Hi Guys
This is my very first post on the forum but I have spent a lot of time here and just love the amount of information available and the help you give one another. I am hoping someone can give me a hand or some inspiration with a specific type of image.
I run a (very) part time business doing low level aerial photography from various platforms, (primarliy radio controlled helicopters). I have done several really great jobs on oil and gas as well as mining sites which are amazing to be a part of. However, the problem is that, particularly when it comes to open cast mining photography, the background landscape as well as most of the image can be very mono tonal, (reds mostly when it comes to iron ore). My photos never seem to "pop" and appear very bland to me. The clients love them as they provide an aspect that they cannot normally obtain (as full size aircraft are not allowed anywhere close to the site) but I need a way to liven the photos up. My interest and background is in RC helicopters and as such my post processing skills in PS are nowhere near where they need to be, (I am working at it :-) ). I am using CS5 and have the Topaz labs plugins (v5).
I have attached a few examples of what I am talking about - as you can see they are fairly flat. Unfortunately due to the mobile nature of the platform I am quite limited in what I can do camera side, (has to be at high shutter speeds to reduce blurring). Also there is normally a fair amount of dust on site so I need a way of working with that if possible. The purpose of the first two are to promote the visible equipment and the third is to provide a current "as built" image for site induction and project planning purposes.
Any help or ideas as to what you guys would do to images like this in order to give them that "wow" factor would be so, so appreciated. I can send over full res images if anyone is willing to play around with them. Otherwise a few pointers as to what you would do would be amazing.
Thanks a heap guys.
All the best
Jason