tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568666225028750922024-03-14T18:26:28.001+11:00My Photographic JourneyThis Blog will chronicle my Photographic Journey. Why am I writing this.... two main reasons:
1) I'm happy to share my Camera and Photoshop techniques with other photographers that share the passion.
2)I find it useful to look back at my older photos and see how my photography has progressed. This is motivating for me.Brent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-50166498729533751352009-04-16T20:04:00.002+10:002009-04-16T20:07:03.950+10:00My Blog Has Moved - check out the new stuff!Hi Folks<br /><br />I have moved my blog over to Wordpress for a variety of reasons. Please update your RSS feeds to my new site as I will no longer be posting to this site.<br /><br />So mosey on across to my new site and check out some of the latest posts including a video photoshop tutorial on intensifying water.<br /><br />My new site is at <a href="http://brentbat.wordpress.com"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >http:brentbat.wordpress.com</span></a>Brent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com356tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-20279973455821675452009-04-12T19:17:00.004+10:002009-04-14T09:11:26.421+10:00A wonderful evening of photography - Forresters & Central CoastWell last Friday was the full moon and I was keen to get out. I went up to Central Coast with Kajo and we had a fantastic evening shooting 3 Central coast locations in ideal conditions.<br /><br />Check out this video which will give you a taste of our evening (you can see of our light painting at the end.)<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="300" width="400"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4110989&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4110989&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="300" width="400"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/4110989">Forresters and Central Coast Night Shoot</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user995296">Brent Pearson</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br /></div><br />I thought I'd talk about one of my light painting shots and explain how it was captured.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentbat/3430352179/" title="Light Painting Some Unusual Rocks by brentbat, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3595/3430352179_175a224f9a.jpg" alt="Light Painting Some Unusual Rocks" height="328" width="500" /></a><br /></div><br />This shot is called "Light Painting Some Unusual Rocks"... (pretty creative title eh?)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SeGz_GCbXzI/AAAAAAAAAgA/0h9AY0uZ53U/s1600-h/light+painting+base+images.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 241px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SeGz_GCbXzI/AAAAAAAAAgA/0h9AY0uZ53U/s320/light+painting+base+images.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323734131062562610" border="0" /></a>From a light painting perspective this is a pretty straight forward affair. First frame I laid down my "stage" or base shot. I used a 4 min exposure to capture the clouds wooshing past.<br /><br /><br />Second shot was a 30 second exposure where I was painting with my fluoro light.<br /><br />In photoshop I combined the two images into the final.<br /><br />If you want more information on how I did this, then <a href="http://nightphotography.com/"></a><a href="http://www.nightphotographyguide.com">I suggest you check out my eBook.</a><br /><br />More later<br /><br />BrentBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-45210885777682248122009-04-08T07:53:00.008+10:002009-04-08T11:00:27.561+10:00Body & Form - My first studio lighting project<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SdvLn8h7ttI/AAAAAAAAAfg/kdj1jXk9MJQ/s1600-h/emma1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 271px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SdvLn8h7ttI/AAAAAAAAAfg/kdj1jXk9MJQ/s400/emma1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322071271792162514" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I just finished a project that I call “Body & Form”. It is a huge departure for me from my usual landscape and night photography, but it was a lot of fun. Here’s what the project was all about.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SdvLv_7klpI/AAAAAAAAAfo/aXv4F6umg6A/s1600-h/emma2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SdvLv_7klpI/AAAAAAAAAfo/aXv4F6umg6A/s320/emma2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322071410143958674" border="0" /></a>Aim of project: I wanted to push my photography into new areas. So far I have quite deliberately stayed away from shooting people or wildlife because quite frankly neither of them interest me from a photographic perspective. However I felt like I was ready for a new challenge, so I came up with the idea of doing a dramatic studio shoot of a ballet dancer’s body. My major objectives were:<br />1) Start getting an understanding of studio lighting<br />2) Learn how to work with a model<br />3) Get familiar with portrait and retouching workflow in Photoshop<br /><br />Now I’m pretty lucky here, my Mother has a school for full-time dancers who are training to become professional, so I had my choice of dancer and also a great space to shoot in. My local camera club had the lighting gear that I could borrow.<br /><br /><br />I had done a fair bit of research, I approached the dancer (Emma) and she was keen to be part of the project. We planned two sessions:<br /><br />Session 1: was to be totally experimental, I wanted to achieve the following:<br />• For me to get comfortable working with Emma<br />• For Emma to get comfortable working with me<br />• For me to experiment with different lighting setups to see what works<br />• For Emma to get comfortable with the lights and camera<br />• For me to work out the sort of poses I wanted to shoot.<br /><br />Session 2: was “The shoot” and was taken about 4 days later. It gave me time to process the test shots from session 1 and make adjustments etc. Emma and I spent about an hour reviewing the session 1 photos and talking about what worked and what didn’t, so when we started the next session we were pretty focused on what we each needed to do.<br /><br /><object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4051942&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4051942&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/4051942">AV Presentation Movie</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user995296">Brent Pearson</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.<br /><br />This video is a little 2 min video that I made up for a presentation I was doing at my local camera club on the convergence of video and stills and how video can give your stills photos context rather than the traditional stills slide show. If you are interested in the lighting and the setup I used, this video will show you which lights I used and how I positioned them.