Dip and Dive
Jan, 2016Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I took this at the International Plowing Match & Rural Expo in Mitchell, Ontario, Canada in 2013. This is of the Canadian Snowbirds (Officially known as the, Canadian Forces 431 Air Demonstration Squadron), they were really fast so it was something new to take pictures of and they turned out lovely!Time
This was taken at around noon while I was their with my family. It was a bright sunny day so that allowed me to have a faster shutter speed to capture great stills without sacrificing light. I has no tripod on me because I wasn't expecting to do anymore than just casual photos that day, but then I was inspired to be a bit more crafty. So, my body and objects around helped to keep me steady. Now, I know to be prepared more often when I go out. Live and learn!Lighting
After some looking over of this I thought the image was quite plain, so I decided to spice it up by experimenting. Sharpening the image, dulling it, playing with colours and more. Eventually, I came up with this. I kind of over sharpened the image to get a crisp and kind of grainy look. I also increased the contrast to define the colours and differences in the objects to make it pop from the blue background. Overall, it came to the old carnival and old camera look. A style that I haven't played around with a lot and I am picky with photos that I like and do not like in that style. I am happy how this imaged turned out.Equipment
I used a Canon T3i with my 75-300mm lens. That is all, well I used my imagination and body too. ;)Inspiration
For me fast moving objects and things in the sky are uncommon for me where I come from. So, that alone was one reason I wanted to be there. I was just going to take a few photos, but then I wanted to capture something different, so I waited a bit more, anticipated their act and took a shot at each of their tricks. This was one of the top photos out of many that I took.Editing
I did quite a bit of post-processing, more than I usually do in my photos as I prefer natural looking photos, often I just make the colours richer. What I did in this, as I said earlier, I did a lot of experimenting. I was still trying to discover my taste, my style of photography at this time. So, I tried the heavy editing. I over-sharpened, over-contrasted and played around with the blues, reds and whites to really make those colours pop, but look interesting at the same time, then I added a bit of grainy effect in the settings of Adobe Lightroom and by sharpening it.In my camera bag
In my bag I usually have two batteries in my bag because you never know when you may need them. A few extra SD cards, I shouldn't ever run out but you never know. A have a few Vivitar filters, a FLD filter (when I film under fluorescent lights), a UV filter (it doesn't do too much but I have it), and a CPL filter (great for getting deeper colours in the sky and reducing glares!) I also have a hood for protection and it sometimes helps in deeper saturation, richer colours and reduce light from coming in on the side. Now for the expensive stuff. My camera, a Canon T3i is what I often have in my bag of course. I have two Canon lens, an EFS 18-55mm and an EF 75-300mm lens. I am investing in a macro lens next, not sure which one quite yet.Feedback
To capture something similar and to edit it a lot. Take a lot of photos, try to keep a solid background with a solid or gradient background so you can really pop the colours in post-processing. When post-processing experiment a lot, undo will be your friend here. Don't be scared of the grainy look, I know I quite was, so experimenting opened up my thoughts on grainy photos. Grainy photos are not always bad. Really get this look be sure to over-contrast and over-sharpen. Feel free to play with colours, and saturation, just avoid over-saturation as it gets rid of the whites, crisp colours and defined lines.
