2009/2/1 Bruce Dayton <bkday...@daytonphoto.com>: > Hello David, > > Got some pretty cool star trails there. They are sure fun to shoot. > Half the battle is to get something interesting in the shot besides > the stars. You've done quite well here. Very neat shot!
Thanks Bruce. The distances I have to travel sometimes to get far enough away from the city to first see the stars, then try & find and interesting foreground, are crazy. But I love doing it. > I'm curious to know more about the shoot, having done a tiny bit of > this myself back in the film days. Did you take many different > shots? Did you use the digital review to help determine > exposure...anyway, whatever you'd like to share, I'd love to hear > about. First order of business is to scout the location (preferably before it gets dark) to get some ideas & always with a mind as to where the north & south poles are. As to the shoot, my first item of business is to set-up, focus & compose as best as possible. Then I take a 15-30 second test exposure at ISO 6400. I review the shot to confirm focus & framing, adjusting as needed (repeating the short high ISO exposure until I'm happy). Next step is to figure out the exposure. I this situation the trails are easy There is no light pollution to worry about so I can't overexpose the sky. I used ISO 400 because I find that the trails come out a bit more well defined than if I shoot them at ISO 100/200. The length of the trails comes down to how long I want them, or how patient I'm feeling. If I want them long I'll use a lower ISO, If I just want pin pricks then I'll leave the ISO cranked up. In situations where there is ambient light, I use the ISO 6400 test shot & the review image as an aid to determine the lower ISO main shot. I'll keep adjusting the exposure length until the lighting looks right. I then work backwards to determine the exposure at ISO 200/400. (ie 30 seconds at ISO 6400, 1 min @ ISO 3200, 2 min @ ISO 1600 etc). In these situations I'll sometimes expose for the foreground & then do a longer exposure for the trails. Combine in PS & layer mask. The tricky part in this shot is dialling in the right amount of light painting. That comes down to trial & error & counting one-one thousand, two one thousand, three...etc while I'm painting & paying attention to what I'm painting. Review the shot & adjust as needed. I always shoot with in camera NR off. Limited time at some locations makes 30min to +1 hr of waiting between exposures prohibitive. With the D700 I can get away with this, but I found it not such a good idea with the K10/20D. That's pretty much it. Not too much science and a fair amount of gut. Cheers, Dave > Friday, January 30, 2009, 10:10:44 PM, you wrote: > > DS> G'day All, > > DS> Here is another from my Goldfields trip: > > DS> <http://flickr.com/photos/disavage/3239831625/> > > DS> Direct link (~190kb) > > DS> <http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3535/3239831625_f5d71df0f4_o.jpg> -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