<br /><br /><br /><br /></insert><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SdvL5SuLQMI/AAAAAAAAAfw/zHJbrYsNzkQ/s1600-h/emma4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 270px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SdvL5SuLQMI/AAAAAAAAAfw/zHJbrYsNzkQ/s320/emma4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322071569806868674" border="0" /></a><insert video="" here=""><video coming="" soon=""><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153); font-weight: bold;">What’s Next?</span><br />Well the first thing that surprised me was I enjoyed this shoot very much and found every aspect of it a lot of fun (planning, execution, post production etc.). I’ve already talked to Emma about doing some more modelling with me out on landscape location and she has eagerly agreed. I am now about to do an Off Camera Flash course (strobist stuff) and get some portable gear that will allow me to take the studio with me on location. I have 3 very specific ideas in my mind that will introduce Emma to some of the more interesting landscape and urbanscape locations that I have photographed. I’m planning on shooting this project in May.<br /><br />I find that picking some specific projects is a great way of pushing my photography further. I hope this inspires some of you to pick a project that pushes you further. It was a lot of fun for me.<br /><br /></video></insert><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SdvMGK-CRvI/AAAAAAAAAf4/6SB3VT18DtQ/s1600-h/emma3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 284px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SdvMGK-CRvI/AAAAAAAAAf4/6SB3VT18DtQ/s400/emma3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322071791064205042" border="0" /></a>Brent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-80778637542678353462009-03-30T07:47:00.004+11:002009-03-30T07:55:36.716+11:00My eBook is now available - Night Photography & Light Painting<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/Sc_f5wEWxkI/AAAAAAAAAfY/RJBcholUgvs/s1600-h/shapeimage_2.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 243px; height: 210px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/Sc_f5wEWxkI/AAAAAAAAAfY/RJBcholUgvs/s320/shapeimage_2.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318715868196554306" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Well I have spent the past month working hard on my first eBook. It's called<br />Night Photography & Light Painting<br />Tips, Tricks and Secrets.<br /><br /><br />This eBook has more than 80 pages and in it I have documented in great detail all of my experiments, and methods for capturing night landscapes. I've also documented all my experiments with light painting sources as well as a series of step-by-step guides that cover:<br /><ul><li>Capturing night landscapes</li><li>Building a light painting wand</li><li>Light painting landscapes</li><li>Post processing light painted images</li></ul><br />For anyone that wants to get into night photography or light painting, I'm sure this eBook will accelerate their learning considerably.<br /><br />You can find out more about the book at <a href="http://www.nightphotographyguide.com">http://www.nightphotographyguide.com</a><br /><br />I hope you enjoy it<br /><br />BrentBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-41194515329193496692009-02-12T21:28:00.004+11:002009-02-12T21:45:53.694+11:00Light Painting An Old fort<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3298/3266526764_82bdc0ab7c.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 359px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3298/3266526764_82bdc0ab7c.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />On Sunday night Kajo, Michelle, Gavin and I took advantage of the full moon and gorgeous Summer evening to head out to Middle Head Fort to do a bit of light painting.<br /><br />It was a fun night, some of the others hadn't done any light painting before, so we kind of hung out as a group and mainly used my light to paint up a few different structures. It was interesting to see the different interpretation by the others of the same subject.<br /><br />The Old Bunker<br />This old part of the fort was an interesting one for light painting because of all the angles and also the fact that it was raised up against the sky (most of the rest of the fort is recessed). I loved the steps leading up to the structure and when you lit these up from a low angle the light cast some cool shadows on the stairs.<br /><br />So we all set up next to eachother and exposed our base image and then we started painting.<br /><ul><li>First we lit the stairs up from the bottom left</li><li>Then we lit the building from the top left</li><li>Then we shined the light out from inside</li><li>Then we fired some flashes with pink gel over them</li><li>Finally we painted the roof overhang with a surefire torch.</li></ul><br />This was my first "building" that I have painted..... I think I'm going to do some more.<br /><br />BPBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-23189292957348588852009-02-07T07:23:00.004+11:002009-02-07T10:24:15.958+11:00Night Photography & Light Painting Presentation<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SYzGlzXNJ2I/AAAAAAAAAdo/FJ_7xXGFwgM/s1600-h/slidefront"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 290px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SYzGlzXNJ2I/AAAAAAAAAdo/FJ_7xXGFwgM/s400/slidefront" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299829214253229922" border="0" /></a><br />Last night I gave a presentation on night photography and light painting to a bunch of folk from some of the North Shore camera clubs. I certainly enjoyed the evening and there seemed to be a lot of photographers very interested to learn more about nocturnal photography.<br /><br />For those that attended last night, thanks for giving up your Friday night, I hope you found it of value. Here's some links to some of the resources I mentioned in my talk last night.<br /><br /><a href="http://brentbat.blogspot.com/2008/09/night-photography-101.html">My primer on night photography</a><br /><br /><a href="http://brentbat.blogspot.com/2008/09/light-painting-101.html">My primer on Light Painting</a><br /><a href="http://brentbat.blogspot.com/2008/09/light-painting-forresters-rocks.html"><br />Light Painting Forresters Rocks</a><br /><br /><a href="http://brentbat.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-do-you-calculate-night-exposures.html">Calculating night exposures</a><br /><br />In fact I suggest you read all of the posts that I did in Feb 08, they document my experiments, journey and research into night photography... there are some useful tidbits there (like how to identify the South Celestial pole if you are doing startrails etc.)<br /><br />Other resources I referred to;<br /><br /><a href="http://www.burnblue.com/">Toby Kellers Burnblue site</a> (fantastic light painting where you see the light source)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.timsimmons.co.uk/">Tim Simmons site</a> (Tim inspired me to develop the light tools that I now use)<br /><br />Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the evening, I look forward to seeing you out on a rocky outcrop one night ;-)<br /><br />Good luck, have fun... and don't forget the wine and cheese!