B-17's know the way home...

entropic remnants

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John Griggs
Christilou's post made me think of posting these.

In August there was an air show at the Aviation Museum of Kentucky in Lexington. Iffy weather grounded the WW-II planes that were supposed to fly, but I managed to get onboard them unescorted and without a bunch of people around and got some shots. There was a B-24 Liberator and B-17 Flying Fortress.

Here's the "title shot" this post was named for:

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AE2014: B-17's Know the Way Home by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

Here's some more of the B-17.

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AE2014: The Nose Gunner's World by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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AE2014: B-17 Flying Fortress by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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AE2014: Deadly Beauty by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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AE2014: B-17 Flying Fortress Power by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

There were just two of us there when we went onboard. The other guy was named Gary and his dad had been a bombardier on a B-24 who was shot down over Belgium and spent time in the Belgian "underground" before being extracted. Gary had never manged to get onboard one, but here he is in the bomb bay -- a very happy camper.

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AE2014: Gary -- Son of a B-24 Bombardier by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

And some more from the B-24:

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AE2014: B-24 - The Swiss Army Knife of Bombers by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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AE2014: B-24 Liberator Flight Deck by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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AE2014: Waist Gunner's Burden by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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AE2014: Don't Tailgate a B-24 Liberator by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

And here's an actor posing with a real P-51D.

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AE2014: Young Heroes Won the War by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr
 
You got some great shots, really interesting to see inside:). I saw an owner clambering inside one of the old planes and marvelled at how tight the fit was and just how claustrophobic it must have been .
 
Nice images...love the processing.

THANKS!

You got some great shots, really interesting to see inside:). I saw an owner clambering inside one of the old planes and marvelled at how tight the fit was and just how claustrophobic it must have been .

Thanks! Yes, I was forcibly reminded of how thin all those flyboys looked back then -- and they needed to be. I was bigger than Gary and I had a hard time getting through the vertical stanchions in the bomb bay area. The B-24 not so bad but the B-17 is NARROW, lol.

One leaves very impressed at the folks who took these machines into aerial battles. Just amazing.

Wing attack plan R? :p

You will not dilute our Purity of Essence!!!

I agree with Davoe - an excellent set, and the processing suits the content very well.

Is the processing a pre-set from a particular software suite, or is it 'home-grown'...?

It's not a single preset, but I did use both DXO Filmpack 3 and/or Nik Color Efex Pro on most of them -- particularly the B/W of the B-17 on the tarmac which is a Kodak Tri-X Pan simulation. I think I also used a favorite preset of mine (when the effect is turned down) that is in Nik Color Efex Pro and that's the "Bleach Bypass" setting with the saturation turned up, and the local contrast turned down some to make the effect more subtle.

For many of these it's like this:

  • Flatten out the contast so that there are virtually no lost highlights or shadows in Lightroom (or whatever you use). You may be doing this with the "Shadow" and "Hightlight" sliders not the contrast control. Shot looks very flat. Do any color correction, CA removal, etc. DON'T sharpen much if at all -- just a little pre-sharpening and some detail extraction.
  • Run through Nik Color Efex Pro "Bleach Bypass" but with saturation a bit up (still down from the original), and local contrast a bit down. You want the effect, but not too extreme. Contrast will increase so watch out you don't lose anything you want to keep at the shadows and highlights. If you over sharpen, you can end up with a very high level of artifacts from this plug-in so be careful.
  • You now have a still low-contrast, lightly saturated image. Take that image and punch it as desired to using slide film sims (like DXO's various slide films) or with manual edits.
That's some of the process -- but it's by "gut" that I do the tuning so I can't offer an actual recipe as such. Every image is different and your goal is likely different than mine as well.
 
It's not a single preset, but I did use both DXO Filmpack 3 and/or Nik Color Efex Pro on most of them -- particularly the B/W of the B-17 on the tarmac which is a Kodak Tri-X Pan simulation. I think I also used a favorite preset of mine (when the effect is turned down) that is in Nik Color Efex Pro and that's the "Bleach Bypass" setting with the saturation turned up, and the local contrast turned down some to make the effect more subtle.

For many of these it's like this:

  • Flatten out the contast so that there are virtually no lost highlights or shadows in Lightroom (or whatever you use). You may be doing this with the "Shadow" and "Hightlight" sliders not the contrast control. Shot looks very flat. Do any color correction, CA removal, etc. DON'T sharpen much if at all -- just a little pre-sharpening and some detail extraction.
  • Run through Nik Color Efex Pro "Bleach Bypass" but with saturation a bit up (still down from the original), and local contrast a bit down. You want the effect, but not too extreme. Contrast will increase so watch out you don't lose anything you want to keep at the shadows and highlights. If you over sharpen, you can end up with a very high level of artifacts from this plug-in so be careful.
  • You now have a still low-contrast, lightly saturated image. Take that image and punch it as desired to using slide film sims (like DXO's various slide films) or with manual edits.
That's some of the process -- but it's by "gut" that I do the tuning so I can't offer an actual recipe as such. Every image is different and your goal is likely different than mine as well.

Thanks - very interesting.
I know exactly what you mean about "tuning". Even when one arrives at a 'recipe' with which one is satisfied on an image, it rarely (if ever) works as well on the next image.:(:confused: It usually requires a little - or indeed, a lot - of tweaking, and therefore isn't really the same recipe.:)
 
I love WWII aircraft. I've actually flown in a B-17. These photos have the look of those color images one used to see in National Geographic magazine in the 1940s - albeit somewhat sharper. Good stuff, John.

Thanks, Steve! I wasn't sure where the look I went for came from exactly, but that's pretty much in line with what was in my head. Look/Life magazines and so forth as well with that old printing look.
 
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