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Old 10-28-2010, 03:39 AM #5
Otto the Otter
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The FANG picture I took recently is an example of a single hanger and a lot of pains taking preparation. It took me about a half an hour to get the stupid thing to stay stable enough for me to photograph. Notice in the picture there is a large chunk of wood at the bottom of the hanger. That was there to stabilize the helo. I drove the hanger into the ground about eight inches and because the hanger was so top heavy, it kept falling over, so I put the wood next to the hanger in the direction the thing would fall and that seemed to work, but, it meant more editing for me to do.


Can you see on the FANG that there is something white between the black fuselage and the red missiles? This is the hanger. Some aircraft have holes in their fuselage where you can stick the wire hanger for stability. The FANG has no such holes, so I had to wrap the hanger around the top of the landing skids then bend it down towards the ground. This still wasn't enough to get the thing to sit atop the hanger easily. I then had to find the FANG's center of gravity and run the hanger down from there. As the hanger is in the ground, you'll see the FANG lean one way or another and you can bend the hanger around the compensate a little, but you'll just have to play around with it before you can get it to work just right. I didn't want to use the two "U" shaped hangers on this one because I wanted the helo to have a bit more altitude then the two hanger system would have really allowed for.

These Firebats were really easy. I just shoved the hanger up their tail pipes and let them bend forward. I put the hanger in the ground next to a large rock that was in the direction the hangers were leaning and it kept the two planes off the ground enough that they looked like they were flying really low; the effect I was going for.

Briefly: Notice the shadow on the rock below the FANG. To me, this sells the shot. This makes it believable that that FANG is really in the air. If the FANG had been super-imposed over the background of the rock and the ground, trying to match the shadow is one of the most difficult things to do. There are times I've seen the shadow left out when it should have been there and for me that takes away from what can be an otherwise great picture. Taking pictures from the ground up, as if you were someone on the ground taking a picture of the FANG flying over head is another great way to sell the shot.
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