Shutter speed or ISO?

As it was not THAT dark out... What setting would have made the helicopter "pop" in this picture?

You were right as to expose for the background. Did you shoot RAW? That way you could merge two exposures, one with the helicopter brighter and one with the background correctly exposed as in your posted image.

I'm not sure why you shot f/11, I would've used something like f/4 or f/8. Remember, aperture controls DOF and you don't really need such a wide DOF in that case.

Model? It's backlit, so you'd need to either use fill-flash or open up a stop or two (which will wash out the sky). What lens? The kit? Any post-processing? (And by the way, that's a nasty hair on your sensor!)

Thanks for the quick reply.

Well.. I put the camera in auto mode and had my friend shoot me flying.... but I take pictures of helis flying all the time so I just wanted to know for future reference. I am pretty new at this "pro picture taking"... if you can't tell.

Standard out of the box Rebel XT

or a small antenna for the heli

So not too far away . . . You might have been able to get away with 1/500 at f/5.6 under those conditions, but that'd have been using a somewhat soft lens at its weakest point. Maybe fill flash with about -1/2 stop FEC (Flash Exposure Compensation) to light the 'copter.

Next time when shooting against a bright sky like that, try bumping the exposure compenstation by +2/3 to +1. It will blow out the sky, but that's not what you are taking a picture of here.

Another option is exposure bracketing, You could take 3 rapid fire shots, one at -1, 0 and +1, then combine the frame with the helicopter properly exposed with the frame that has the sky properly exposed.

Thank you. I was playing with that bracketing feature last night. Wow, I feel like this camera does "about everything".

You just need to PP it, autolevels, lighten shadows, darken highlights, increase contrast and it should look a lot better. Maybe I'll offer my version later tonight.

Thow some L onto that bad boy.

Yeah, and since it's such a contrasty picture (between fore and background) you could use one of the channels (and the burn tool) to create a selection to use as a mask.
Even easier, you can probably use the magic wand to select the sky and invert it.

Then, while you have the selection made, create a level/curve adjustment layer and brighten the chopper up. Your selection will automatically be converted into a layer mask to hide the effect on the sky.

My adjustment will be FAR simpler than all of that, trust me.

Hellashot wrote:
My adjustment will be FAR simpler than all of that, trust me.

And Raitch's will be FAR better, trust us.

Simpler != Better

But hey, I'm just here to help, not criticize everything... so what do I know?
It's not like creating a mask is going to take an hour or break your arm. Once you get used to using masks, it's very easy.

At first, layers and masks seem to intimidate people. Once they see what you can do using image data and going beyond the auto adjustment settings... they never go back. It's very easy once you get used to it and have somebody to show you the ropes.

Not taking anyones side here but, I would really just like to take the best picture I can with the minimal amount of "photochoping". Seems like cheating...