“Get it right in camera” is well-meaning advice, but it often lands badly in aviation photography. It can make editing feel like cheating, or like a sign the shoot didn’t go well.
The reality is much simpler.
Aviation scenes regularly exceed what a camera can capture perfectly in a single frame. The ...

Welcome to Tutorial Tuesday, by COAP Online

Aviation photography attracts practical people. Many of us like aircraft because they’re engineered, predictable, and precise. We like to see all the aircraft, the serial number, the markings, the shape. So it makes sense that “creativity” can feel like a...

Welcome to Tutorial Tuesday, by COAP Online

Aviation photography at night is one of the most rewarding specialist corners of our hobby, but it does have the tendency to punish any ‘wing it’ mindset. The best results at night aren’t usually the result of flukey settings, but rather they will stem fr...

Welcome to Tutorial Tuesday, by COAP Online

Aviation photos can look flat even when everything is ‘right’. The aircraft is sharp, the exposure is good, and the edit is solid, but the image still feels a bit one-dimensional, almost like a cut-out on a background.

One of the most reliable fixes here...

Welcome to Tutorial Tuesday, by COAP Online

Sharpening is one of the quickest ways to make an aviation image look the business, or to accidentally make it an eyesore.

The reason is simple - aviation photos often include large smooth areas (sky, white civvy fuselage, slabs of grey mil fuselage, pai...

By Keiran Wilkinson with contributions from Bryan Mangan

One of the highlights of our COAP Online community calendar is the High Roller, our monthly competition where members share their best images based on a specific, challenging theme. These usually occur within our member community, but we beli...

By Wayne Kenward

Topaz has been using Ai for a while now and Adobe is now using Ai including Denoise in Lightroom Classic and Ai Generative Fill in Photoshop. Ai is now mainstream and here to stay.

You may have seen your old Windows and Mac OS systems struggling a little when you run things like D...

Welcome to Tutorial Tuesday, by COAP Online

Your shutter speed is one of the most effective ways to change the feel of an aviation photo. It does more than control camerashake and sharpness… You could even say it also has the power over action and realism.

Why jets and props need different shutter...

Welcome to Tutorial Tuesday, by COAP Online

After a full-on day at an airshow or on a busy airfield, the hardest part is often yet to come. You’ve got to get through the volume of images, finding the time, patience and discipline to do so.

The good news is that - whilst it might feel like it at th...

Welcome to Tutorial Tuesday, by COAP Online


“Contrast without crunch” is a useful editing phrase to have in the back of your mind when you’re editing your aviation images. It’s the difference between an image that feels striking and professional, and one that feels harsh, gritty, or over-processed...

Welcome to Tutorial Tuesday, by COAP Online

The rule of space is one of the fastest ways to improve aviation photography composition, especially if images often feel ‘cramped’ even when the aircraft is sharp and you’ve nailed the action itself.

At its core, the rule of space means giving your subj...

Welcome to Tutorial Tuesday, by COAP Online

Dull skies are one of the most common frustrations in aviation photography editing. A great aviation moment can look flat simply because the sky behind it has no separation, no tone, and no shape.

The mistake is trying to fix that with one aggressive mov...