I was taking a few pictures of my Nieuport the other day and I'll have to take more, as I'm not super pleased with them.

The idea was to drive it out onto the grass and take pictures of it with the treeline on the other side of the runways as a back drop.

Unfortunately, the sun was hitting the plane on the wrong side for that (it was a little after dawn), so I just took them from the other side.

So I got this:



and



Maybe it's the flat lighting, but they look more like screenshots from Rise of Flight than an actual aircraft. Indeed, I joked that by desaturating it to black and white it looks like a screenshot someone is trying to make look real:

The angle of the sun makes the shadow look weird with the shadow of the upper wing behind the shadow of the tail

They are still nice pictures

If it was in a game folks would report it as a graphical bug.

I know there are a few people here who can take a new shot and give it mad B&W skills even with cracks on the print. way above my PS knowledge...

Lol at first glance I thought that it WAS a RoF screenshot.


Wheels

Here is just how I would see it as "historic" photograph, no big editing

Its personal choice, but a lot of old pictures were over exposed, so you'll need to crank up the contrast and brightness a bit like this



You get the idea....


Keets.

Hi Dart,
here's my edit of one of your photos to give a "retro" look.

Is this what you had in mind?

LOL, that doesn't even look like the same aircraft - your version is much more sexy.

Actually, my point was that under flat lighting my photographs of my actual aircraft in real life looked like a screenshot - and of one of a sim with passable graphics.

Still very nice shots, Dart.

I think the best photography (and probably not coincidentally the best screen shots) are during the "Golden Hour" before sunset. The long light, the shadows, and the hue of the light seem to be like night and day, no pun intended.

In a perfect world, you'd be able to throw something cool for perspective, like a windsock, airport beacon...or you in your Escadrille uniform!

i appreciate for your work Dart in now days editing is used by everyone there is no original here in these days.

If you want to make those shots look more like a WW1 shot, you need to add some lens blur and film grain as well as perhaps increase the exposure and blow out some of the highlights. Add in a little dust and hair from sloppy developing and printing and it will be indistinguishable from a real negative taken in the 1910's

Okay, here's your editing challenge:



And yes, it is life imitating art.

Quick Photoshop fun:

Keep coming back to my first attempt, and it's just too clean. This old glass plate has suffered a bit more:



RedToo.

Didn't the original IL2 109 shadows look like the first pic?

Yep, and everyone said they were unrealistic and killed immersion.

I didn't even notice the shadows in the first pictures. I was too busy ogling the plane.


Wheels

Some "photoshop fun" with your Nieuport.

Good job JulioJunqueira

Here's my contribution to the party