Originally Posted by
cyflyer
Having done similar photos, I can tell you that cockpit photos are very difficult. The reason being, and why the photographer in this case does HDR, is the great difference of the lighting, hence exposure, between the shadowed area of the cockpit interior, and the outside. You cannot capture it with one single exposure. You will either expose for the outside, whence you will get a lovely outside sky and a totally black cockpit, or you expose for the interior whence you will get a nicely exposed instrument panel but a totally whitewashed sky outside. A skilled photographer, as in this case, takes a number of exposures and combines them to form the HDR (high dynamic range) photo that captures both the light and dark areas of the scene. Alternatively, you can expose for the outside and throw some flash which illuminates the interior. HDR is really any good with static subjects and the camera on a tripod, as between the first and last expose in the series, if the exterior is moving there will be blur when they are combined together, so kudos to the emirates (A330 !) pilot for the effort. Of course all this explanantion is superfluous to us mortals, as only pilots have the opportunity to take such photos any more ! I did those when I had friends up front, long ago......
Thanks for the explanation, I appreciate the exposure bracketing requirement, some things look good in HDR some do not, whilst the pics are very good I (personally) feel the processing is a little too much for my tastes, each to his own of course.
If it's a 330 (which it isn't) the flt deck layout is different to all the ones I've ever worked on, the fire handles and window openings were a giveaway for me.