Heathrow again (Sunday 9th Oct)

[LN Strike Eagle]

Return visit yesterday. Tried some departures after the 3pm runway switch and quite happy with those, a good spot for future visits.

Qantas livery looks nice on the A380. Record shot on the smaller lens.







Found these quite awkward to shoot from this angle - the gap between the fuselage and the engines is quite large for framing, and the white livery was blown out in all my shots. Same with the BA jets. Couldn't fit them all in at the short end of my lens from Myrtle either.

















I like the Qatar livery on everything, even the A380.



The retro livery on their Triple 7 was also nice.





Jordanian in a special scheme was the penultimate arrival before the runway changeover.



And then to the Esso garage for a few departures. A lot of the smaller types were too high but the odd one was low enough for a pic and funnily enough, I think the photos of those ones are better from here - they fill more of the frame than a long tube like the 777ERs.









The A380 looked good from this spot too. Happy to get this one climbing out in nice light.















There may be some more to add as I go through them.

[DOUGHNUT]

Beautiful light this time of year

[LN Strike Eagle]

Beautiful light this time of year

Absolutely, it's my favourite time of the year for photography. You know it's good when an A319 becomes photogenic!

Added a few more pics to the opening post.

[lynothehammer]

Still not caught the Qatar retro, looks the nuts.

Lovely shots again, caught the civvie bug have we ? lol !

[LN Strike Eagle]

Still not caught the Qatar retro, looks the nuts.

Lovely shots again, caught the civvie bug have we ? lol !

Thanks mate. Haha, not sure I'd go that far, but it made a nice change. Lockdown and the disruption to airshows did change my interests though, always got an eye on what's happening at Stansted for any good cargo/VIP movements where I'd never give it a second glance beforehand.

[GeorgeP]

A lovely selection of images captured in beautiful light. Sharp, well-exposed and with accurate colour repro. I enjoyed viewing this group and your previous set from the same location. Nice work!

The A380 is, indeed, a fab aircraft and without doubt the most comfortable aircraft in which I have flown. Nothing comes close, really.

[LN Strike Eagle]

Thanks George, I appreciate the feedback on the edits as I'm still adjusting to shooting RAW and learning new things.

A final selection:

[GeorgeP]

Thanks George, I appreciate the feedback on the edits as I'm still adjusting to shooting RAW and learning new things.

Another lovely set. I think these results clearly indicate that you have adjusted well to shooting RAW.

If it's not too much trouble, would you please give us an idea of the equipment that you use and the software with which you process the RAW files. TIA.

[Brenden S]

Great shots mate. I am heading there next week. Fingers x for some sunny breaks.

[LN Strike Eagle]

Thank you both.

George, my gear is mostly out of the ark - I use an EOS 50D with the 70-300 L series lens, and edit with the Camera RAW editor supplied in Photoshop CS6.

Brenden, I hope the weather breaks for you but the forecast on my phone looks pretty wet for the next week. 🫠

[GeorgeP]

...George, my gear is mostly out of the ark - I use an EOS 50D with the 70-300 L series lens, and edit with the Camera RAW editor supplied in Photoshop CS6.

There's nothing wrong with that gear and you produce some excellent images with it. Have you tried Canon's (free) DPP for RAW processing? I reckon that you'll find the DPP colour profiles are superior to ACR's. I gave up on ACR a long time ago.

[LN Strike Eagle]

...George, my gear is mostly out of the ark - I use an EOS 50D with the 70-300 L series lens, and edit with the Camera RAW editor supplied in Photoshop CS6.

There's nothing wrong with that gear and you produce some excellent images with it. Have you tried Canon's (free) DPP for RAW processing? I reckon that you'll find the DPP colour profiles are superior to ACR's. I gave up on ACR a long time ago.

Thanks. Hadn't realised quite how old it was until I checked earlier - the 50D was released in 2008! I got it second hand in 2017 so it was already old when I got it, but it does what I want it to do.

I have used DPP on occasion but never got on with it, I found it quite clunky and the noise reduction wasn't much use. Having said that, it was before I became a proper convert to shooting RAW and only did it on the odd occasion. Maybe I'll give it another look. Any pointers on making the most of it?

[GeorgeP]

... Any pointers on making the most of it?

