Aircraft spotting

[Thy King]

I was a bit bored, so i went to the runway and took a lot of photos. Here is a selection.

By the way, how do i get rid of noise (due to digital zoom, i know, bad bad bad...) in photoshop (tutorials, programs, plug-ins, etc.)? (and yes, i am a complete beginner.. )

[edit] and a bad speller :P [/edit]

[GotAFarmYet?]

There are sharpen features built into PhotoShop, PaintShop Pro and other software for images. They work ok but will not fix all problems and can actually make it worse in some cases.

In most cases though depending on the camera, you can get rid of some noise but not all. Also if you are interested in Planes go check out airliners.net you can find pictures and details on planes there.

[Sphynx]

Don't expect this just to be digital zoom however - what camera are you using? If the camera has determined that it needs to set a high virtual-film speed, then this is also the cause for the grain.

[Thy King]

It is a panasonic dmc-fz5, and i used it for the long distance shots only. The pictures above have bad jpg compression, i am going to redo them.

Most pictures are done with the onboard zoom (12x max) but i have a couple i actually want to keep (done with digital zoom), but they are very grainy.

[edit] I have uploaded photo's with a bit better jpg compression

[Starbuck-Tx]

That head-on shot of the Triple 7 is great - I've forgotten how large the wings and engines are. Great pics! KLM was my father's favorite airline when he lived in Europe.

[Samurai]

hehe, another beaut from Boeing- they sure know how to show Airbus a thing or two.

As far as photo quality goes, I know the FZ5 quite well, if you can tell me what settings you're using for these photos, and what shooting mode, then I may be able to give you some advice for your next trip to the airport.

[Thy King]

@ samurai

I am using the standard settings for shooting pictures I have set it to iso-80 standard, for the nicest pictures, but other then that, i have it on the automatic setting. I took several photos in close succession, so i had not much time to change al the different settings..

But if you can give me some pointers, please do! I am always happy to learn something new!

[Samurai]

Well, the auto mode on the Panasonic cameras is generally adequate for all but complicated lighting situations.

First suggestion would be to turn off the digital zoom- you can crop and resize in your app of choice with much better results after the event.

Second would be to activate RAW shooting (if the FZ-5 has it- cant quite remember). If not, then ensure you're shooting at the highest jpeg quality the camera will allow, with minimal compression.

Thirdly would be to ensure Auto Focusing is set to continuous- it won't make too big a difference image quality, but should give quicker results with focussing.

Hope those help.

[Thy King]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Well, the auto mode on the Panasonic cameras is generally adequate for all but complicated lighting situations.

First suggestion would be to turn off the digital zoom- you can crop and resize in your app of choice with much better results after the event.

Well, i usually turn off digital zoom, i know it sucks bigtime.. But i just tried it out on long range 'targets', just to see what quality i could get. I got bad quality, but some nice photo's

Second would be to activate RAW shooting (if the FZ-5 has it- cant quite remember). If not, then ensure you're shooting at the highest jpeg quality the camera will allow, with minimal compression.

FZ5 can have TIFF photo's. But i only have 1 large card, so that would prevent me from making a large amount of photo's. However, i always shoot at highest quality jpeg possible.

But i will test it (TIFF), to see if i can get even better quality.

Thirdly would be to ensure Auto Focusing is set to continuous- it won't make too big a difference image quality, but should give quicker results with focussing.

Hope those help.

Hmm, i tested it, and i agree, it works very well! Thanks!