RAF Wyton Sunset Parade and a special visitor...

scoop · 5 Sep 2008 at 15:17

Despite the weather looknig threatening, I decided to be optimistic and headed off to RAF Wyton, near Huntingdon to hang around whilst their Sunset Parade took place, given a rather special visitor was due to close the proceedings. Thankfully, the weather cleared and patience and optimism were rewarded:

Alas, these suffered from i) wrong expected display line ii) fading light and iii) needing a bit more than 200mm! Regardless, it was a pleasure to meet ex-Vulcan AEO Hugh Prior who kept us up to speed with ETAs etc.

Begbie · 5 Sep 2008 at 23:58

They look awesome!

King_Boru · 6 Sep 2008 at 02:44

They lack clarity and are fairly underexposed. Though sunset, the white balance is off as there is a noticeable orange tint. Perhaps a custom white balance card or expodisc (warm) filter would have helped to achieve a more subtle balance.

I always say this, shooting aviation (airborne) is a lot easier using the manual exposure mode. After reviewing the EXIF data I noticed that you were using Aperture Priority on f/5.6. This gave you 1/400 sec shutter speed. The Vulcan can be photographed fairly easily at a shutter as low as 1/160 second (good panning technique required). This would have allowed you to use a lower ISO which in turn would have given you slightly better image quality and a bit of movement in the photographs (the background clouds would have had a blur to them).

I have flown out of RAF Wyton many times and I must admit it is one of the most difficult airfields to work with as a photographer. Unless you are granted press coverage and "runway" access it is hard to get close. A great station with a great past. It would have been lovely to of seen the Vulcan present there.

Dan.

scoop · 9 Sep 2008 at 17:22

Thanks for the critique; I have to say you're right on all three counts. I was a tad disappointed by the clarity, to be honest, and the ISO was just sheer naff-ness on my part as I should have paid more attention to settings, but I was a bit pre-occupied by finally seeing the Vulcan for the first time in years!

I quite liked the orange sunset tint, but appreciate it's not to everyone's taste.

However, critique is always helpful to improve and has been taken on board; we will see how my shots from Duxford turned out. I'll post on here again with the results.....