fantastic. It's hard to tell which I like better, the silouhette of the plane, the sky or the two of them together.

That may just be me though.

freakboy

[RbnDave]

I think the regular posters on this board don't like airplane photos. This picture has been here for a few days and you only have one response so far.

At first glance, I loved this photo. The silhouette is very sharp and the colors of the sunset are nice. After looking art this photo a bit longer, I found there really isn't much to hold the viewers attention. There isn't much going on in this picture and there is nothing to give it a sense of perspective. Maybe, you could lighten the colors of the airplane to reveal some more details.

[martcol]

I think that's a cool shot and you must be pleased with it. I think that rbndave has a point about holding the viewers attention. I also agree with previous comments about the sky and think it's great how the wings of the plane mark the change in the sky. I kind of thought that it might help to crop some of the lower area out. There's not much there and making the photo wider did something for me (I just scrolled down and disected it with the bottom of the screen). I wonder also if a tighter crop on the right might add a little more va va voom by making it appear slightly more dynamic or kind of moving in to the centre.

I haven't a clue whether any of that would make a difference! Oh and did I say, that sky! Makes me think you were in the desert not at Heathrow.

Martin

[MiG82]

I really like that photo. As soon as I saw it I thought "wow".
IMO, the thing that makes aviation photos a bit boring is the plain sky background. This shot has a fantastic background. But if you posted a photo of just that sky I'd consider it boring. The plane and sky together have really had an effect on me.
Next thought was "can I do that too?", but then in the EOS forum I noticed that you were using a 400 mm lens on a 10D :( (I'm a G3 user with only 140 mm equivalent and slower shutter speeds).

I think people should post more aviation photos.

[Leighow]

I agree with all the comments. In particluar we all say give us more than a sunset/sunrise.

The other compositional thing I liked was the way the wings split the color. Also, it might be possible to get even more lights on the plane showing -- but I really do not know.

Well done.

HOWIE

[RichardtheSane]

Sorry I took a while to respond, I don't post this forum often so I forget! :)

rbndave, thanks for commenting. After consideration you are correct, there is very little to hold your attention once you have seen the image. I feel it is more the initial impact of the shot that I like.

Going on from that, I also agree with your comments martcol. I spent a little time playing with various crops and in the end I did rather like a fairly tight right crop, with some removed from the bottom. That is the one I printed and now have on my wall :D

I actually experimented with the possibility of getting some of the lights off the end of the runway in the shot, the tower the lights were on wouldhave looked great, but the images with those in looked too busy and out of balance - need to experiment.

I think I will try to play with the aircraft lights, just to see what comes out, Thanks everyone for their help. :D