<br /><br />BrentBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-30492387981494104022008-11-09T16:58:00.004+11:002008-11-09T17:30:25.779+11:00Pre-flight checklistEver been or near the cockpit when a pilot is ready to take off or land? Doesn't matter whether they are a professional or amateur pilot, they all do the same thing... their pre-takeoff or pre-landing checklist. Doesn't matter whether they have flown thousands of flights, they still do it to make sure they don't forget something silly.<br /><br />So have any of you hot-shots done any of the following by accident?<ul><li>Shot on high ISO</li><li>Shot JPEG instead of RAW</li><li>Left your exposure compensation with a bias from your last shoot</li><li>Left your light metering on the wrong setting (like spot meter)</li><li>Forgot to clean your lens (and found later a big fingerprint or dirt splodge on it)</li></ul><br />Yeah... made all of these mistakes, so I have developed a "pre-flight check" that I now do relegiously at the start of every shoot. I recommend that you do something similar and it will helpfully stop you making silly mistakes. Here's how my pre-flight check works.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Step 1) Set the camera shooting modes </span>and custom mode first (I have settings for "Normal" and "Landscape Mode"). You must do this first because otherwise all your settings will change if you do it later.... ie. You could do your pre-flight check, and then change your shoot mode and everyhing could be mis-set.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Step 2) I go across the top of my Nikon</span> in sequence<br /><ul><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SRaDDjDgGRI/AAAAAAAAAR8/HvQvXR8qQLg/s1600-h/d700top.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 144px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SRaDDjDgGRI/AAAAAAAAAR8/HvQvXR8qQLg/s320/d700top.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266540911229147410" border="0" /></a>Quality = RAW</li><li>WB = Auto (not that impotant if you are shooting RAW)</li><li>ISO = 200 (my starting point)</li><li>Mode = Aperture priority</li><li>Exposure compensation = 0<br /></li></ul><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Step 3) Then I do the back of my camera</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SRaDDL6FMKI/AAAAAAAAAR0/u-WJBqH4ApI/s1600-h/d700+back.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 189px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SRaDDL6FMKI/AAAAAAAAAR0/u-WJBqH4ApI/s320/d700+back.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266540905015619746" border="0" /></a><ul><li>Light metering = matrix</li><li>Focus= centre spot</li></ul><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Step 4) Finally I do the front of my camera</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SRaDDKVaDiI/AAAAAAAAARs/bWAAo0NzV0I/s1600-h/d700+front.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 210px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SRaDDKVaDiI/AAAAAAAAARs/bWAAo0NzV0I/s320/d700+front.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266540904593362466" border="0" /></a><ul><li>Bracketing= off</li><li>Focus= manual (most of my landscape work is manual focus)</li><li>Lens = clean and clear of dust.</li></ul>So I highly recommend that find something that works for you.... and develop your own pre-flight check....I can guarantee that you will have less unpleasant surprises if you make this part of your routine... It only takes 15sec to do.<br /><br />BPBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-29687946889681564762008-11-05T22:05:00.005+11:002008-11-05T22:25:57.746+11:00Photoshop Technique - Improving your waterI've written about intensifying your water before, but I have found a better technique that I thought I would share. This really makes your water a lot more dynamic. To show you a before an after effect, have a look at one of my recent shots called "At Last".<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SRF_tCAcA0I/AAAAAAAAARU/gpl5spEdy_o/s1600-h/intensifying+water.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 319px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SRF_tCAcA0I/AAAAAAAAARU/gpl5spEdy_o/s400/intensifying+water.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5265129850982368066" border="0" /></a><br />On the left you can see the effect of intensifying the water, and on the right you can see the image with all of the post processing except for the water intensifying technique (click on the image above to see the detail)... or you can <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentbat/2942100859/sizes/o/">view the original image at Flickr here.</a><br /><br />So how do you do it..... It's actually pretty simple and involves 3 steps<br /><br />1) Create a new layer with a relatively high contrast B&W version of your image... you can do this using a B&W adjustment layer or your favorite B&W converter... I LOVE Nik Silver Effex.<br /><br />2) Experiment with the Blend mode... you will want to look at typically overlay, softlight or hardlight blend modes.<br /><br />3) Once you find one that gives you the "oommph" that you are afterwith the water, Add a layer mask and invert it (cntrl+I on PC) and then paint the effect just over the water.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SRGCbETlKhI/AAAAAAAAARk/0tWkUreZUYk/s1600-h/intensifying+layers.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 161px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SRGCbETlKhI/AAAAAAAAARk/0tWkUreZUYk/s400/intensifying+layers.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5265132840896768530" border="0" /></a><br />Thats it... Often on water I will also add a colour balance adjustment layer and add a touch of blue and green to the mid tones and shadows.<br /><br />I hope you find this useful<br /><br />BrentBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-42622894782340584782008-11-05T21:56:00.004+11:002008-11-05T22:04:54.402+11:00Getting some Traction With Freephotoguides<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SRF9XZisCtI/AAAAAAAAARM/Boewyw8FIDw/s1600-h/guideheader.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 52px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SRF9XZisCtI/AAAAAAAAARM/Boewyw8FIDw/s400/guideheader.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5265127280319662802" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Well in between family, work, taking photos, processing photos, building light painting rigs, in my spare time I am pretty passionate about the Free photoguides project.<br /><br />The project is beginning to gain momentum. We now have <a href="http://www.freephotoguidesuk.blogspot.com/">16 stunning guides written for NSW alone</a>, and quite a few more being written for other states in Australia.<br /><br />On top of that<a href="http://www.freephotoguidesuk.blogspot.com/"> UK</a> is is publishing some stunning guides and we are just launching the Swedish site.<br /><br />I'm pretty proud of the project because if it is successful it will be a great asset to photographers all over the world... The one thing I am not overly impressed with is how much work it is taking to get people to contribute. I have spoken at a number of camera clubs but don't seem to get too many volunteers.. but then there are some weird dynamics about the camera clubs that I don't think are overly healthy.