Photography Question

[Lawreston]

This image is from DW for Wiscasset, Maine RW #25. U.S. Route #1 in in the lower left corner. I was shooting from an RV-9(A?). Does anyone have experience from such a cockpit platform and can comment on whether a polarizing filter would eradicate all of the reflection from the plexi? I'm used to shooting from my Cessna(pilot's side) and can open the wind screen, thereby eluding the wind screen surface.

HR

 

[brcase]

I usually just put the lens up against the glass. But then vibration isn't an issue in my sailplane.

Brian

 

[rottydaddy]

You can't reliably kill all reflection with a p-filter, but it helps...but more important in a bubble-canopy scenario, is to work with the light (and the resulting reflections). Usually there is an angle that will work, unless there is a lot of bright-colored stuff inside the cockpit.

 

[MSPAviator]

I knocked out much of the haze and made the picture more contrasty. It would be alot more work to normalize those glare spots. A circular polarizer may help.

Before:

After:

 

[Richard]

I have been able to get many god shots without refelction by altering the angle of lens relative to the pexi. This works best with flat sections of the pexi. A bubble canopy has very little flat sections. You could "bag" the lens by placing heavy fabric to reduce any reflections. Face it, some aircraft just aren't good photo platforms.

Did I see another Napolean syndrome comment from the sail plane crowd?

 

[Lawreston]

I usually just put the lens up against the glass. But then vibration isn't an issue in my sailplane.
Brian

That's a technique I've previously used, though I'm rarely on an aerial photo platform without an opening window. My favorite lens is my Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 24-70mm f2.8 which allows for shooting "wide" and then profuse cropping with quality results. However, it's a bit lengthy and, with its fitted lens shade(removable) adding additional length it can be a bit of hindrance handling in a confined area. With a 77mm filter size I've yet to $pread for a circular polarizing filter.

HR

 

[kyleb]

I usually just put the lens up against the glass. But then vibration isn't an issue in my sailplane.

Brian

I've seen windows badly scratched by that technique. A buddy did it to my old Tomahawk once upon a time.

 

[Lawreston]

You can't reliably kill all reflection with a p-filter, but it helps...but more important in a bubble-canopy scenario, is to work with the light (and the resulting reflections). Usually there is an angle that will work, unless there is a lot of bright-colored stuff inside the cockpit.

Yup; it's all in the lighting. But when a guest in someone's plane one works with what's at hand. If the Cir. P-filter would work in those occasions it would be better than time-consuming post processing efforts.

HR

 

[brcase]

I've seen windows badly scratched by that technique. A buddy did it to my old Tomahawk once upon a time.

Good point, and I am very careful with my $8000 canopy (that is what the insurance company paid for it for the previous owner) on my $16,000 sailplane. I do try to to shoot through my little 4x6 vent window when I can due to the blue tint of my canopy. It takes a little photoshop correction to take the Blue tint out of the photos, but I do get some good shots that way.

Brian

The attached photo have are the Raw Photos with no color correction.

 

[Lawreston]

I knocked out much of the haze and made the picture more contrasty. It would be a lot more work to normalize those glare spots. A circular polarizer may help.

Before:

After:

Thanks; yeah, I know how much time can be spent "finessing" as an afterthought.

HR

 

[BillTIZ]

Can't help with the reflections, other than to suggest wearing dark clothes and cover the panel during shots.

Too much snow out there, yes I know about the April Fools Day storm, talked to Mom up in Randolph on Sunday. What's the water right in front and the distant mountains with snow?

Mom mentioned the new airport opening at NHZ, what is the ID now?

 

[Lawreston]

If you look to the lower left corner you'll see the Don Davey Memorial Bridge connecting Woolwich to Wiscasset. That would be the Sheepscot River which flows down, eventually, to Georgetown/Five Islands and into the ocean. The mountains in the distance? From our viewing location my gut feeling would be the Camden Hills and Mount Battie. I think the Blue Hills and Acadia/Bar Harbor(Cadillac Mountain) would be too far away for visibility.

