Sunset from the window seat of an airplane

These images are from my recent flight out of Reagan National Airport at sunset. These provide a good example of the limitations of shooting with a camera phone instead of traditional camera. In the first image, the center weighted meter point was on the wing so that I could capture some detail of the plane. Clearly the sky is over exposed and the highlights are blown out.

looking at the wing and engine of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 with a dramatic sky in the background
This image was exposed for the wing and resulted in a loss of detail in the sky. Larry Shapiro photo

For this next image I raised the camera (phone) to allow the sensor to read the bright areas of the sunset but the foreground went to a virtual silhouette (and the plane was in the same relative position and angle).

looking at the wing and engine of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 with a dramatic sky in the background
Lifting the phone slightly produced an image with considerably more detail and color in the sky. Larry Shapiro photo

I took both images into Adobe Photoshop to merge them together to create a composite with the detail of the sky and enough of the foreground to recognize what it is.

looking at the wing and engine of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 with a dramatic sky in the background
A composite of two images shot with a camera phone to create a dramatic image with selections fro both original images. Larry Shapiro photo

There is just enough of the foreground to clearly identify the wing, engine, and the experienced traveler will know the airline as well.