Help with corrections please

I started photography about a year ago, but only with mainly static aircraft and those that are rare or if I was at an event, fly in, airshow etc. I have tried to upload photos of the 6 warbirds stored in Birlingham, Worcs but the first rejection was because "Incorrect exposure - too light. Main object is not sharp." At the time I took the photo, I wasn't aware that it would come out this light - is it the light background interfering? As a novice to photography, I hadn't noticed this until it was pointed out to me. So I tried to edit it using WebResizer online (I don't have Photoshop) by sharpening the image and making the exposure darker, but the image was then rejected because the "object is not sharp".

Here are the two rejections:

http://www.airplane-pictures.net/images/rejected-images/2012-3/198274.jpg

http://www.airplane-pictures.net/images/rejected-images/2012-3/198329.jpg

As you can see, I've missed the tip of the nose off the Hunter, so there's no point in trying to upload it again but it's good practice in editing the photo for the right exposure and sharpness for example.

I then edited the next 2 photos so they wouldn't be too light, but they then got rejected as they were too light in places, soft, over exposed and over sharpened! It would seem I've done too much editing with them - so how do I stop part of the aircraft being too light and too soft, and how do I know how much to sharpen the image, and when it has been over sharpened? It was a normal digital camera, as opposed to the DSLR I use now.

http://www.airplane-pictures.net/images/rejected-images/2012-3/198340.jpg

http://www.airplane-pictures.net/images/rejected-images/2012-3/198334.jpg

I have another image in the queue currently (attached - it was uploaded before I saw my rejections), but I assume this will be rejected too due to the same reasons. I can see the top right of the photo is very bright and softened, especially the tops of the trees - how do I fix this? The Vampire itself looks ok to me picture-wise - its condition is very poor sadly.

Thank you very much for your help

Chris

Attached photos:

Chris, what you have to understand is the dynamic range of light in the photographs, that is the very bright sky compared to the gloomy foreground. Exposure is is a trade-off between the sky and having the foreground dark (or under exposed) or exposing for the subject in the foreground and clipping or over exposing the sky.

To look at the vampire photo, the foreground is exposed more or less OK but the sky is clipped, there is no detail to be seen, it's just a white mass. If you look at the branches in the middle to the right hand side you will see a misty effect, the over exposure is beginning to effect the image quality here.

The Raspberry Ripple JP photo concerns me a little, the colour balance is not right, there seems to be a blue haze and there is something not quite right about the tail, it may be slightly blurred. The sky is over exposed, you can tell because of the lack of cloud detail and the very pale blue sky.

I am strapped for time so I'll have to cut this short.

Wallace

OK thanks Wallace. Is there something I can do with the photo to lessen the brightness of the sky and remove this misty effect? Otherwise these photos will have to remain in my personal collection only and I'll have to think more about where I take my photos and how the sky will affect the shot.

I think on the day it was 8/8ths white cloud cover, which is why I'm having the problem with the dark ground compared to the bright sky. Though you can see in the background of the JP some blue sky on its way over. Unfortunately, with the way weeds and bushes have grown up around these aircraft, there weren't many viable places to take the photos from.

Re the JP, is it just the bright sky softening the tail like it did with the branches in the Vampire photo? I was using an old standard digital camera to practice with so maybe that didn't help either.

I've reached my daily limit, but will have a look at some helicopter shots from the Cheltenham Gold Cup last year, taken before we got to Birlingham and when the sun was out so the shots should be more acceptable.