Every so often I feel like aviation photography can get a little repetitive, something that alleviates this for me personally is shooting at night. Yes it can sometimes be far more challenging but the rewards can be oh so much greater. I did my first ever shoot many moons ago at Newark Air Museum and since then I’m always on the lookout for night shoots. I’ve been lucky enough to shoot at RAF Coningsby, Wattisham, RNAS Yeovilton and more, but there are those that truly stand out for me as being epic locations.

I find that, particularly on organised shoots where the lighting is controlled, that it adds a strong three dimensional asset to the photograph that elevates it from a regular photograph. In studio photography we use light to shape and mould our subjects, to lift it from the page, this is the element that separates our work from the masses. The true mark of a good photographer is their use of light.
Honestly what better subject is there than aircraft to test ones skills, obviously!

Sometimes when I’m shooting I like to imagine that they might be used in print/publishing and so I add an editorial eye to the composition and shift it to suit a body of text. It simply can be useful sometimes to think outside the box to expand creativity and develop working practices. I have had plenty of work published with a mix of subject matters but I have never had a hand in the design build up, that is something that the publications do themselves, yet it is usful to consider when shooting.
I’d like to take a little moment to talk about the creative process. Now I’d never tell people what they should and shouldn’t do in photography, I can teach the functionality and the rules but creatively it most certainly should be down to the individual and what they see. That’s the beauty of photography, everyone views the world with different eyes. And you know the thing with rules is, you are supposed to break them, otherwise you’ll never reach your peak creative potential.

I'd like to now run through a very brief and rough way I treat my photographs when doing a shoot at night. This is by no means the absolute way to do it but it works for me.
Step 1. Straighten the horizon line.
Step 2. Crop to simplify the composition
Step 3. Apply a linear gradient
Step 4. Create a subject mask and make relevant adjustments
Step 5. Apply noise reduction
Step 6. Remove distractions
You will then have a photograph that is elevated from the original and something I little more visually pleasing. Now obviously I have been very brief there but let me know if you you'd like to see something dedicated to the editing process and i'll have to put a special peice together for it.
Sometimes you will not have to do too much and sometimes the edit never ends but if the end result pleases you then you’ve achieved something great.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make in photography is pitching yourself against other photographers, it can very easily bring you down and that's not what we want. Every time you shoot you should be trying to improve against yourself and no one else, that way you'll see some real ground being made and reach that sense of achievment.
Once you get into the flow of what works and what doesn't it can get exciting to get a bit more experimental and to push some boundaries. When i'm working at night I tend not to mess about taking lots of different length exposures, I get what I am after and I get out. Variety is the spice of life so the aim of the game is to get as much varied content as possible and to keep the material as interesting as possible.





And sometimes its fun to go through your old work with fresh skills and software, i'll leave that with you!
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