Brunswick Executive Airport = KBXM CTAF = 122.725

HR

 

[BillTIZ]

If you look to the lower left corner you'll see the Don Davey Memorial Bridge connecting Woolwich to Wiscasset. That would be the Sheepscot River which flows down, eventually, to Georgetown/Five Islands and into the ocean. The mountains in the distance? From our viewing location my gut feeling would be the Camden Hills and Mount Battie. I think the Blue Hills and Acadia/Bar Harbor(Cadillac Mountain) would be too far away for visibility.

Brunswick Executive Airport = KBXM CTAF = 122.725

HR

Ok, I thought that must be the Sheepscott, but could not figure the hills. Mt Battie makes sense. Yes Cadillac would be too far. Thanks!

 

[Lawreston]

Ok, I thought that must be the Sheepscott, but could not figure the hills. Mt Battie makes sense. Yes Cadillac would be too far. Thanks!

You responded(above) before I could get this posted(below)

 

[BillTIZ]

You responded(above) before I could get this posted(below)

Thanks

 

[EstorilM]

You're having better luck than me. ANY shot in my friend's seneca is worthless, this is with a D300 and Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8. There's so much distortion in the window/windscreen that nothing ever looks in focus (even when it's in optimum focus)

 

[BiffJ]

looks like mason station a little left of center and I'd say the mountain looks like mount battie and the camden hills too....The wifes from waldoboro so we usually are up in the summer to see her kids and her mom. Daughter in Rockland and son in portland....

I think one technique for getting rid of the glare is a soft "ring" around the lens that will both fit up against the window without scratching it and block the light so there isn't any glare. A friend had a box made from soft urethane foam with black felt wrapped around it. The back side of the box had a hole cut just a bit smaller than his smallest lens so it would stay put on the lens. The front was open and the edges fit against the glass (plex) to block the backlight which causes the glare. The black felt helps to keep any reflected light from bouncing back into the plex. Larger lenses will fit because the foam stretches a bit. He took a lot of pictures from a 172 out west and they were very good.

Hope that helps
Frank

 

[Henning]

This image is from DW for Wiscasset, Maine RW #25. U.S. Route #1 in in the lower left corner. I was shooting from an RV-9(A?). Does anyone have experience from such a cockpit platform and can comment on whether a polarizing filter would eradicate all of the reflection from the plexi? I'm used to shooting from my Cessna(pilot's side) and can open the wind screen, thereby eluding the wind screen surface.

HR

No, a polarizing filter wont do anything. A rubber lens hood taped to the plexi has worked for me, but typically I use a plane where I can open the window to take pics.

 

[Lawreston]

No, a polarizing filter wont do anything. A rubber lens hood taped to the plexi has worked for me, but typically I use a plane where I can open the window to take pics.

The factory lens shade for my Carl Zeiss 24-70mm F2.8 is of the "sculpted" type, specifically designed for the lens. The inside of the shade is surfaced with a black fuzzy covering. I, too, am usually shooting from the pilot's opening window on my Skyhawk; but I never pass up an opportunity to be a passenger in any other bird and, in doing so, have to work with the available factors. And the way the wind was howling I wouldn't even allow anybody else to fly my bird.

HR

 

[Lawreston]

looks like mason station a little left of center and I'd say the mountain looks like mount battie and the camden hills too....The wifes from waldoboro so we usually are up in the summer to see her kids and her mom. Daughter in Rockland and son in portland...
Hope that helps
Frank

That is Mason Station. Clarification for non-natives: Mason Station used to be a Central Maine Power Company generating station. In recent years a developer was planning to build a large condominiums project there($400k starters); and Henry R. Hinckley yacht builders would be building/managing a new 250 slip marina. Those (you know) rich people from "away" who would buy the condos would likely fly their planes into Wiscasset Airport where there was a private project afoot to build new LARGE hangars for those upscale planes; hangars with heated floors, offices, etc. Then there was the matter of national economy. Hinckley pulled out of the marina factor, the condos are still a "design;" the hangars aren't started. However, some Connecticut firm has a plan to build a power generating system there, one that would require much construction deep into the river's bed. Notice I said there is a "plan" for which permitting process is lengthy.

