CS #149 - Give me a second ... or more

[cathead77]

Well, folks, I have been asked to host this week's Collective Shoot! I must say I am honored and equally nervous, so I hope y'all go easy on me......lol. With that said let me welcome everyone to Collective Shoot #149! I called this week's shoot "Give Me a Second........Or More".

I have come to love extended exposure photography. I am still a novice, so I hope to learn more about this great method of photography this week. So I am asking that you shoot pictures for this project with a shutter speed of no faster than 1 second. Anything from 1 second or longer is what I want to see on the shutter speed. I expect we will see a lot of night and low light shots and maybe even some of those silky water flow shots that are achieved with a long shutter speed. Maybe we'll even see some star trails shot at 30 minutes.

The sky is the limit (as long as Nikon Cafe guidelines are followed), so get out there (or right there at home) and let your imagination run wild. I can't wait to see all of your contributions, because like I said this might be my favorite type of pictures.

I won't change any of the past procedures, so post as often as you wish, but limit each post to 3 pictures please. I think that 1024 pixels on the long side should be a maximum size, and remember to post only pictures that were taken during the set time frame. That time frame is from now until midnight, Thursday, August 20th. You may shoot and post within that time frame.

Below is an example of what I am talking about. That particular picture was taken with a 2 second shutter. But it's outside our time frame, so I get to shoot some more!!

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. Be sure and include info on how long you left your shutter open for your shots.

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[catalyst]

Hey Alan -

Awesome! Thanks a bunch / bushel for stepping up!

I'm confident that you'll have amazing shots contributed (well, probably not from me - :wink, but good or not-so-good, the whole point of the Collective Shoots IMHO is to provide just a little extra impetus / KITB (not sure if that is an officially recognized online abbreviation, but I bet that folks can divine it) to get out there with one's cam to just take and share some shots.

I'm hoping for some non-cloudy skies . . .

Your pal,

Eric

 

[pirahnah3]

hmmmmm interesting i think im gonna have to go play

 

[Bob Coutant]

By golly, that's something I have not done deliberately:smile: in a long time. [My wife might argue that I don't do anything that fast:biggrin:]

 

[BubbleChamber]

Alan, thanks for hosting and very interesting topic.

Hmm... now where did I put that tripod?

 

[cathead77]

Thanks, everybody. I'm looking forward to the pictures.

 

[JustEd]

Am trying

Thanks, everybody. I'm looking forward to the pictures.

In honor of your topic, I slept in an extra two hours this morning. Was planting small palm trees yesterday and got a bit weary from all the Sacramento heat. Back to more planting but hope to think of something worthwhile.

It is a great topic and I always enjoy seeing your postings!!! Hey, my sister is married to a Johnston:biggrin:

 

[cathead77]

In honor of your topic, I slept in an extra two hours this morning. Was planting small palm trees yesterday and got a bit weary from all the Sacramento heat. Back to more planting but hope to think of something worthwhile.

It is a great topic and I always enjoy seeing your postings!!! Hey, my sister is married to a Johnston:biggrin:

Ed, anytime you post I know I'm gonna either see a great picture or enjoy some very interesting reading. I've got a few ideas I want to try tonight myself. Happy Shooting! BTW, there are a lot less Johnstons than Johnsons I think.....:smile:

 

[catalyst]

Hey Alan -

It's been a steamy and cloudy day here, so I tried to think of something to shoot indoors.

I poured a glass of cola, hoping to capture some fizz. No dice! 10 s, f/20, LED flashlight:

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Then I went for some Alka-Seltzer. I wanted to see the effervescence above the glass, and this barely shows it. I took a lot of shots trying to get this one (and needed 3 packs of Alka-Seltzer - lol). 1.6 s, f/8, kitchen fluorescent light + LED flashlight:

View attachment 398185

I also wanted to see some of the trails left by the bubbles as they zoomed up. This was the best I came up with for that. 3 s, f/18:

View attachment 398186

Thanks for hosting the CS. I know you're going to get some great shots with this topic.

Eric

 

[cathead77]

Eric, that was a great idea. I never woulda thought of it. Those shots are crystal clear. I really like the hue on the cola from the LED. Thanks for playing with us. It is appreciated a lot.

 

[Bob Coutant]

I kinda like your third shot, Eric – did you try rear illumination for any of your experiments?

It’s hot, humid, and dead calm here too:frown:. I made it as far as the road out front, where I could see the church across the highway. I tried exposures at 1 and 5 seconds – liked the latter best. [full EXIF embedded] [Maybe better breathing weather in a couple of days:wink:.]

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http://www.greenapple.com/~rcoutant/temp/DSC_2968sm.jpg

 

[cathead77]

Cool picture, Bob! Did you have your white balance on auto? The lights look real natural to me....just like my naked eye would see them. I get a lot of green looking hues from lights in town at night. Thanks for the great looking picture!

 

[Bob Coutant]

Cool picture, Bob! Did you have your white balance on auto? The lights look real natural to me....just like my naked eye would see them. I get a lot of green looking hues from lights in town at night. Thanks for the great looking picture!

