American Ace

I took this shot in late June and am just getting around to editing the shots :arf:

I sort of like this particular shot and angle. The model is quite young but has taken some training. Not sure about the way the arm is lit up or what to do about it.

Played with a few flags behind her. Not sure that's a keeper, but I am thinking that some sort of PP, perhaps some war decorations, might look good?

G

hey GB, I like her pose, i think that's fantastic, the thing that throws me off is the fact that she's in the shade. The light coming from top left to bottom right renders her in the dark areas.

Looking at how nicely her hand is exposed, i think if u shot it from the other side of the plane u might've gotten a better result. I like the idea though. I personally usually don't comment on model shoots cause i have no experience in this kind of thing, this one though i can just see it in my head well lit.

I wonder what this shot would also look like if u pulled back a bit to include the nose of the plane?

This has a cool "Top Gun" look about it but the WW2 type helmet bothers me Either a modern fighter pilots helmet or her own hair would look appropriate in a modern combat aircraft. the wavy stars and stripes back ground looks OK too.

Personally, I'd lose the flags. It's a bit over the top for my liking. Is that a phantom she's in?

Nice pic though.

Dave

Thks. I see what you mean Liban, but the issue out here in the western USA is too intense sunlight that produces a very harsh look on photos taken during the daytime. It's a little less so near the coast, but I can bet if she was in the sun that it would have been a bad thing. :( I'll have to look for some shots that include the front. I think I have a few of those. The other side had a chessy looking temp stairway to get up there. We though about moving it and shooting from that side to (just for variety), but decided that the museum attendants may not like that too much :D

hminx, Thanks for your observations. Uhh.. yes, I see what you mean about the WW2 helmet and the modern-day fighter. I should have noticed that. Too bad they didn't have any WW2 era planes here, or a biplane :) I have more of her to post sometime later w/o the helmet though not in this particular plane.

Dave, I guess the flag is a bit much. It may need something though .. some 'kills' (digitally) painted on the side of the a/c ? Ideas? I totally forgot to look what type plane this is (I went to school for aero engineering, too :rolleyes5: )

g

I actually like this pretty much as-is, but did throw it into ACDSee to make some adjustments with its "light equalizer" (sporty little tool that's perfect for stuff like this). I agree that the helmet is out of date and looks it, but I also know the correct one runs over $400 used, so that's a pretty damn expensive prop with a very limited range of use!

The photo doesn't give much hint regarding the type of plane, but I'd guess judging from the paint and reflection of the Tomcat in her glasses, this is most probably an A-7 corsair or F-8 crusader as the canopy rails are much bulkier on the F4 and the intake plates would come up to about where her hand is.

Traditionally, the pilot's name/rank would be painted where that darker gray overspray under her hand is :wink:

I like jet's edit. he gave it pop!

Jet -

Not bad. But here is an interesting issue: I viewed this at home on my desktop computer last night and there was major distortion in the highlight areas - arm, face, etc. This pretty much rendered the image unusable.

When I view it on my work laptop (standard Dell), it looks almost perfect. I don't see any of the distortion I saw at home.

I think the moral of this story is, some monitors will display things a lot different than others and that we all need to check our work on various monitors for such issues, esp before sending out to customers, using in portfolios, or any such thing.

Anyway, please check it on another monitor or two and see if you see what I do. Liban, since you don't seem to see it either, please check another monitor also. I want to make sure I'm not seeing things (!)

Now I'm curious what type of plane this is ....... I might have to go back and see! Yes, getting a real up to date helmet was never an option, unless I could borrow one from a real pilot.. but since I don't know any here in San Diego at the current time it couldn't be done.

I think I will put her name and rank and "kills" there -- any ideas what name to use? :)

Very nice pose and composition here, GB. I like the plain version and Jets edit gives it the needed boost.
Good work