<br /><br />So if you stumble across my blog and find that a any of the tips, tricks, photoshop techniques are useful for you. The one way you can say thank you to me for my time and effort is to volunteer to write a photo guide for one of your local areas..... 30 min of your time max... and it's a lot of fun.<br /><br />To find out more about this project go to <a href="http://freephotoguides.com">http://freephotoguides.com</a><br /><br />Contributing is easy... come on and support this project.<br /><br />BrentBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-85915871860786956262008-10-22T08:49:00.003+11:002008-10-22T09:33:57.492+11:00Persistence Definitely Pays OffLast weekend was <a href="http://www.sculpturebythesea.com/">Sculpture By the Sea at Bondi</a>. I shot it once at sunrise and once at night.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3141/2952291015_de7bc8f867_o.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3141/2952291015_de7bc8f867_o.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />The sunrise shooting turned into a zoo as 3 camera clubs of photographers decended over the hill and started battling and jockying for position. I packed up my gear and left (I hate shooting in crowds).<br /><br />Anyway when I compare that to my evening shoot... what a total contrast. I arrived at the exhibit just as the sun was setting, I scouted around as the crowds were starting to disperse, picked the sculpture I wanted to focus on and sat down on a near by chair and just stared at the sculpture thinking about the composition I wanted to create.<br /><br />As the last light was fading in the sky I set up my gear, tested my lights and started a sequence of long exposures, 1 min, 2 min, 4 min.<br /><br />Once I had my base image captured, then I reset my camera for60 second captures and started painting the sculpture from slightly different angles, distances, and with different amounts of feathering. I find that it can be hard to judge things like shadow sharpness using the camera LCD screen, so I find it easier to essentially "bracket" my light painting from harder directional light to more softer light (by waving the light around more).<br /><br />I really liked the mood of this image. Going to go back this weeked and capture one more light painting.... I have a particular sculpture in mind for an awesome star trail shot.<br /><br />I feel as though after a number of botched outings and lots of experiments, I am really starting to understand the technical fundamentals of good light painting..... at last!<br /><br />BPBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-39295835528380946772008-09-28T21:33:00.003+10:002008-09-28T21:51:09.483+10:00Light Painting 101Following on from my posting about Night Photography, this posting is a basic 101 guide for photographers interested in light painting. If you haven't read the primer to night photography, read that first. You really do need to be comfortable with night photography before playing around with light painting.<br /><br />What is light painting? As you would expect from the name it's basically using light to paint a photographic image. There is actually several quite distinct variations of light painting.<br /><br />1) Using a light to create trails or writing in the image. Some people like to write words, or trace outlines. Essentially you are exposing the image and leaving trails by moving the light source around in the frame. If you want to see an example of this, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/burnblue/286343539/in/set-72157602150047399/">check out this link</a><br /><br />2) Coloured strobes.<br />There are some incredible photographers who paint with coloured light. Essentially firing strobes with coloured gels on them to illuminate a scene in puddles of coloured light. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/thelordofthemanor/274359124/in/set-72057594103213142/">Click here to see a good example of this technique</a>.<br /><br />3) Painting the landscape with more natural light.<br />This is the type of light painting that personally interests me. Essentially you are using light sources to paint parts of the landscape with man-made light. Here's an example of one of my recent images that involve light painting.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SN9uSXoQWUI/AAAAAAAAAQs/7o-kS3abFcI/s1600-h/forresters+at+night.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SN9uSXoQWUI/AAAAAAAAAQs/7o-kS3abFcI/s400/forresters+at+night.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251036952396847426" border="0" /></a><br />The image involved shooting a background image of the rocks and then blending in individual images of each of the rocks that were illuminated by different light sources.<br /><br />So what sort of light sources should you use for light painting? Thats where the fun begins. Each light source has different qualities.... colour temperature, harshness, intensity etc.<br /><br />I'm not going to spoil your fun by telling you what I use... because there is no right or wrong answer.... half the fun of light painting is thinking about what light sources you have and experimening with them... studying their qualities and working out what you like and don't like about each source. Doesn't matter whether it is a torch or a strobe..... I suggest you get ou there... lock your camera open and just start experimenting in your back yard to learn about the light sources before you get out on location.<br /><br />If you have done some experimentation and want some advice, drop me an email and I'll be happy to look at what you are doing and providing some pointers if required.... but I'm not going to short circuit the experimentation process for you by telling you what light sources I use. I have been experimenting for about 3 months with different light sources.<br /><br />I have built two light painting rigs and I'm just about to build a 3rd one. Each time I build one I learn a lot about what I need in a light painting source. Get out there and have some fun and see what you can paint.<br /><br />Brent<br /><br />2)Brent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-91695873093956648132008-09-24T21:25:00.003+10:002008-09-24T21:58:47.622+10:00Night Photography 101<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentbat/2501039025/" title="Night Experiments continue by brentbat, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2367/2501039025_5a6c70af8e.jpg" alt="Night Experiments continue" width="414" height="500" /></a><br /></div><br />Recently after some of my light painting episodes I have had a few people contact me about night photography and light painting. So I thought I would do a primer on night photography first to help get people into it, and then follow it up with some advice on light painting.<br /><br />First of all.... Night photography is technically a lot more challenging than shooting during the day for a number of reasons;<br />1) Hard to focus at night<br />2) Hard to compose your shot at night<br />3) Your light meter is useless<br />4) You can run into some white balance issues.