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Decided to Do a simple tutorial to help photographers touch up their shots to give them a good chance to get onto such sites as www.jetphotos.net etc etc.
I will be using Photoshop to edit the photo. and the pictures were captured on a Canon 400D with a Canon 75-300mm USM III lens. At an ISO of 100 and 1/400s.
This is the original photo.
Problems with it are as follows;
To Dark
Soft
Unsharpened
Not level
Bad Crop
Dust Spots
Ok. Those are the problems. And the main rejection reasons from most sites.
Now, we are going to sort these out, and give the photo the best chance at getting accepted
Firstly, we shall start by checking for dust spots.
1. We need to Duplicate the Layer. and in the layer box (F7). select the duplicated layer. Now highlight Image, then scroll down to Adjustments, then equalize.
If you notice, we have a dust spot to the left of the aircraft, about 2/3rds up the page. we need to get rid of this, so to do this Open the Layer's box. and select the original Layer. Next, Select the healing brush, right click next to the dust spot and then brush all over the dust spot with the healing brush. Once you have done that, delete the Equalized layer (layer Copy) and the dust spot should be gone. Repeat this with other dust spots or if it didn't work the first time.
Next, we are going to level the photograph. (only do this if there is land in your picture)
Select the measuring tool and follow along the straightest object you can see. I am going to use the runway for this. once you have done that. Select Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary And press ok. The photo should now be level with the image being rotated and parts of the canvas showing.
Should now look something like this...
Now. We move onto cropping the aircraft. Select the crop tool. and drag the box over the aircraft. Try not to make it too narrow or to tall. and try to keep the center crosshair in the middle of the aircraft. That way, the aircraft will be centered in the picture.
Should look something like this...
Now we need to Edit the Levels and lighten/darken the photo.
Go To Image > Adjustments > Levels. There isn't much to this, just practice. Basically follow the graph. and try and move it to where it starts to clump. Don't over or underexpose the picture. Stop when you think it's at it's best and is the most appealing
Hopefully, you should end up with it becoming alot better to look at
Next, we are to move onto Contrast.
Image > Adjustments > Brightness Contrast. Try to just increase the Contrast in little amounts, maybe rectifying with increasing the Brightness. This is to just give the photo abit of depth, and to bring out the brightness and darken the darkness abit. Try not to go above 10 on either adjustment, as it will be to strong and will change the photo completely.
Next, we are to add saturation to the photo. This is to make it that little bit more appealing and also brings out the colours. Select Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. I tend to increase the saturation by about 5-10 when I do. try not to go past 10 as it makes the photo look too cartoony
and also adds noise to it. Also, if you have taken the photo through glass or has a weird colour to it. Try faffing around with the hue to try and get a natural colour. Should look something like this...
Right, next step. Is to resize the photo. Selct Image > Image Size and choose the size. a good recommendation is something around 950 - 1300 for the width. I tend to use 1024. Then hit ok. You will notice that once you zoom in. The photo will be a lot sharper.
Should look like this...
And last, but definitely not least. Sharpening. Select Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. And set the radius to 0.3 and the threshold to 1. And then move the "Amount" slider around. untill the photo is as crisp as i can be, without being over-sharpened (i.e. Bright white lines around objects). I will use about 152% for mine.
And hopefully you should end up with something like this...
And the finished Result...
And there you go! This tutorial should have helped you to get the best out of your aviation photography and hopefully, enable you to get the photos onto such sites as Jetphotos.net etc etc
Hope this helps you!
Any Questions, please don't hesitate to ask! Anything you wish to add. Please add it at the bottom! Thanks!
But good tut mate 
