The photo of the spectacular explosion I posted last week was taken at an air show where the U.S. Airforce Thunderbirds performed brilliantly before a huge crowd. I wanted to share with you another photo I took during the show that stunned me almost as much as capturing the picture of the wall of fire.
The photo you see here captured two F-16 fighter jets passing each other at a combined 1200 miles an hour. Each plane was traveling just under mach one, and it happened so fast that I didn’t have time to set my Canon 1Ds Mark II on motor drive. I took only a single frame and, much to my utter surprise, I captured both planes in the frame. Not only that, but they happened to be in a perfect position with respect to each other. I don’t claim this was due to skill or coordination. It was pure luck. My shutter speed was 1/2000th of a second (the camera was set on program) and yet the plane on the left is slightly blurred, which attests to the remarkable speed it was traveling.
The original background was a solid blue sky. The sun was behind the planes and it was too high in the sky to create beautiful lighting. In Photoshop, I turned the two jets into silhouettes and then replaced the mundane sky with stormy, gray clouds. The light coming from the clouds would, indeed, cause the planes to be dark forms had this been the real sky. When two images are composited together, it’s very important to pay close attention to the lighting in both shots. They need to make sense together. When I teach both my Photoshop I and II courses I make this point often.
Comments