<br />5) Hard to see your camera controls<br /><br />So, if you aren't taking pretty good shots during the day, then I would advise that you focus on improving your basic photography during daylight hours first (composition, exposure, understanding your camer etc.)<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentbat/2579499454/" title="Cute Pool at night in BW by brentbat, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3132/2579499454_b76f164091.jpg" alt="Cute Pool at night in BW" width="400" height="400" /></a><br /></div><br />However if you feel you are ready for photographing at night, then this should help you get started.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">What You Need For Night Photography</span><br /><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Tripod </span>- Essential</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Remote shutter release cable</span> - without this you won't be able to take exposures beyond 30sec.</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Headlamp</span> torch</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Powerful pocket torch</span> (I like the surefire torches... small, bright and the colour temperature is somewhere around 5000K</li><li>Pocket exposure guide - S<a href="http://brentbat.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-do-you-calculate-night-exposures.html">ee my blog posting on calculating night exposures</a></li></ul><span style="font-size:130%;">Ready to go?</span><br />First thing I would recommend reading is all of the blog postings I made in Feb 08 (they all chronicle my exploration of night photography).<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Picking a good night.</span><br />I would start by choosing a night that has<br />1) A full moon (or somewhere closer to a full moon)<br />2) Some clouds in the sky<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Arrive before sunset. </span> This allows you to scout your location, setup for your first location, get your composition and focus just right and relax. Start taking a few shots and watch the exposures start to get longer and longer as dusk approaches.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Focusing in the dark</span><br />To focus I set my lens to manual, shine a bright torch at a point in the image I want to focus on and do my best to set the focus manually... live view is useless and Autofocus is more than likely not going to cut it unless the focal point is close to the camera on and you have some sort of AF assist going on.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Flip over to manual exposure mode.</span> Your light meter won't work in low-light, so you are going to have to shoot on a manual setting.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">I would recommend starting on f5.6 aperture</span>. To work out the correct exposure, I recommend you crank up your cameras ISO to either 1600 or 3200 and start with a 30sec exposure. Check your histogram and then adjust your shutter time to get an appropriate exposure (if you don't know how to read a histogram, do some research so that you understand it... it is critical).<br /><br />Once you have established a correct exposure and checked composition and focus at high ISO, you need to crank back your ISO to something that will give you images with low noise. This will depend upon your camera, but with night photography it is all about long long long shutter times, so even if your camera can handle super high ISO settings with low noise (like my D700), it is still worth dropping it back to something like 200ISO.<br /><br />You will need to double your shutter duration for each time you halve the ISO. Here's an example....<br />Lets say you crank up your ISO and determine the exposure is fine when you are shooting at<br />3200 ISO @ 30sec @ f5.6<br /><br />When you drop your ISO to 200, you have reduced your exposure by 4 stops<br />3200 to 1600 = 1 stop<br />1600 to 800 = 2 stops<br />800 to 400 = 3 stops<br />400 to 200 = 4 stops.<br /><br />So to compensate you will need to increase your shutter speed by 4 stops<br />30 sec to 1min = 1 stop<br />1min to 2min = 2 stops<br />2min to 4min = 3 stops<br />4min to 8min = 4 stops.<br /><br />So the correct exposure would be 8min @ ISO 200 @ f5.6<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentbat/2422053583/" title="Seen Better Days by brentbat, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3103/2422053583_81c46f78a4.jpg" alt="Seen Better Days" width="400" height="250" /></a><br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Set your camera shutter to bulb</span>, and get your stop watch ready.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Lock your cable release open</span>, and then <span style="font-weight: bold;">pour yourself a glass of nice wine</span>, grab some chips or biscuits and sit back, watch the stars and enjoy the evening. One of the joys of night photography is the pace... long exposures mean plenty of time to relax, slow down, talk to other photographers, or just relax. Don't expect to come back with cards full of great images, be happy with one or two from an evening of night photography.<br /><br />I'll do a primer on Light Painting shortly.<br /><br />Enjoy.... I'd love to hear your feedback.<br /><br />BrentBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-82375222967065208122008-09-14T21:27:00.003+10:002008-09-14T21:34:07.999+10:00Light Painting Forresters RocksThis is a shot that I have been planning for about 6 weeks. I have been doing a lot of research and experimentation on light painting sources.... bought some, made some.... All the while I had a very clear first image in my mind... the gorgeous rocks at Forresters by moonlight.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SMz2QDqhJXI/AAAAAAAAAQc/b-ESKXQmCZw/s1600-h/_DSC2893-Edit.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SMz2QDqhJXI/AAAAAAAAAQc/b-ESKXQmCZw/s400/_DSC2893-Edit.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245838421701764466" border="0" /></a><br />I had thought about the final image for weeks... literally. I had planned the shot in a fair bit of detail and could have sketched the finished image weeks before I photographed it.<br /><br />While there was still a fair bit of experimentation with light sources and exposures on the night, there was no doubt about the end result. I was pretty happy with the way that it turned out.<br /><br />Incidentally, for those that want to understand what this scene looks like without the light painting and post processing... Here's one of my RAW captures straight out of the camera... this should give you an appreciation for the power of light painting when it comes to night photography.<br /><br />Brent<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SMz2gbG0dcI/AAAAAAAAAQk/IdhNI9lXbjY/s1600-h/_DSC2893.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SMz2gbG0dcI/AAAAAAAAAQk/IdhNI9lXbjY/s400/_DSC2893.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245838702872393154" border="0" /></a>Brent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-37821924936018970202008-08-17T17:50:00.003+10:002008-08-17T17:56:02.376+10:00Is there such a thing as a Photogasm?A few days ago I picked up my new camera and lenses... I have made the plunge from a DX sensor to a full frame FX sensor. This meant it was time to say goodbye to my trusty D200 and Old Faithful Tokina lens. They have done me well and I have enjoyed shooting with both of them.