Scale Aviator International Magazine Issue 3 | Page 76
foundation for the rest of the plan, since failure to
take careful notations here will lead to disaster
and lousy results later.
ground, and use small stones or pieces of tape or
whatever is available to mark out where your plane
is, so you don’t end up standing in the middle of
your plane’s fuselage or engine, or wing, etc.
I shall use my photos as examples here, and
It helps to set your tripod up and put your
hopefully you can get a good grasp on the intentions camera on it, and compose the photo looking thru
and necessary elements for your own plans later. the camera’s view. While looking thru this view,
In this first photo, I first found a suitable looking try to imagine exactly where your plane will be in
hangar for the set, and then ‘imagined’ where a the shot, and then put some small markers on the
full-sized biplane would be in relation to it if the ground. Now come back, look again, and picture
plane were parked out in front. This requires that yourself standing by your aircraft. Place a small
you know the basic dimensions of your aircraft. mark on the ground so you know where to stand
In my case, a Sopwith-Camel has a wingspan of when actually taking this background photo.
roughly 31-feet, and is 20-feet front-to-back. This
is important if you plan to pose in your photo, and Note: from this point onward, I will use the
seriously, why wouldn’t you want to? This is your abbreviation ‘BG’ to indicate the background
craftsmanship on display here, and you actually photo, OK?
being in the photo lends credibility to the whole
thing. It is an important element in convincing the
The big moment has now finally arrived!
viewer that they are seeing you standing by a Set your camera’s self-timer, or have a pal man
full-sized aircraft. So, picture your plane on the the camera, and go out and pose where you made
Figure 4. Picture your plane on the ground, and use small stones or pieces of
tape or whatever is available to mark out where your plane is, so you don’t end up
standing in the middle of your plane’s fuselage or engine, or wing, etc.
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