Experimental Photography....Please be kind!

[Charlie747]

Yep, all Peterborough believe it or not... looks better than reality LOL. I had to do some serious clean up in post to get rid of litter, fag butts, pebbles and unwanted people etc.

Did you leave the silver Vectra to add a touch of reality 

Seriously that is the best looking shot of P.Boro TB I've seen. 

Pity Grain Barge not open for one of their yummy set menus 

[Rusty]

Steve .. 4 pages into this thread so I am a bit late but you know what I,m going to say !!!   
Black and white .. a bit of Serpia makes a great change and gives the picture real depth and focus of light.
The rest ?   
Clever stuff I know and you are VERY good at it but please don't turn any of our Cornwall piccies into anything less than the master pieces they are going to be !
I MAY even resurrect the D1X from the attic 
What do you think ??

[Lonewolf]

Nigel I'll just be impressed if you actually bring a charger along for a device you have with you. (For a change).

[Winston Smith]

One of my efforts - taken in Harz during last years testing

[Stephen.Stallebrass]

Went to Sunny Hunny (Hunstanton) yesterday to take some long exposures but it kinda went tits up... I lost my viewfinder cover, forgot to take my filter holder adaptor for my lens and left the bleeding ISO on 800 from the last time I used it. Schoolboy error I know, I should have checked it at the time (800 isn't bad but images can get a bit grainy the higher you go and in good light 100 is better - 800 is 3 full stops more sensitive to light).

Nevertheless, I took plenty of pictures with the view to trying a few things out later. I basically to 26x exposures (60mm at 1/30, f/32, ISO 800) and edited each one in Lightroom then opened and edited them as layers in Photoshop: auto-aligned, created them into a smart object and stacked them with a 'mean' algorithm (to get that blurry long exposure look) then reopened it in Lightroom to finish off (it was a 2GB+ file by this point). I know that's gobbledygook but thought I'd share in case any of you wanted to try it if you don't have filters.

So here are 3x composite images of the same thing with slightly different finishes: Colour, Dualtone (this ones for you Rusty as you said you like the sepia look) and my own fave the black + white, although looking at it again now I think I was a bit heavy with the vignette. What do you think? FYI they were shot on a Nikon D600 with a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8.

Colour Long Exposure Composite


Black + White Long Exposure Composite


Dualtone Long Exposure Composite (split toned black + white: sepia shadow - magenta highlight)


What do you think? Do you like them? Which is your fave? If you don't like them I'd love to hear your feedback...

[Lonewolf]

Stephen, very nice indeed. I did understand all your gobbledygook, it made perfect sense to me. I like the colour and the dualtone image but to me the B & W photo lacks punch and isn't by comparison to the others as impactive. But as I've said before photography is very personal, you like it and that is what counts. The vignette is strong and more apparent in the B & W image than in the others.


Did you not realise that you were getting some pretty fast shutter speeds??? The busker shot I did at the beginning of this thread was shot with ISO 1600, simply because I wanted a reasonable shutter speed and I believe I shot at F5.6 or maybe even F8 as I wanted all the image to be sharp.

[Lonewolf]

Chris, a nice image & with your own copyright signature, keep those BMW photos coming, we need to convert as many as possible.

[virginiajim]

Never!

[Lonewolf]

Never!

You..BMW..say..BMW..that..BMW..now..BMW..but..BMW..you..BMW..never..BMW..know..BMW.

[Stephen.Stallebrass]

Stephen, very nice indeed. I did understand all your gobbledygook, it made perfect sense to me. I like the colour and the dualtone image but to me the B & W photo lacks punch and isn't by comparison to the others as impactive. But as I've said before photography is very personal, you like it and that is what counts. The vignette is strong and more apparent in the B & W image than in the others.


Did you not realise that you were getting some pretty fast shutter speeds??? The busker shot I did at the beginning of this thread was shot with ISO 1600, simply because I wanted a reasonable shutter speed and I believe I shot at F5.6 or maybe even F8 as I wanted all the image to be sharp.

I didn't see the overpowering nature of the vignette until I came back to it with fresh eyes... they do say to leave it a bit and then come back to it. Yeah, it's different strokes for different folks. I'm still finding my interests and my own style. I'm really liking landscapes at the minute because it means I can put my camera on a tripod, slow down and think about what I'm doing and what I want to get.

No, I didn't realise until I got home and saw it was ISO 800, I did wonder at the time why the shutter speed was so quick but it didn't occur to me to check the ISO at the time as I thought it was still on ISO 100 from before. I shoot manual to take control of it but totally forgot to check ALL my exposure settings, LOL. I normally sett it to 100 to get the least noise then increase it as I need to but I did have my uncle with me nattering while I was trying to think and compose, so I missed it. Like I said, I am a noob and I have learnt from it, that's the important thing.

I have to say I'm quite please with the results so far. I have an idea of a shot combining steel wool, a dog chain and a lighter for an amazing special effects shot (let the jokes commence)... I just want to find the perfect location?

My aim was long exposure but knowing I'd fluffed it I was determined to get something out of it and remembered seeing a tutorial on stacking to get long exposures. Interestingly stacking multiple exposures with higher ISOs actually reduces the overall noise in the final image.

[Stephen.Stallebrass]

My latest experiment...

[Lonewolf]

Now that I really like. To be honest I've never tried anything like that but I presume it's quite an easy thing to achieve with a decent tripod, cable release etc? I must try to be more creative and experiment more.


I once saw one of our SOCO guys produce some photos within a derelict building, in total darkness, he focused on some debris with a torch and then illuminated the entire building level we were on with his torch using exposures of 30-40 seconds, the results were frighteningly good!  I got the impression he's done it before. 

[Stephen.Stallebrass]

Thanks, it's a bit softer in places then I'd like but it's all about trying new things for me at the moment. I drove around for ages trying to find somewhere but couldn't find anything inspiring so plumped for the flyover and done what I could in post. I've learnt that it's probably best to do it during the blue hour, not when it's completely dark - unless there's loads of interesting background like skyscrapers etc.

It was pretty easy: 30sec f/18.0, 100 ISO... (it's actually 2x images stacked in photoshop in maximum then I masked out everything but the light trails double bang for the buck... there wasn't as much traffic as I'd have liked).

Yeah, light painting; I've not tried that yet might be nice to do that on some sort of statue or monument??? I've got an idea for a special effects photo involving wire wire wool, a whisk and a dog chain. I wouldn't mind doing a Joel Tjintjelaar type B+W architecture shot at some point.

[Lonewolf]

Those are some beautiful images by Joel. Keep the photos coming.

[Charlie747]

Those are some beautiful images by Joel. Keep the photos coming.