Air Day 2012, RNAS Yeovilton

[gallers74]

Here's my take on what turned out to be in my mind a disappointing Air Day, a combination of poor weather and lack of fast jets. The day started of with some great light but tailed up into grey gloom by 11am....ho hum, not to sure what my highlight is, probably the Meteor....anyway here some images.

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[Stu]

Fine set there

[crazyhorse11]

Air Day 2012 was a totally different beast compared to last year which was a corker in the fast jet department, difficult to live upto and I'm afraid it didn't quite do so (in my opinion) despite the highlights of GR4 role demo, Red Arrows, Meteor T7 and Gerald Cooper flinging his 300 around like a crazy man. Cancellations abounded, with nothing said at the show of the Red Star Rebels debut not happening (anyone know why?), Rafale, Sea Vixen and Vulcan (last two both due to accidents so outside of anyones control). Not sure if these and/or the weather (cool and grey but no rain) suppressed numbers of people attending. Also of note was the considerable competition from other shows on the same day, Lowestoft, Marham, (families day) and Florennes really drained some of the choice fast jets out of the day (not just flying but statics too were really thin on the ground) , stalwarts of Yeovilton such as the Belgian and Dutch F16s both missing. Royal Navy though deserve a massive pat of the back for putting in so much effort to the finale and the historic flight items but who chose 23rd June as the best day? Is this all down to the Olympics!!!!

[jonnyweb142]

Absolutely superb !

[2e1var]

Anyone else notice the Hunter tail before and after display ?

[Distant Thunder]

Wonderfull shots I do like that head on shot of the meteor

[gallers74]

[quote="DanO1978"]Decent captures, let down by over-zealous editing.

Over-zealous??? there was very little to shoot, I shot under 200 images, unlike the masses around me that seem to be firing off 10fps at any grey blob in the sky. LOL

[gallers74]

Decent captures, let down by over-zealous editing.

Over-zealous??? there was very little to shoot, I shot under 200 images, unlike the masses around me that seem to be firing off 10fps at any grey blob in the sky. LOL

I don't think you understand the meaning of over-zealous.

The flyers here have been edited far too much, so that they no longer appear representative of the actual capture.

The statics are very good, though.

All that has been done is a unsharp mask, levels pulled in a tad, must tone down the contrast D4, would want to get told off again for producing images that are not "real"
I do like the way people think they can judge and edit without even seeing what the raw image is like. What are you using a box brownie to get results?

[Chris G]

Personally i like the editing, gives a semi HDR effect to some of the shots, IMO well done and nice editing

[Tim Laurence]

I like the Red Arrows images and Im impressed with the amount of detail in the Lynx close up on shot 6.

Tim

[Devon9]

Anyone else notice the Hunter tail before and after display ?

No please enlighten!

[jingernut]

All that has been done is a unsharp mask, levels pulled in a tad, must tone down the contrast D4, would want to get told off again for producing images that are not "real"
I do like the way people think they can judge and edit without even seeing what the raw image is like. What are you using a box brownie to get results?

Calm down. It's just some constructive criticism.

I tend to agree that some of the flier shots do look a bit weird... something not quite right. Whether that's how they were taken or processed I don't know.

But the Reds shots (particularly 1 and 3) are absolutely superb compositions.

[frank]

Personally i like the editing, gives a semi HDR effect to some of the shots, IMO well done and nice editing

Yup have to agree - I would be very pleased with those results - dont quite understand the criticism

[BatmanIX]

Have to agree, the Reds shots seem to work really well but the rest look seriously wild!

I'm convinced some people are seeing very different images to what I am seeing sometimes?? Maybe it's my monitor?

Cheers,
Paul

[tankbuster81]

Love the reds shots..

[turbohampster]

I really like the reds shots

But would tend to agree that some of the others look a bit overprocessed for my taste...

Looks like you have lifted the shadows quite alot in some of them and oversharpened a couple, which is what gives these photo's the HDR look.

[REHEAT1230]

Nice pictures but i don't like what you did to the Meteor t7 on the ground it looks wrong {sorry}

[2e1var]

I love the editing, something a little different.

The Hunter lost some of its tail decals (?) during the display

[RichPittman]

The 1st five are brilliant.
Then it gets debatable but then thats when the weather turned grey so I guess something had to be done.

There isnt any uphill downhill images in this lot aswell

[buzzer]

Anyone else notice the Hunter tail before and after display ?

No please enlighten!

part of the union jack vinyl had come of!!

[DamienB]

All that has been done is a unsharp mask, levels pulled in a tad, must tone down the contrast D4, would want to get told off again for producing images that are not "real"
I do like the way people think they can judge and edit without even seeing what the raw image is like. What are you using a box brownie to get results?

Let's see some raw images then?

Only the Rafale static looks natural (and very nice it is too), along with no.9, the others have varying levels of unreality applied with what looks like excessive use of shadow/highlight or tone mapping. The jubilee Hawk, for instance, has lost its red and blue paint for a sort of rose wine and purple hue and the taxiing shots exhibit a cartoony HDR look complete with glowing trees. That's way more than "levels pulled in a tad". There's bags of potential in these shots but dial your adjustments back to 25% and see what you think?

[jaguar]

Was there a Saudi Hawk on static?

Paul.
CPC Aviation Photography

[RickIngham]

Yes there was.

And regarding the Hawk tail...I photographed it up close and it looked like it was coming away from the aircraft already which is a shame! I was hoping it would be on there permanently...

[henk99]

Great set, with some lovely angles/compositions. Number #4 is my favorite. In some shots the post-processing is a bit too much for my taste in terms of sharpening (Halos).

I sure like your compositions!

[2e1var]

Great to hear views on the photos. All too often you see photos that are shocking with good feedback ( I guess it's mates massaging egos but I could be wrong). People often say 'C&C welcome' with little response, debate is good