A Night at the Fort Worth Aviation Museum

Disclosure: We are a professional review site that receives compensation from the companies whose products we review. We test each product thoroughly and give high marks to only the very best. We are independently owned and the opinions expressed here are our own..

About 2 weeks ago a photographer that volunteers over at the Fort Worth Aviation Museum organized a benefit night shoot with proceeds going to the museum. We were given access to all the planes on display and the planes in the restoration areas as long we cleaned up and put things away when finished. This particular shoot was difficult with the wind and the Saharan Dust Storm blowing through the area. Below are some pictures taken during the shoot.

A Night at the Fort Worth Aviation Museum

The first thing I shot was a late afternoon shot of an F-16 fighter under renovation. This plane is a new acquisition and is a prototype with serial number is #2.

For this shoot, I  concentrated on the old the trainer prop plane that was surrounded by large orange barricades that during the early shoot they were there and then were told we could move the barricades if we put it back at the end of the night. After the barricades were removed I took shots as the sun went down and then well after dark.

The next shot is of the controls of a recently restored military airport fire truck. I used a LED Panel and lit up the inside of the truck from different angles including through the windows.

The final shot is a revisit of the CH-53 Sea Stallion Military Transport Helicopter. Unfortunately, the wind picked up so the blades and the tree in the background are slightly out of focus.

About the Images

The images were shot starting in the late afternoon through until around 10pm. The winds were blowing dust around creating weird effects with the camera. For some issues I was able to fix in post but others I was not able to. I used Sony a6000 using my Sony SELP18105G E PZ 18-105mm F4 G OSS with my new K&F Concept SA254T1 Camera Tripod and AODELAN Camera Timer Wireless Shutter Release Remote Control. To light up the planes is used a an RGB Video Light, 360 ° Full Color LED Camera Light – (older version and no long available). The images were then edited with Adobe Lightroom CC and Topaz Labs A.I. Clear  and DXO NIK Collection to clean up the images, remove noise, and recover the lost details.