The "Post your pictures here" thread.

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mrk said:
Sure thing,

For those shots I used HDR (5 shots) and used some techniques that Trey Ratcliff gave a tutorial short on a while back: http://www.stuckincustoms.com/hdr-tutorial/

Obviously each shot is different so use his tips as a baseline and you'll end up with results that work for your particular images.

To set them up, the usual of course, tripod, mirror lockup and the bracketed shots should be metered from a neutral area of the scene to ensure you get the best under/over exposures throughout the 5 shots. Use more shots if you have to but I find 5 works great for almost all scenes really.

For the other car ones posted in the past I used 2x wireless flashguns on umbrellas to light up the car(s), nothing too special with that kind of setup really, just play with the lighting until it's favourable.

In post processing (I use Lightroom) I have my own pre-sets that I've built up over the years, I apply those and fine tune per image really.
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Thanks for that, seems I'm not too far off and just need to keep practicing. Have you got any suggestions for some decent umbrella/lightstand setups that don't cost a fortune? :P
 
As seen whilst processing 10 minute exposure of M42 through a red filter (usually you do R,G,B filters and combine to make a colour image):
m42.png
 
Heres mine from the other night,
best i could get but they are single shots @30secs
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_ALI9458.jpg


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and for a bit of fun before we went home.
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Mine are single shots also, I was really quite far out into the country, was pitch black, heard loads of owls. I tried a new place in a valley away from town to try and get away from the light pollution, it helped that it was -3 so the air was nice and clear too.

What lens are you using? My friend got similar shots last night with his Nikon 3100 and 18-55 kit lens, he reckons he cant get it to infinity focus properly so the shots are soft. I shoot RAW and spend some time editing the levels, white balance etc afterwards too to bring out the stars and I've spent a bit (a lot) more and got a Tokina 11-16mm which is amazing, very sharp so that could be the difference too.
 
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AtomicBanana said:
Thanks for that, seems I'm not too far off and just need to keep practicing. Have you got any suggestions for some decent umbrella/lightstand setups that don't cost a fortune? :P
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I bought a pair of umbrellas on eBay for £30 and then a pair of stands that hold them and a flashgun each for £19 - Obviously from China but they do the job well enough :p

Get various types, silver/gold and white to get different effects on your shots.

A softbox or two won't go amiss either for shooting portraits and getting nice diffused light. Works on cars too if you have powerful flashguns. I reckon a YN-560 class gun would be ample to light through a softbox but a white umbrella would reflect back nice even light as well.
 
42zx said:
Mine are single shots also, I was really quite far out into the country, was pitch black, heard loads of owls. I tried a new place in a valley away from town to try and get away from the light pollution, it helped that it was -3 so the air was nice and clear too.

What lens are you using, Phate? My friend got similar shots last night with his Nikon 3100 and 18-55 kit lens, he reckons he cant get it to infinity focus properly so the shots are soft. I shoot RAW and spend some time editing the levels, white balance etc afterwards too to bring out the stars and I've spent a bit (a lot) more and got a Tokina 11-16mm which is amazing, very sharp so that could be the difference too.
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18-55 kit lens, shot in raw,i tried to get infinty but only thing i could do is pull focus back far as pos, even it was pitch black where i was i could still see light polution :(
am going to buy the tokina 12-24 soon when i got a few more penny's
 
adbp1 said:
18-55 kit lens, shot in raw,i tried to get infinty but only thing i could do is pull focus back far as pos, even it was pitch black where i was i could still see light polution :(
am going to buy the tokina 12-24 soon when i got a few more penny's
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I'd use a Bahtinov Mask. It uses a specific slit pattern for the lens characteristics. Just point at a bright star and put the mask on the front. I made mine out of black cardboard.
 
After a much longer than intended hiatus I am, hopefully, getting myself a new camera in the next month or so. To see whether I can get on with the smaller body of the XXXD range, I borrowed the work 500D over the weekend, shoved on my Carl Zeiss Jena MC Sonnar 135mm that I'd stuffed in the loft, and took a few shots while walking to dogs:







Nothing awe inspiring, but difficult conditions with the bright, low sun, and the small dogs getting into mischief while I'm trying to take pictures :p
 
Some of my sister's A2 artwork. Her project title as you may have guessed is 'Sweets'. I had some other shots but I couldn't get them to work as I had to use such a small aperture to get the whole frame in focus (f29) that the kit lens was too soft for an acceptable level IMO.


IMG_0031 by B_Alexander, on Flickr


IMG_0033 by B_Alexander, on Flickr


IMG_0034 by B_Alexander, on Flickr
 
James, they're better than my first goes, what settings did you use?

If you have Lightroom etc, setting the white balance to Tungsten helps remove the orange light pollution other than that I'd probably just include more of the foreground in the shots, at least a whole tree and if possible get as far away from lights as possible, I drive about 10 miles away usually and thats still not enough!

This is miles from town but still facing back you can see the glow, although it does add to this shot I think.


Frozen Puddles by 42zx, on Flickr
 
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