I try to do the least amount of processing in DPP and PS by getting the best result than I can achieve in-camera. My workflow after opening the RAW file in DPP is:

1. Click the "Perform Image Lens Correction" tab.
2. Enable Digital Lens Optimiser.
3 Return to the "Perform Basic Image Adjustment" tab.
4. Perform the following adjustments, as necessary:
a. Exposure
b. Gamma
c. Contrast/Shadows/Highlights/Saturation under the "Advanced" section.
5. Save as 16-bit TIFF.
6. Open in the TIFF in PS CS6.
7. Perform the following adjustments, as necessary:
a. Crop/Level.
b. Colour balance.
c. Levels.
d. Shadows/Highlights.
e. Convert to an 8-bit file.
f. Selective sharpen (Smart Sharpen).
g. Selective NR.
h. Save as JPEG.

I usually apply selective noise reduction (NR) after exporting the TIFF to PS CS6, never in DPP. Most of my aviation images are taken in good light, so not much NR is required. A few months ago, I tried PureRAW2 and it does a fab job with NR. Unfortunately, it spits out a DNG which DPP cannot read, so I didn't outlay the reasonable price (AUD129/GBP70) for it. My workflow is not perfect, nor the only way to achieve a reasonable JPEG but it works for me. I hope this helps.

[Brenden S]

Thank you both.

George, my gear is mostly out of the ark - I use an EOS 50D with the 70-300 L series lens, and edit with the Camera RAW editor supplied in Photoshop CS6.

Brenden, I hope the weather breaks for you but the forecast on my phone looks pretty wet for the next week. 🫠

Thursday is looking ok. Friday looking not so good. I think that day I will be heading to RAF Hendon.

[LN Strike Eagle]

I try to do the least amount of processing in DPP and PS by getting the best result than I can achieve in-camera. My workflow after opening the RAW file in DPP is

Thank you. I've had a look and I don't know what I was using before because I don't recognize the DPP interface but when I try to edit, all of the controls are greyed out, so I'll have to do some more exploring and get to grips with it.

Thursday is looking ok. Friday looking not so good. I think that day I will be heading to RAF Hendon.

Yeah, Thursday afternoon not looking too bad now. I hope you have a good trip.

[GeorgeP]

... all of the controls are greyed out, so I'll have to do some more exploring and get to grips with it.

DPP will only perform RAW processing, so if you have opened a JPEG in DPP all adjustment buttons/sliders/thingies (not a technical term) will be disabled.

[LN Strike Eagle]

... all of the controls are greyed out, so I'll have to do some more exploring and get to grips with it.

DPP will only perform RAW processing, so if you have opened a JPEG in DPP all adjustment buttons/sliders/thingies (not a technical term) will be disabled.

A schoolboy error.

OK, here's a shot processed in DPP with the lens corrections etc:



And the same shot processed as per all the others in this thread, using PS CS6:

[Ledhead27]

Very lovely stuff Dan, great variety! I do miss my frequent visits to Heathrow.

[GeorgeP]

Thanks for posting the two images, Dan.

To my 60 y.o. eyes, the reds on the first image look more accurate. Performing the RAW conversion and adjustments in DPP, then some further minor stuff in PS has produced a better result than the combination of ACR/PS. I hope that you find DPP a useful tool and that you add it to your processing workflow to replace ACR.

[sdad]

Had a go at LHR yesterday, between Friday's torrents and today's. Lovely and warm until mid-afternoon clouds. Saw the Esso garage. Do you have to buy a tank of petrol or just a bag of crisps?

[LN Strike Eagle]

Thanks again George, I appreciate all your help and insight.

sdad, I read on a spotting guide that you can have 25 minutes at the Esso garage car park as long as you use the shop (monitored by CCTV) but I walked. Left the car near the pub and there’s a footpath that takes you through to the main road.

[sdad]

Is that the Rising Sun on Riverside Road?

[LN Strike Eagle]

Is that the Rising Sun on Riverside Road?

That's the one.

[sdad]

Thanks. I shall try that sometime. I'm guessing there are views of what's on the ground too.

[LN Strike Eagle]

Thanks. I shall try that sometime. I'm guessing there are views of what's on the ground too.

You can see mostly BA stuff from T5 and a bit of the stuff at T3. None of it is good for pics because of the fence though.

There's some big fuel tanks to your right that block the view of stuff as it's rolling down the runway so most things are already airborne when they come into view.