Who were/are your wife's "Waldyberry" family? We Cushing natives would probably recognize, at least, the family names.

HR

 

[Frank Browne]

Knocked some of it down for you.

 

[Henning]

The factory lens shade for my Carl Zeiss 24-70mm F2.8 is of the "sculpted" type, specifically designed for the lens. The inside of the shade is surfaced with a black fuzzy covering. I, too, am usually shooting from the pilot's opening window on my Skyhawk; but I never pass up an opportunity to be a passenger in any other bird and, in doing so, have to work with the available factors. And the way the wind was howling I wouldn't even allow anybody else to fly my bird.

HR

Yeah, I know the one you're talking about, the only way to prevent it is to seal the light out between the lens and reflective surface, or wait until/fly so the sun is at a more conducive angle. You can also use a cardboard box with the inside painted black and cut to fit against the plexi...

 

[Lawreston]

Thanks, Frank Browne, and Henning. I think another trick might be to effect some sort of a semi-rigid "sock" to attach to/extend beyond the sculpted lens shade. The key would be to keep it short enough that a wide-angle setting , if used, wouldn't "see"(vignette) the edges of the "sock." Ah! a project.

HR

 

[Henning]

Thanks, Frank Browne, and Henning. I think another trick might be to effect some sort of a semi-rigid "sock" to attach to/extend beyond the sculpted lens shade. The key would be to keep it short enough that a wide-angle setting , if used, wouldn't "see"(vignette) the edges of the "sock." Ah! a project.

HR

Easiest thing to do would be make a cone out of neoprene...

 

[BiffJ]

Who were/are your wife's "Waldyberry" family? We Cushing natives would probably recognize, at least, the family names.

HR

She's one of the Jackson girls....there were 5 of them ( and a few other jackson families in the area). One you might know if you've been around Wiscasset much was Libby (Elizabeth) who ran a small takeout called Libby's Takeaway oddly enough. She ran it in the summer season down in the yellow front parking lot. She did some reporting and photo work for the Wiscasset paper too.....along with working at the school. We lost her a few years back to breast cancer. The one I got was the youngest one of the bunch. She lived on Depot street in Waldoboro for many years.
I've been making trips out there at least once a year since 97 or so....I like it though the missus is happy to be somewhere warmer.
Hope thats enough detail....


Frank

 

[skidoo]

I solved my photo glare problem by opening the window.

 

[Lawreston]

I think I remember her name from the Wiscasset newspaper. Years ago, Phil Divece(if spelled correctly) was the editor and was a regular customer at my camera store. My ancestors, "Mueller"(later changed to "MIller"), were among the founders of the Old German Church in the late 1700s, across the river in Waldoboro(on the Bremen/Round Pond Road).

HR

 

[BiffJ]

Sounds like your family has been there a while....

Frank

 

[Lawreston]

The ancestors on one side came from Germany and settled in Waldoboro in the mid 1700s.
At one time one of the Mueller(Miller) girls married into the Hartford family. Augustas Hartford was the A in the founding of A & P food stores.
The "Old German Church" in Waldoboro is a destination for historians. It's traditional with the raised, boxed pews; only has services during July and August; is surrounded by the "Old German Cemetery" which goes back almost 250 years. No longer active, but actively maintained, the last of our family to be buried there was Police Court Judge Frank Miller(my great great uncle) who died in 1929. I'm not into genealogy but my mother was. I think I know more about my dead relatives than I do the live ones.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~meobbfha/

HR

 

[Lawreston]

When flying my own plane I do the same. However, when a guest in a different a/c I have to work with what features are available.

HR