Thanks Alan. I always leave my WB on auto -- for most situations, it's easier for me to correct the color balance during processing. Night shots do often require separate adjustment for midtones and shadows. [No matter whether you set the color temperature, or adjust the red and blue multipliers, or whatever in camera, that amounts to a single reference point (tone level) adjustment. Works fine for many situations, but not for everything:smile:.] Then too, your lights could be mercury vapor lamps, which do have a strong green emission. [The church has a couple of mercury lights and one sodium vapor light on their grounds, but I tried to frame the picture so as to exclude any influence from those lights:wink:.]

 

[catalyst]

I kinda like your third shot, Eric – did you try rear illumination for any of your experiments?

It’s hot, humid, and dead calm here too:frown:. I made it as far as the road out front, where I could see the church across the highway. I tried exposures at 1 and 5 seconds – liked the latter best. [full EXIF embedded] [Maybe better breathing weather in a couple of days:wink:.]

Hey Alan, Hey Bob -

The Boss had a long list of honey-dos today (recycling, mowing, gutters, moving stuff, groceries, etc., in addition to designating me as the chef du jour), so I wound up with less than an hour to play with the cam.

Those shots are basically throw-aways taken in a rush: they were all taken on the table in our little kitchen where I was reminded several times about the need to get the coals started and the burgers and corn ready for grilling :smile: As usual, just wanted to toss something in to the CS . . .

Bob - I bet I could have found a better lighting arrangement, but I probably would not have come away with a better outcome. I did do a 360° preview with the flashlight, and tried to find a position that gave some light while minimizing reflections and shadows. I was holding it with my right hand while hitting the shutter with my left - not very rigorously controlled conditions! For the last two, I just propped up a piece of black foam core on a chair opposite to the cam. In the reflections you can see the 7-light hexagonal diffraction pattern from the flashlight's little bulbs.

I like the colors and exposure in your shot, Bob - did you apply some insect repellent for being out there?:biggrin: Maybe a bit of rotation in order to level the roof line, but then again, I imagine you had a long list from SWMBO also - lol.

Eric

 

[cathead77]

Yessiree, Eric. I know what you're sayin' 'bout the honey-do list. Glad you found time to start things off, though. Here is a shot I just took sitting on my swing on the porch. I set the timer for 2 seconds so I wouldn't be touching the camera when the shutter opened. I had the shutter on 30 seconds with the aperture stopped down to 11. You can see the green hue given off by the mercury vapor light, and you can also see a red reflection on the bumper given off by some red lights I have strung around my porch.

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[cathead77]

Folks, while I'm thinking about it.....I will be gone all day tomorrow for band practice. Don't think I have jumped ship. I'll be sure and check things Sunday night when I get home though. I look forward to what I'll find. Maybe I'll even get a chance to check once before I leave in the morning.

 

[coutanth1]

Alan,

:smile: First a great big "Thanks a Bushel" for hosting this week, and for choosing such a great theme!! :smile:

I actually had given up on long exposures this past winter because of such dismal results. Of course I was then shooting with a half-blind rig. So I went out at midnight to see what I might get. No moonlight, just the neighbors' security light in the first, light pollution from Newark 15 minutes to the NW, and finally sidelighting via another neighbors' porchlight. All were shot with the 18-105 and have exif imbedded.

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I'm thinking that the ISO didn't need to be set at 1250. :redface: Not sure how these rate in your book, but they sure got me excited to try some other ideas. :wink:

 

[cathead77]

Herschel, they are all cool, but I absolutely love the 2nd one! These shots are just right up my alley. I love 'em and I love these you contributed. Since the shutter will stay open for an extended time you can set the ISO at it's lowest for a cleaner picture. But these look great to me especially at 1250. BTW, the exif doesn't show up for me. Thanks for the great pics!

 

[Bob Coutant]

I like the colors and exposure in your shot, Bob - did you apply some insect repellent for being out there?:biggrin: Maybe a bit of rotation in order to level the roof line, but then again, I imagine you had a long list from SWMBO also - lol.

Eric

Eric, the slanting roof is a consequence of the angle -- building is running away -- note that the verticals (flag pole, doorway, etc.) are vertical. Yes, I could have either photographed from a different angle or I could have forced the perspective in PP. I chose to show it the way I saw it:smile:, but thanks for keeping a sharp eye.

You can see the green hue given off by the mercury vapor light, and you can also see a red reflection on the bumper given off by some red lights I have strung around my porch.

Alan, I've never shot under mercury lighting, so I had to check the color. I just happened to have a 545nm (the major mercury emission line) interference filter within reach -- looks the same as your green to me:smile:

I'm thinking that the ISO didn't need to be set at 1250. :redface: Not sure how these rate in your book, but they sure got me excited to try some other ideas. :wink:

Yep, those are dandies, especially the second one. And, Alan's right -- you don't really need to boost the ISO for these shots. I typically turn on the NR (noise reduction) for long exposures with my D70, but you guys with more modern cameras may not need that (if it's even available).

 

[DesignLov3]

Now that i own the d700, the tripod is in the stowed away in the attic.. just kidding