I took this photo at Bournemouth airport yesterday, could you give your comments please - do you think it is okay for Airliners.net? Is it too grainy? I just don't want to annoy the screeners by uploading a bad photo! Thanks for any comments :)The photo is at http://galileo.spaceports.com/~andy29/pic1.jpgBTW it is quite large so it might take a while to download on a slow connection.

It is NOT a bad photo, just very typical. Nice to use for designing paint schemes or whatever. My main trouble with it is the time of day it was taken. Because of the shadow it is obvious it was taken at or near high noon. The best time for photos (of almost any subject) is morning or evening because of the more difused light. Contrast is nicer when the sun is at a lower angle. You can see the effect of the bright sunshine in the white areas of the plane. This low saturation of colors is caused by the bright sunshine, thereby reducing contrast. Possibly using a smaller aperture by two or three stops would have yielded a better result, but only practice can remedy many of these things. I have seen worse on the Airliners.net site (don't get me wrong, your shot is NOT bad!!) but I am sure if you work on it, you can do a lot better. Go back out there at a more "photogenic" time of day and shoot some shots. Also, try to modify your angle of shooting. It looks like you were just standing nearby and did a shot. Do you have wide angle lenses. If so, try something in the 18 -20 mm range and get up really close. Another option is using a long telephoto and including several airplanes in the field of vision looking closer than they are - called foreshortening. Think about what pleases you about the kind of shots you see and try to duplicate them.

Thanks! I was expecting to be told how bad it is :)The camera is a 2 megapixel digital, so it's not great, but I can fiddle with the exposure and white balance - next time I'll try it. Unfortunately I can't really go there whenever I want, it's just when I get a chance.I'll try uploading the photo and see what the screeners say.

It's a good idea to upload - it is, after all a good picture. It can be better and I'm sure as you keep with it your work will get better. Just keep in mind the times of day and when you have the opportunity use the time to your advantage. Also, you might want to get Paint Shop Pro. It is not too expensive and allows users to modify photos a great deal. Keep it up!

I know, I already have version 7 :)It does help to get the best from the picture.