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentbat/2765288644/" title="Goodbye D200, Hello D700 by brentbat, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3285/2765288644_9ec9d3d055.jpg" alt="Goodbye D200, Hello D700" height="500" width="421" /></a><br /></div><br />However, it seriously can't compare to my new kit. The D700 and two new "Pro" lenses - 24-70 f2.8 and 17-35 f2.8. If there is such a thing as as a Photogasm... I reckon I experienced it when I started shooting with this gorgeous combination.<br /><br />The camera itself is a dream, from the bright large viewfinder, to the fantastic liveview screen (with electronic horizon and everything).... It's just fantastic. And the clarity of the lenses is just breathtaking.<br /><br />I absolutely love this new camera.... let the fun begin.Brent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-88760904331410084732008-08-12T08:06:00.001+10:002008-08-12T08:08:25.950+10:00Another Open Source Photo GuideI had some very positive feedback on the Open Source Guide concept... I've just created another one for Forresters beach which is by far the most comprehensive one yet.<br /><br />Check out <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://knol.google.com/k/brent-pearson/a-photographers-guide-to-forresters/3lsbrgsxey1is/4#">The Photographer's guide to Forresters Beach</a><br /><br />Let me know what you think.<br /><br />BrentBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-47190018917518816982008-07-27T19:50:00.006+10:002008-07-28T21:22:52.898+10:00Open Source Free Photographic GuidesToday I was exploring a new location for a landscape shoot. I hadn't seen any decent shots from this location, and in fact I'd never heard of it. I just happened to be cruising around on Google Earth and looking at a few of the Flickr photos that had been geocoded around this particular area. A few happy snaps, but no serious photos.<br /><br />So today it was a lovely Sunday afternoon, so I took my son and we went exploring to recce this location. Turns out it is a very good location with a lot of potential... I'm going to shoot some dawn shots there next weekend. But on the way back I was thinking to myself... Wouldn't it be cool if there was some sort of central registry where photographers could share their favorite locations with other photographers.<br /><br />Some sort of <span style="font-style: italic;">Virtual Open Source Photographic Guide</span>... A <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.wikipedia.com/">Wikipedia</a> of Photo Guides.... Guides so rich in great photographic info, that it would help any photographer find great new locations to shoot, and improve their chances of getting great shots the first time by knowing when and where to shoot.<br /><br />As I was hiking out with my son I was thinking about what it would take to create some sort of tool that others could use.... What would it need?<br /><ul><li>A simple authoring tool (know HTML or any of that stuff)</li><li>Free hosting (I didn't want to pay for it)</li><li>A place to upload pictures or link to existing pictures on Flickr</li><li>A way of allowing others to post comments</li><li>A search engine so people can find your guides</li><li>A Comments capability that would allow others to comment (or ideally suggest updates) to guides that you post</li><li>A Rating system so readers could rate your guides.</li></ul><br />That was my initial list. When I got home and reached for my blogging site, I saw an interesting little posting about Google's new capability called <a href="http://knol.google.com/k#">Knols </a>(chunks of knowledge)... and guess what... it pretty much perfectly met my criteria.<br /><br />So I have started an experiment and written two Knols on photographic sites in Sydney that I know pretty well. I'd love to hear what you guys think.<br /><a href="http://knol.google.com/k/brent-pearson/a-photographers-guide-to-turimetta/3lsbrgsxey1is/2#">1) A Photographer's guide to Turimetta Beach</a><br /><a href="http://knol.google.com/k/brent-pearson/a-photographers-guide-to-mona-vale-pool/3lsbrgsxey1is/3#">2) A Photographer's guide to Mona Vale Pool</a><br /><br />Take a moment to have a look at these guides and let me know if they contain the sort of information that you would like to see if you were going to visit a new site.<br /><br />Imagine if we could get thousands of photogrphers to start documenting their favorite locations and becoming the "local expert".... we would have the largest guide to photographers anywhere in the world!! What a great resource that would be!<br /><br />Take care... and watch <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentbat/">my photostream on Flikr</a> for the cool new site I discovered on Sunday<br /><br />BrentBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-23736324852466547762008-07-14T22:20:00.003+10:002008-07-14T22:29:06.021+10:00Shutter Blending "Splash"I thought I would share another example of shutter blending. This photo is called "Splash"<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentbat/2637878486/" title="Splash by brentbat, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3072/2637878486_c4fe79100e.jpg" alt="Splash" height="347" width="400" /></a><br /><br />When I saw this rock formation in the water, I totally pre-visualised this image.... I immediately saw three quite separate parts of the image in my mind.<br /><br />1) A razor sharp foreground clearly showing the detail in the beautiful sand with the water providing lead-in lines to the rock.<br /><br />2) Long exposure water to remove the distractions from the sea and focus instead on the colour and movement and allow you to concentrate on the gorgeous rocks<br /><br />3) I was intrigued by the way the ocean was splashing up against the rock in the background, so I wanted to "freeze" a splash in mid air as a contrast to the long expsosed sea.<br /><br />Executing this was pretty simple, 1/125 sec exposures for top and bottom images, then screw on the 10 stop ND filter for the middle exposure (about 20 sec from memory).<br /><br />Blending was also pretty simple in Photoshop, couple of minutes with the Wacom tablet and I had some pretty seamless masks.<br /><br />I'm enjoying the abstract possibilities of Shutter Blending. I'd love to see some examples of others experimenting with this approach<br /><br />BrentBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-31881588979246323452008-06-14T10:41:00.005+10:002008-06-14T13:47:05.280+10:00Shutter BlendingOK, So most of you have probably heard about exposure blending... blending multiple images of various exposures together to manage the dynamic range in a scene.<br /><br />Well for a while now I have been thinking a lot about what it is I love about long exposure photography... and it is the contrast of the movement and motion of clouds or water against static items like rocks, or pools.