My original shot was captured with a zoom lens from ground level during an honorary fly-by of this WWII propeller plane retired from active duty and now preserved by a local aviation society. It took a lot of post-processing to achieve this end result, but here were my basic steps:
-Tilt and crop
-Significantly adjust exposure, black level, saturation, and color balance
-Apply layers of retro color filters
-Burn the red hues in the tail of the plane
-Apply vintage color/textural overlay
-Add gentle Gaussian noise
-Add stylized text and basic white border
-Meticulously "erase" areas around border to create scalloped effect; save as PNG to preserve transparency
-Open PNG image as layer; add base layer filled with color of DPC gray background (for desktop view); merge layers down and export as JPG
-Resize and sharpen slightly for submission
I have zero clue how anyone here at DPC will respond to this sort of thing, but it sure was fun to produce. My only hope is that someone out there enjoys the nostalgia of it.
*** After voting ***
Wow. I'm floored by the response to this! It's very affirming to have this, of all images, score this well. I personally love this sort of vintage, hyper-stylized approach to visual imagery, but I worried people would see it as more "graphic design" than digital photography--and a lot of my favorite visual artwork out in the real world sits in that nebulous gray space between the two. It's also affirming to know that, at least on some rare occasions, a really not-so-great original capture can still be salvaged through post-processing with the right treatment. The original image looked like this:
It was really difficult to get the plane in the frame of my camera long enough to snap more than a few exposures (my M200 doesn't have a traditional viewfinder, only a touchscreen), and that happened to be the cleanest one I had of the side of the plane. Fortunately, the clipping in the shadows played nicely with the vintage styling choices!
So grateful for the kind comments, especially in a challenge with so many wonderful entries!
Statistics
Place: 2 out of 17 Avg (all users): 7.4063 Avg (participants): 7.0000 Avg (non-participants): 7.6500 Views since voting: 472 Views during voting: 69 Votes: 32 Comments: 14 Favorites: 1 (view)
Congrats on he Red!
I've just looked at the original and I'm very impressed with your image processing skills! Wow!
The result is great and fits perfectly as a stamp motif
From the "Photographer's Comments": "I worried people would see it as more "graphic design" than digital photography ..." This challenge was a prime candidate for heavy graphic design type entries IMO, and you hit it right on the money. Congrats!
Great job and congrats on the Red, especially under the shooting conditions you describe. How you were able to take the raw image and create the final product is quite outstanding.
I'm far from an authority on this myself, but from what I understand, the Stearman wasn't a front-line service plane so much as a support plane used stateside for training and transporting personnel. Apparently it was one of the easier models for rookies to learn to pilot before having to take the helm of something more combat-ready? (How I wish my grandpa was still alive to tell me stories.)
One of my tops picks. You really nailed the composition and layout style. Looks like a real stamp to me. Love how the texture gives the old plane a vintage look.
Commemorating Aviation History
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