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...

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...

Welcome to Tutorial Tuesday, by COAP Online

Manual mode gets misunderstood as a “hard mode”. In aviation photography, it’s often the opposite. It’s the simplest way to make your exposure predictable and your creative choices repeatable.

The real problem: the background won’t sit still

At an airsh...

Welcome to Tutorial Tuesday, by COAP Online

If Lightroom ever feels like a maze of sliders, it’s usually because the edit started without a goal.

In aviation photography, “pretty good” edits often fall apart in one specific way: the aircraft looks like it belongs to one style, but the background a...