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentbat/2560241643/" title="Luna Park Shutter Blend experiment #1 by brentbat, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3142/2560241643_29b4dcea2f.jpg" width="400" height="268" alt="Luna Park Shutter Blend experiment #1" /></a><br /><br />I've been thinking about how to apply this to non-traditional scenes and I have come up with a technique that I call shutter blending. I'm sure others must be doing this, but I haven't found anyone using this technique.<br /><br />Intead of blending images of different exposures, what I want to do is blend images of the same exposure, but with vastly different exposure times (shutter speed). I'm doing this through a set of ND filters (3 stop and 10 stop).<br /><br />What I plan to do is take a series of images of a scene with a fairly high shutter speed until I get a person (or group of people) that I want to make my focal point, and then take quite a few shots of blurred people moving and clouds wizzing past and then blend them all into a composite scene... thats what I'm calling Shutter blending.<br /><br />If anybody finds examples of others doing this type of photography, I would appreciate the links.<br /><br />BPBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com39tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-71310514511616630272008-05-19T21:46:00.003+10:002008-05-19T21:53:54.011+10:00My Night Work Is Starting To ClickWell I have been mucking about with night photography for a few months now.... I feel like I have gone through the initial experimental phase... I now know how to optimise my camera for the conditions and I have got a pretty good feel on how to read the conditions to capture the effects that I want.<br /><br />Went out last Saturday night and captured this image.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentbat/2501039025/" title="Night Experiments continue by brentbat, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2367/2501039025_5a6c70af8e.jpg" alt="Night Experiments continue" height="500" width="414" /></a><br /></div><br />While there were still some technical aspects that I wasn't happy about with this photo, for the first time I felt that I started to capture the image that was in my head... In my mind that is a pretty big milestone. <br /><br />I have shot this location before at dawn, but focused on the swirling waves.... this time I wanted the focus to be on the sky contrasting with the gorgeous pool sitting in the blur of the ocean.<br /><br />I pretty much achieved my result..... at last..... shows that it does pay off to stick with it.<br /><br />Got a few more images in my head that I'd like to take this full moon.... I just wish the damn clouds would play ball.... it's been crystal clear nights the last few.<br /><br />Incidentally, this image was actually taken at dusk (15 min after sunset), with a 10stop ND filter on. Sure helps with the composition and focus when there is a bit of light around. I stopped down to f11 and almost 5min for this exposure.<br /><br />BPBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-33990313122053313172008-04-20T09:09:00.005+10:002008-12-12T06:31:12.084+11:00A Night Photography ExcursionLast night my old man, Kajo and I went out for an evening of night photography. This was pretty bullish as it had been raining on and off all day and the forecast was pretty lousy for the evening... but then it beats TV!<br /><br />We decided to head out and shoot an old abandoned plane that another Flickr member Rob Des had done a nice job of shooting.<br /><br />The first little problem came when we got out of the car... the ground wasn't just wet, but it was literally a marsh... within 3 steps my shoes were totally sodden.<br /><br />When we arrived the sky started clearing nicely and we thought we were going to have a great night's shooting. We started shooting this old DC3 and I grabbed this shot before the clouds closed in on us again.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentbat/2426661656/" title="Night Flight by brentbat, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2388/2426661656_8a754092b6.jpg" alt="Night Flight" height="303" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SAqGFs5wAKI/AAAAAAAAAKA/JgQMLhQM73M/s1600-h/seeking+cover.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SAqGFs5wAKI/AAAAAAAAAKA/JgQMLhQM73M/s320/seeking+cover.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5191108953008767138" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Shortly after this, we had to take shelter from the rain. Luckily the airplane wing provided plenty of cover from the elements.... We killed a bit of time by playing around with some light painting in the interior of the plane.<br /><br />Once it stopped raining, we went outside and continued shooting, but without any breaks in the cloud, the night shots just looked like day shots. We decided to do some more experimentation <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SAqGj85wALI/AAAAAAAAAKI/J2STp6x08EE/s1600-h/pilot+and+copilot.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/SAqGj85wALI/AAAAAAAAAKI/J2STp6x08EE/s320/pilot+and+copilot.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5191109472699809970" border="0" /></a>with light painting and strobes and while we were learning a lot more about how strong to make our torch light, without scattered clouds in the background the shots just didn't have the punch that we were looking at from night photography. We waited about another 30 minutes discussing everything from the merits of various noise reduction plug-ins to lens recommendations... however finally we called it a night and headed home.<br /><br /><br /><br />Even though we only got about 20 mins of shooting in ideal conditions, the outing was a lot of fun and pretty educational.Brent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-37842357176088482162008-04-03T15:26:00.003+11:002008-04-03T16:30:34.720+11:00Putting the creativity back to the camera not photoshopLately I've been going "retro" with my photography. I bought a spot meter and a creative filter kit for me camera. It's all part of my deliberate effort to slow my photography down and shoot less shots that are higher quality.<br /><br />Getting into filters again has been interesting. I decided to go with the <a href="http://www.cokin.com/ico15/ico15-haut.html?=#z">ZPro size</a> Cokin filter holder because it allows me to use my ultra-wide lenses without vignetting.<br /><br />After a fair bit of research I decided to go with the <a href="http://www.singh-ray.com/grndgrads.html">Singh Ray Graduated ND filters</a> which I love! I also decided to buy a <a href="http://www.cokin.com/filtres.html?=#154">Cokin 3 stop ND filter</a>. I figured that even though Cokin are cheap filters I couldn't go too badly wrong with a simple ND filter...... <span style="font-weight: bold;">Wrong!</span><br /><br />When I started shooting I noticed a kind of candy pink colour cast coming out in my shots (you can see it clearly in the shot below.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentbat/2352049016/" title="The Old Boy Being Swept Away by brentbat, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3031/2352049016_ca8e2d179c.jpg" alt="The Old Boy Being Swept Away" height="262" width="400" /></a><br /><br />I was perplexed by the pink sky I was getting but didn't get a chance to diagnose the source. About a week later I was shooting some sunrise shots and I clearly saw the pink cast again come up on the camera LCD, so I did a simple test... I pulled out the Cokin ND and left in the Singh Ray filter. Here's the results...