Theme 2: RAF Cosford & the Aircraft.

Statement of Intent:
My objective for Theme 2 is to capture images of aircraft on the ground in hangers and an exhibition setting. My aim is to produce close up/detailed images of the aircraft that portrayed them in unusual and atypical ways; to take a novel approach to viewing them.
My initial blog produced photographs of planes portraying the character of the exhibition and aircraft; showing them as portraits. It is this theme that I am continuing using different aircraft and different means of capturing that "image". For this blog I have focused on two jet aircraft, namely:

• English Electric Jet Fighter
• Hawker Siddeley Gnat T1

There were no issues concerning health and safety as the planes are within hangers. Access was limited, especially in the case of the English Electric as it was suspended from the roof of the Cold War Hanger. The Gnat was standing on the floor of one of the hangers but access to the aircraft was granted by the Security Guards allowing me to position my camera as required. The flooring and footing was flat and even allowing perfect positioning of myself and my tripod.

English Electric:
Positioned within the Cold War Hanger, this plane is suspended vertically from the roof structure with a suspended walkway immediately below. This allowed access directly underneath the plane looking directly upwards through the twin exhaust outlets.
The hanger has been specially designed allowing a great deal of natural lighting and a background of steel structures.

Exterior of Cold War Hanger, RAF Cosford (1/100; F11; ISO100)

With the plane suspended nose upwards offers limited camera positions. All of these photographs were taken with the camera mounted on a tripod to allow me the option of crisp images. The English Electric has a highly polished steel fuselage offering a great deal of reflection and lines of light that could be used to enhance the photograph. The cluster of three photographs were taken at ISO 100 and F3.9. Adjustment was made to the shutter speed between 1/10 and 1/14 thereby creating different images. For my eye, the right-hand image offers the more powerful image being slightly darker. This produces a feeling of weight and power.

The two images above show the plane against the roof structure offering a contrast of materials and lines. This is similar to Patrick Lichfield's photograph of Jacqueline Bisset (Shown Left) leaning against a brick wall. There is a contrast of materials and lines drawing your line of sight around the photograph.







Using a single support to the suspended walk-way in the foreground offered further contrast. By positioning the camera further away from the plane allowed more of the aircraft to be captured and offer a different perspective of the whole body. Using a limited focal distance (F3.9) kept the plane crisp and in contrast the suspension member blurred lower down but crisp towards the top; enhancing the feel of distance.









I next positioned myself directly below the plane looking vertically upwards. The image appears as though the plane is in flight travelling away from you towards the strip of light at the ridge of the roof. This strip of light is useful as it offers lines of reflection down the swept back wings.

Close-up of twin exhaust outlets

Further experimentation produced the image to the left. By setting the camera at 6" shutter speed and F22 this allowed me to maintain a depth of focus and time to alter the focus of the photograph mid-way through the time period; 3 seconds focused on the entire plane followed by 3 seconds at maximum zoom capturing mainly the exhaust outlets. This double image provides a different image.










My final experimentation involved simple coloured filters. My first photograph is without filter introducing a dark blue and then gold/orange filter. With the camera mounted on a tripod the overall image was maintained to show contrast. For me the blue filter does not enhance the image but the gold/orange filter captures and enhances the light reflection on the wings and down the spin of the plane.

Hawker Siddeley Gnat T1:
This aircraft is used by the RAF Red Arrows and offers a deep pillar-box red body. It is positioned on the ground standing on it's wheels. My main focus for photographs was positioned at the front of the nose on the same level as the nose probe.
Light levels in the hanger were again high allowing for a range of shutter speeds around 1/30 and 1/40 and focal distance settings of F3.9 to F5.4.



Initial photographs were sighted directly along the nose probe with the fuselage, air intakes and wings in harmony producing a balanced image. The balance was also enhanced by the lines of light reflected on the fuselage producing the line of sight.

 

 By lowering the position of the camera the image changes pushing the line of sight down the photograph producing a back heavy plane rather than the aerodynamic design of the initial photograph.

In both of these photographs the structure of the hanger provides a detailed, but non-intrusive background.










Altering the shape of the photograph also produced different images! The photographs below are virtually identical with the exception that one is landscape format whilst the other is portrait. The landscape version shows more of the fuselage and air intakes; your line of sight being drawn along the white strip on the fuselage down the right side of the plane. The portrait option displays the oval cross section of the fuselage; your line of sight being drawn vertically across the image.

Scarlet Red Filter Experiment

Working with the use of simple coloured filters, I attempted to enhance the pillar-box red colour of the Gnat using an additional scarlet red filter. The experiment produced an image that was opposite to what I had expected in that the two colours worked against each other. The photograph looses the detail and clarity of the plane and surroundings.
Further experimentation was undertaken by altering the tones of the photograph using PhotoShop. By cutting out the minor extreme tones and then sliding the mid-tone range in preference to the darker tones, a heavy almost threatening image may be produced. As the original image was limited in clarity so this technique results in a "low detail" photograph. Interestingly, by challenging the contrast element of the image there is a degree of enhancement in detail.

Mid-tones altered through Levels Adjustment.

I have left my favourite photographs to the end! The Gnat is positioned on the floor standing on its wheels but behind a rope cordon thereby restricting access. By asking I managed to gain access within the restricted area. My final images were taken using a tripod mounted camera so that I could concentrate on focus thereby gaining crisp images. My camera was positioned directly in front of the plane and by using the 40-150mm lens I could capture the core section of the nose and cockpit window. Limiting the focal distance produced a sense of depth allowing the light reflection on the nose and cockpit window to be captured. The probe mounted on the front of the nose is almost lost through the limited depth of field.
The photograph below has been taken with the camera moved marginally to the right of centre throwing out the mirror symmetry.

Gnat T1 Nose and Cockpit Window.

Using PhotoShop, I then proceeded to adjust the tones using the Levels Adjustment option. This produced the images below which appear more crisp, a much deeper tone of red, a sharper and deeper contrast of the red paint against the white light reflection, but interestingly introducing vivid blue tones in the reflection of the cockpit window. The difference between the final two images is purely the degree of adjustment made in the mid-tone range.

Original photograph adjusted using PhotoShop Levels.

Gnat T1 - Extreme  mid-tone range adjustment

Summary:
I challenged myself to collect, and further create, more extreme and unusual images of planes that captured the "nature" of the aircraft. By choosing the English Electric and Gnat T1, I feel it offered the scope to produce powerful images through the natural shape of the jet body, the colour and the high level of light reflection. I feel that if I had chosen alternative aircraft, from WW2 for instance, the scope would not have been as great. By using a few basic techniques within PhotoShop, some of these images have been further enhanced.