Photography - Show us your photos !

[VladTepes]

Figured I'd bump this thread with a couple of random pics I took.


"Grazing the Shadow Line" - St Helena Island, Queensland.


Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum, Warrnambool, Victoria.


"Beached carcass".  Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum, Warrnambool, Victoria.


Great Ocean Road, Victoria.


"Contrast in Colour"


"The White Tower"


"Lead on!"


untitled.

[VladTepes]

Oh and one more... my first attempt at "light painting" which came out remarkably well...

Bow by Michael Reed, on Flickr

HMQS Gayundah, Woody Point, Queensland.

[KiwiCol]

I really like the 'light painting' one Mike, the subject, the perspective & the lighting, just fantastic. A very spooky & intimidating scene.  Top marks!   

[Speedy1959]

Jack Sparrow be there !

Excellent photo.

[Proteous]

how long was the exposure Mike?

[northern]

Lately, I do not like to carry my dslr around. Primary, because mobiles phones cameras make pretty deasent pictures this days...
Especially when my 40D + 15-85 walk-around lens is quite heavy...

But I have to admit - mirror + good lens are the best 

[ARH]

Cracking pics! 

[froudy]

@VladTepes

That "Light painting" shot is very striking.
I have heard of light painting, but have no idea what it entails...I'll look into it

I don't seem to have had any spare time recently to get out with the camera and I'm missing it. I'm off for a couple of weeks now, so hopefully once the million and one other jobs are sorted myself and Mrs F can get some camera time in.
She's really taken to photography and is getting some great results with the Canon.

[VladTepes]

I really like the 'light painting' one Mike, the subject, the perspective & the lighting, just fantastic. A very spooky & intimidating scene.  Top marks!   

Thanks.  I didn't get the top of the bow in, which is a big composition mistake, but otherwise I am pretty happy with it.

@VladTepes
That "Light painting" shot is very striking.
I have heard of light painting, but have no idea what it entails...I'll look into it

There are two types of light painting - this style, and the style sometimes known as "light graffiti where the light source is in frame and is moved during the shot to get the effect (totally different to this style.)

how long was the exposure Mike?

I had the technical limitation of a camera which has a max 30sec exposure time, no bulb mode etc. For this, and another reason I'll discuss in a moment, I did it this way.

Using a tripod (naturally) set shutter speed to 30 sec @ f2.8 (which is the largest opening my Panasonic FZ200 does).
I then set the self timer to 10 seconds (so no tripod shake and to give me some time to get into position) and clicked the shutter button.  The 10 seconds gave me time to get over to the ship and turn on the torch (taking great care not to shine it toward the camera.

I then shone the torch over a section of the ship, sweeping back and forth - just like painting - so as not to get any 'hot spots' in the picture. After the 30 seconds - rinse and repeat on another section until I had done all that I wanted to do.   
(A good tip is to check the photos in camera before you leave to ensure you've not missed anything.

Later, I post processed these images together - stacking with layer masks so that the 'painted' section of each image showed through but the rest of the image was masked. (I used Photoshop Elements, but many programs can do similar).

Before actually stacking them it's best to adjust if there are any images significantly brighter or dimmer than the others, but I was very lucky as I'd obviously been careful to illuminate evenly with the torch.  It's just a matter of choosing a 'patch' the same size each time and sweeping uniformly back and forth for the desired time.

The result is fairly pleasing. 

A couple of things I'd change if I did it again -  I'd take a (series of) long exposures of the sky to get some better star trails.  Obviously I'd get the composition right. (On a sad side note the top of the bow has since collapsed :( )

Another tip is that the object (usually, there are no fixed rules in photography) needs to be placed in context which also helps with a sense of scale.  In this case, the lights of the port in the background with the subsequent glow in the sky, provide that. 

Any other questions, let me know.

[KiwiCol]

Great explanation Mike. 
Looking again at the shot, with what you've said, the star trails tell the story, there's 10 x 30 second frames there.  You can count the wee dots that make up the trail, tells us how many shots you layered to end up with this one.

When I was looking at the length of the star trails, I was estimating how long an exposure you'd used to get them that length, but they're actually made up of dots.    If you had a bulb setting, you wouldn't need to do all those shots & layer them, just move the light around.

[VladTepes]

Well done Mr Holmes

Another benefit of doing it this way is that my body never ended up in any part of the frame which made it to the final image.

Plus if it was done in a single image, the lights from the port, and the sky would blow out significantly. That could be avoided with a single frame for that purpose only with the other "all painted' frame over it.

I still think the layered techniqueis best for a large subject like this.

Something smaller like a tree or wooden gate etc could be done successfully in a single exposure - assuming longer than 30sec was available.

[froudy]

I haven't had much time for photography for the last 10 days or so what with Mrs F being in hospital.
Grabbed a few more Moon shots a couple of nights ago and then a few flowers last evening.

[VladTepes]

I like selective colouration. Offers all sorts of creative opportunities if used correctly / not overused.

I particularly like when old cars are coloured selectively, that an really work.

Here's some examples of what I mean. They aren't my images so I won't embed them, but check out:

https://wallup.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/73693-rally_cars-selective_coloring-dust-Subaru.jpg

http://hdwall.us/thumbnail/bentley_continental_gt_cars_selective_coloring_vehicles_best_desktop_1920x1080_hd-wallpaper-1309098.jpg

https://www.wallpaperup.com/uploads/wallpapers/2012/12/25/26472/bec15b29afd5bcfb73a96663ea6e87dc.jpg

https://www.wallpaperup.com/uploads/wallpapers/2012/08/06/9445/328db92459850357e707b0fed1e2c8e6.jpg

[Tug]

One of the two foxes comes in my site office in Iraq in the morning to help eat breakfast.

[froudy]

@VladTepes
Yes, those car photo's work well..I'm going to play around more with selective colour..I do like the effect.

@Tug
That's a great photo