<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentbat/2372603825/" title="Cokin's NOT SO Neutral Density Filter by brentbat, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3038/2372603825_506f29119e.jpg" alt="Cokin's NOT SO Neutral Density Filter" height="338" width="400" /></a><br /><br />Now whether you like the pink sky or not... the fact is that it SHOULD be neutral (the colour on the right). If I want a coloured sky then I would add a tobacco filter or colour it in post production. But I didn't.<br /><br />I have taken my Cokin ND back to the shop I bought it from and I am trying to get a refund. I am paying the extra money for Lee ND filters which have come highly recommended.<br /><br />Moral of the story... You get what you pay for... filters aint filters.<br /><br />BPBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-66809048076083738312008-02-27T17:20:00.002+11:002008-02-27T17:42:43.034+11:00Finding The North and South Celestial PoleI'm sure all of you have seen those cool star trails photos of the stars spinning around a circle. Well that circle is either the North or South Celestial pole. <br /><br />Now I don't know about you, but my astronomy is not that flash, and when I was out doing some photography the other night, I couldn't work out the axis that the stars rotated around so I could frame my shots.<br /><br />I decided to do a bit of research to work out how to locate them, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_pole#Finding_the_North_Celestial_Pole">here's the answer.</a><br /><br />Enjoy<br />BrentBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com54tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-57388374775850025362008-02-24T21:07:00.002+11:002008-02-24T21:14:45.349+11:00Night Shoot Number 3 - The Old Blast FurnaceLast Saturday my Old Man and I threw our swags into the 4WD and headed up to the mountains for a planned evening of night photography. It was a full moon so we figured the old Blast Furnace at Lithgow would be a great location for some long exposure work.<br /><br />Got some interesting images. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentbat/2286522717/" title="Architecture Under The Stars by brentbat, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2142/2286522717_6a75a4650c.jpg" width="335" height="500" alt="Architecture Under The Stars" /></a><br /><br /><br />This first one was a 12 minute exposure... my longest yet. I jumped down into the basement of the old gas works and camped out there in the dark to get this image.<br /><br />We were lucky in the fact that a bunch of clouds finally came overhead to create some drama to this image of the ruins.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentbat/2288040246/" title="The clouds Did Come After All by brentbat, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3254/2288040246_f4f4d22828.jpg" width="400" height="268" alt="The clouds Did Come After All" /></a><br /><br /><br />Starting to feel like I am getting the night photography sussed out... I've got a routine going to calculate exposures and to compose my shots and I seem to be making the captures correctly (hardly any noise and the amp glow hasn't posed a major problem).<br /><br />I love the pace of night photography... lots of time to think and plan while the shutter is open. My new torch seems to work well, so I'll have to start doing more painting with light.<br /><br />BrentBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-66998380179087382922008-02-21T13:44:00.003+11:002008-12-12T06:31:12.379+11:00How Do You Calculate Night Exposures?One of the most frustrating aspects of jumping into night photography was the exposure metering. Forget your handy-dandy in-camera meters, mine will only meter to 30sec and I expect thats pretty much standard.<br /><br />So how do you work out your exposures? Hand held light meter? I don't think so...<br /><br />Most hand-held light meters are only sensitive to about -2ev, so thats not going to help you work out your exposures.<br /><br />Trial and Error - Yup, that works... but here's a way to get close to the right exposure out of the gate.<br /><br />I came across an interesting article by <a href="http://www.fredparker.com/natbio.htm">Fred Parker</a> called "<a href="http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm">The Ultimate Exposure Computer"</a>. If you haven't seen this, it's worth a read. Fred has published some exposure tables that allows you to calculate exposures under any lighting conditions, using any combination of shutter speed, ISO and Aperture.<br /><br />What I have done is to distill the relevant information into a handy pocket card that allows you to get a pretty good starting point for your exposures. This is what it looks like.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/R7znHUCZk0I/AAAAAAAAAJg/ieM24x4QH5c/s1600-h/night+photography+guidde.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-gH1JeuOYU8/R7znHUCZk0I/AAAAAAAAAJg/ieM24x4QH5c/s400/night+photography+guidde.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5169260585138361154" border="0" /></a>You will see that it "hard-coded" to 200 ISO (because thats what the speed that I'm going to shoot all my night work) and the aperture ranges from f4 to f16 (because I'm unlikely to shoot outside that range). <br /><br />So just look at what sort of moon you have, and then read off how many minutes you need to expose for at the various f-stops.<br /><br />If anybody wants this chart in PDF format, just drop me an email, otherwise you can just print this article and cut it out.<br /><br />Enjoy<br /><br />BrentBrent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com134tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-656866622502875092.post-24543443786278659552008-02-20T22:48:00.004+11:002008-02-20T22:55:09.817+11:00Now I'm getting ready for a serious shootOK, I've done two weekends of test shoots at Turrimetta and learned some useful techniques. I feel I'm ready for a more serious night shoot.<br /><br />I just bought a neat little torch from <a href="http://www.surefire.com">Surefire</a>, these things are very cool. Very small, very bright, rechargable and have a 5000 degree colour temperature, so I shouldn't get any colour casts when I do some light painting.<br /><br />This weekend The Old Man and I are headed up to an interesting location, we are going to up to the Old Blast Furnace in Lithgow. I went there about a year ago and took some shots like this one.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentbat/488140785/" title="Old Blast Furnace 4 by brentbat, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/199/488140785_65413bfaab.jpg" alt="Old Blast Furnace 4" height="237" width="400" /></a><br /><br />The conditions look good. Full moon rising 30min after dusk, fine weather (I hope we get some clouds).<br /><br />Going to shoot sunset, then dusk, then night, then sunrise.<br /><br />Hopefully I will have some half-decent images to post next week.Brent Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922067766282823238noreply@blogger.com3