Astro Visual Photography

Shooting sports can be a challenging exercise in many ways. Often photographers go for the highest shutter speeds they can to freeze the action and get sharply focused photos. I often do this also.

However, sometimes it’s nice to go for something a little different and that’s where this panning and 2nd sync shot came into being.

OBJECTIVE:

My original objective for this shot was to capture the mountain biker in focus but also show some speed and movement.

OBSERVATIONS:

It was early morning in a 24 hour race and the low light gave me the opportunity to shoot a slow shutter shot to blur the background as I moved the camera in time with the riders as they passed.

COMPOSITION:

I found a section of track where I could see the riders coming and they would actually swing around me as I stood near the exit of a turn. At the right moment I aimed to get the rider in shot but also show the track and speed of the rider by having the grass nicely blurred. With a wide angle focal length I figured I could get in close to enhance that speed and movement.

SETUP & SETTINGS:

1/25th – f8.0 – ISO 400 hand held at a 18mm focal length. No filters on the lens. Flash was set to 2nd Sync (or 2nd Curtain) and I panned with the riders as they entered the turn and hit the button as they entered the section I wanted to capture them in.

POST PROCESSING:

Very little processing was done to this photo at all. A slight sharpening was about all.

END RESULT:

The 2nd sync flash setting was helpful in getting the rider in focus but still show movement. At 1/25th shutter speed, the panning was plenty, combined with the speed of the rider, to create a blurred background. At the last moment before the exposure finished, the flash fired and captured most of the rider and bike nice and sharp. The panning motion wasn’t in perfect time with the rider and this created a cool, blurred effect around the sharp image the flash created. All these things combined resulted in a shot that shows the speed and action of the mountain biker but retained sharpness.

Thanks for coming.

~ Astro Visual Web Design ~

~ Astro Visual Flickr Album ~

I thought for my first post I’d start with something simple. Seeing as my intention is to help others who are still finding their feet in the digital photography world I’ve chosen this shot, which had minimal processing.

OBJECTIVE:

My objective was simply to capture the best part of the sunset in some, impacting way.

OBSERVATIONS:

I was at a park overlooking the lake and could see that the sunset wasn’t going to last too long, as they often don’t. The brilliance of the reds, yellows and oranges were also going to force me to expose (set the camera settings) for these bright areas and therefore have to accept some dark shadows in the photo.
HDR Merge is a technique that helps the camera cope with scenes like this whee the bright areas and dark areas are so strong that the camera can’t correctly expose in the same photo. I did take several photos for some HDR Merge (again I’ll include HDR Merge in future posts) but in this case I wanted a single shot and the dark areas retained.

COMPOSITION:

With the sunsets main core being right behind the twin peaks of Mt Samson, I felt that narrowed my choices a little. I had my wide angle lens and a 24-70mm lens with me so I could include quite a bit of real estate or zoom in a little if I wanted to.  As the sunset, mountains and coloured sky were my main subject I glanced around to see what I could include to help enhance those. The lake is an obvious choice and the reflections of colour were screaming to be included as well. As the sunsets main impact was near the mountain peaks and the colour faded away quickly to either the left or right, I chose to zoom in and make sure I captured that strong pink cloud. I decided to place the mountains to the right of the frame and let the sunset ‘walk’ across the photo towards the right hand side.
Next was the vertical composition, in other words, how much water and how much sky I wanted. A couple of test shots to check my settings and see what the sky and water looked light and I had my decision. I went with the Rule of Thirds technique more or less and kept 1/3rd water and 2/3rds sky.

SETUP & SETTINGS:

1/4th – f11.0 – ISO 200 hand held at a 55mm focal length. No filters on the lens. Tripod.

POST PROCESSING:

Back at home I did very little to this photo at all. I used a curves tool in my editing software which basically adjusts the lightness and darkness levels and tends to affect the contrast in the process. I also boosted up the colours a little and used a dodge tool (which lightens) to just bring out a little detail in the darker areas.

END RESULT:

In the end I managed to get something like I was hoping for. The details in the sunset and sky retained and enough detail in some parts of the shadows to create a bit of interest as well.

Thanks for coming.

~ Astro Visual Web Design ~
~ Astro Visual Flickr Album ~

WELCOME

Hey thanks for sticking your head to have a look around Put your feet up and hang around as long as you want.

ABOUT ME

I’ve dabbled in photography to some degree for many years (had various film 35mm cameras at given times) with a hiatus of a few years until I decided to have a closer look at digital a few years ago. I spent a fair bit of time playing with computer graphics and the ability to process photos digitally was very appealing. It still is.

I spent a couple of years as a semi pro photographer, I guess you’d say, shooting events and writing magazine articles for money, but do not consider myself the best or even a pro. For the past few years I’ve been an avid photographer  and regular in several photography forums around the net and have enjoyed helping others to lift their photography to levels they were struggling to attain.

WHY A BLOG?

I’m really hoping to help people find ways to refine their thinking,  approach to, techniques with, how they go about preparing to take a photo, and then maybe how they process it afterward.
At this early point in the game I’m not really looking at advanced techniques in any detail, even though I will use some advanced techniques and the resulting photos in future entries here. I don’ t intend to provide a step by step tutorial.
The idea is to give an insight into what was going on in my head when I took the photos, and hopefully in the process, help others to find ways to improve their photography.

If just some people enjoy and benefit from my ramblings here I’ll be happy

A few samples of my work …

~ Astro Visual Web Design ~
~ Astro Visual Flickr Album ~