constructive criticism please

[ghostwave525]

hi guys im posting some off my pictures on flickr and if you have a look can you tell me what needs improving i had bad setting for 3 weeks so all off these pictures won't be the sharpest but anything else tell me what i did wrong

here's the link https://www.flickr.com/photos/182428974@N06/?

thank you

[dollar99]

Well they look OK to me

You can worry too much about the "perfect" photo but the first question you should ask yourself is "Do I like them?". If the answer is yes then it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks. But if the answer is no you need to compare them to photos you really like and see what differences you can spot. Usually it's something like brightness and contrast and sharpness, which you have already marked as an issue. Other than that keep practising technique and when you edit experiment. just make sure you don't overwrite the original so you can go back and try again

[Pat Murphy]

The first thing I would say is maybe don't crop the shots so tight. If it's just a record shot of a particular aircraft, then that's fine but if you want to be creative then sometimes some context of movement and space is good. Settings look a little out. Iso200 on a sunny day? You should be able to shoot 100 for better detail and maybe stop the f number down to 8 for more in focus depth of field. If the light is changeable then I use Auto ISO and set aperture to f8 and keep an eye on my shutter speed to avoid any camera shake issues. Your 70-300 is a great piece of glass (used to have one) and if you make sure the 7d has the latest firmware update, then it's a fine combo.
HTH
Pat

[ghostwave525]

The first thing I would say is maybe don't crop the shots so tight. If it's just a record shot of a particular aircraft, then that's fine but if you want to be creative then sometimes some context of movement and space is good. Settings look a little out. Iso200 on a sunny day? You should be able to shoot 100 for better detail and maybe stop the f number down to 8 for more in focus depth of field. If the light is changeable then I use Auto ISO and set aperture to f8 and keep an eye on my shutter speed to avoid any camera shake issues. Your 70-300 is a great piece of glass (used to have one) and if you make sure the 7d has the latest firmware update, then it's a fine combo.
HTH
Pat

thank you very much for the criticism.the iso i have on auto but i will for sure do that and the f8 i will do that for sure. i posted this on another website and the guy told me the exact same thing about the f8

and about the cropping thing i kinda like them being cropped in quite tight but ill look into that some more

thank you

[TREBAX_RAVEN]

The first thing I would say is maybe don't crop the shots so tight. If it's just a record shot of a particular aircraft, then that's fine but if you want to be creative then sometimes some context of movement and space is good. Settings look a little out. Iso200 on a sunny day? You should be able to shoot 100 for better detail and maybe stop the f number down to 8 for more in focus depth of field. If the light is changeable then I use Auto ISO and set aperture to f8 and keep an eye on my shutter speed to avoid any camera shake issues. Your 70-300 is a great piece of glass (used to have one) and if you make sure the 7d has the latest firmware update, then it's a fine combo.
HTH
Pat

thank you very much for the criticism.the iso i have on auto but i will for sure do that and the f8 i will do that for sure. i posted this on another website and the guy told me the exact same thing about the f8

and about the cropping thing i kinda like them being cropped in quite tight but ill look into that some more

thank you

In my opinion cropping is completely down to personal preference, i prefer the tighter crops to.

[awacsfan]

Your pictures look good to me.
Back in the days of me being more active, I set my camera on manual... ISO 100 or 200, f8 and a shutter speed which varied anywhere from 1/120 for helicopters (or even less) to 1/1000 for low and fast jets. of course all depending on the light situation. and then of course the AF field settings...
My advice... Go out and practise, shoot a lot with various settings and compare them afterwards and over time you'll come up with settings which will suit you best.

[ghostwave525]

Your pictures look good to me.
Back in the days of me being more active, I set my camera on manual... ISO 100 or 200, f8 and a shutter speed which varied anywhere from 1/120 for helicopters (or even less) to 1/1000 for low and fast jets. of course all depending on the light situation. and then of course the AF field settings...
My advice... Go out and practise, shoot a lot with various settings and compare them afterwards and over time you'll come up with settings which will suit you best.

thank you for the advice only thing is manual doesn't af correctly those pictures which i showed are on manual and the reason i said there not the sharpest is cause it won't focus correctly i did my best to sharpen them in photoshop i know it was my mistake thinking that manual was going to auto focus but i learn't from my mistake so iv'e got a question do you manually focus for your plane pictures cause i find that almost impossible considering there going like 100 mph on takeoff?

[Wallace]

The advice about f/8 is sound, f/5.6 on a long lens has too short a depth of field plus most lenses are not that good toward fully open or closed.

I would endorse the comments about cropping too closely. It depends on what you want to do with your photos, but cropping wider gives the aircraft more room "to breathe," and gives a better sense of direction and where the photo was taken - content in context.

The old saying that your first 10,000 photos are your worst is still true, practice brings on experience and that brings on better pictures.

[ghostwave525]

The advice about f/8 is sound, f/5.6 on a long lens has too short a depth of field plus most lenses are not that good toward fully open or closed.

I would endorse the comments about cropping too closely. It depends on what you want to do with your photos, but cropping wider gives the aircraft more room "to breathe," and gives a better sense of direction and where the photo was taken - content in context.

The old saying that your first 10,000 photos are your worst is still true, practice brings on experience and that brings on better pictures.

thanks for all the feedback to everybody i'm going to stansted on saturday so ill test all off these settings and see what i like the most thanks guys