Frank Airborne

Framed very nicely with a spectacular backdrop! You've done it again, Pix!

Sweet!

Thanks, Claymore & Keyworth. This one just sort of made itself ! I dragged the plane into the background, & that's where it wanted to stay ! All I had to do was rotate it just a little, and I was done.
Glad you liked it !

Fantastic build man!!!

Try and darken the bottom of the picture... because the sun is above the aircraft but the bottom of the aircraft seems lighted... Just suggesting... Maybe you should photograph the aircraft with top lighting and without a flash... Else looks Superb!!! I love the spinning Props!!!
How did you get that??

Cheers,
Nandakumar

Thanks, nandman !
I didn't use a flash (I don't like them). It was lit from above with color-corrective light. The prop is a rather long story. It starts out as a circular gradient, from which I remove the spaces from the blades. I then use a radial blur. When I add it to the plane, it is scaled & skewed to achieve an oblique angle, matching the spread of the erased blades. The areas where the blades were was repainted using the airbrush tool. The airbrush tool was also used to add the yellow tips. Levels, curves, & selective color are used to balance the hue & value. The edges between the blades are then cleaned up, and a gaussian blur is applied to the prop to smoothen it out. The outer spinner is then added. This is a simplified explanation, as writing out all the steps would take longer than making the prop blur !
Thanks again !

Pix,

Wooah! Very dramatic indeed; that sunbeam really sets it off! Great work my friend!

"Contact... contact.... now where did he go?"
Frank

Thanks, Frank, for the compliments on my "Frank !" I think that the Ki 84 looks good from any angle. I just hope that I don't burn out the CCD on my camera taking pictures with the Sun !

Pix

Great job. Thanks for sharing with us. Keep them coming.

very nice!! I always look forward to to your projects!!

Thanks, Sled & 18co ! This one was kinda like "the Rising Sun in the rising Sun !"

That's a great pic, Pix!
The propeller is VERY convincing! As in, absolutely realistic.
I would have to agree with nandman's suggestion about a darker underside. That big beautiful ray of sunlight blasting down on this Hayate would probably make a pretty strong shadow.
But what if it was just taking off from a sandy strip, and this was light reflecting from a white beach?
Ya never know!
Regardless, it's a beautiful picture.
Always love to see your work!

Thanks much, J-Hulk ! I'm trying to something a little different here. Rather than having the pic look like a photo, I'm trying to get the effect of seeing the scene with your eyes, rather than a camera lens. I know that we expect a photo to have that contrast, as the sunlight would require a fast shutter speed and small apeture (large f-stop #). The information in the shadows would be underexposed, and no detail would be seen. Eyesight behaves a little differently. After the plane takes off, the light is diffused, and reflections occur. A shadow is always darkest when it is near another surface.
I'm just trying to make it look less like a photo, and more like an experience. I had tried it with a darker underside, but it looked too much like a photo to me.
I'm glad you liked it, J-Hulk, and your accolades humble me. Thanks again !

Interesting idea! I see what you mean.
That's why they always say take pictures with the sun over your shoulder, right? I guess the eye still works much better than the camera!

Keep 'em comin', Pix!

You got it, J-Hulk ! In order for a camera to avoid overexposing the highlights, the camera's shutter is not open long enough to capture the shadow information. Our eyes don't have this limitation. Next time you go outside on a sunnt day, hold a card near the ground. Look at the shadow on the bottom of the card. Now raise it and see how the shadow changes. The light scatters & reflects.

we learn biology and anatomy hear too! "modeling never taught anyone anything" INDEED!!! good one pix!

Thanks, 13b20. Before I switched over to becoming a media arts major, I was a Student RN. 2 semesters of Anatomy & Physiology have a way of being permanently lodged in my brain ! (If anyone else has gone through this, you probably know what I mean !)