Astro Visual Photography

Cedar Creek is a location I have gone to many times. Flowing water is always an attraction for me. However, once I’ve visited a location often, I find myself looking deeper for more interest than the overall views I’ve shot before.

The Stick in the Creek

OBJECTIVE:

The stick on the rock bed in the creek appealed to me so I wanted to make that the central focus of my shot but also liked the overall scene before me..

COMPOSITION:

I took one in portrait mode as well which well and truly made the stick the main subject but lacked the environment factor I thought was important also, so I went with the landscape orientation above. I wanted to include some of the foliage to further show the secluded nature of the stream.

SETUP & SETTINGS:

2 sec – f14 – ISO 100. 21mm focal length. No filters on the lens. Tripod. No flash.

POST PROCESSING:

A little sharpening and curves to both brighten the light areas but also darken the dark areas.

END RESULT:

With the landscape orientation, I was able to include where the creek had come from, which added some ‘flow’ to the photo, something for the eyes to follow. By placing the stick low and roughly in a rule of thirds position, it’s obvious that the stick is indeed a main feature here.

Framing is popular way to add interest to a photo. I was down along the waterfront early last year, just after dawn, and struggling to find something to catch my interest, until I saw this stone window.

Stone Window

OBJECTIVE:

I liked the stone texture and wanted to use it as a frame for the sea beyond. The sea itself lacked any real interest so my objective was to create more interest.

COMPOSITION:

The frame of the stone window dictated much of the composition but I noticed a fella kayaking out there and waited for him to paddle into view of the window.

SETUP & SETTINGS:

1/200th – f14 – ISO 100. 100mm focal length. No filters on the lens. Tripod. On camera External Flash.

POST PROCESSING:

A little sharpening and curves to both brighten the light areas but also darken the dark areas.

END RESULT:

Mixed results here really I think. My original intention of using the stone frame as an added feature of interest may have backfired somewhat and ended up becoming the main subject. The sea and kayak reduced to the added interest role.The flash was used as fill light but in a subtle way so as not to destroy the suns effect on the left side of the frame.

Night photography often attracts new photographers attention but many I find have little idea how to go about it.
It’s not as scary as one may think.

Brisbane's Story Bridge

OBJECTIVE:

I’d taken several photos from the other side of the bridge and several of the city without the bridge on this evening but decided I wanted to find a view that wasn’t seen as often. I drove around the roads that skirted the river until I saw this view and decided it was what I’d been looking for. The reflections and city as a backdrop fitting nicely for me.

COMPOSITION:

I could have chosen several focal lengths here but found too many distraction out wide of the bridge and found that by zooming out I introduced too many foreground elements as well. In the end I decided to zoom in to eliminate as much as I could of those distractions but leave enough in the foreground to show the height above the water.

SETUP & SETTINGS:

30 secs – f8 – ISO 100. 18mm focal length. No filters on the lens. Tripod.

The settings you choose will often vary depending on how dark it is and how much light there is in the scene. I usually choose around f8 for my aperture because it’s usually reasonably sharp on most lenses and gives a good depth of field as well. A lower ISO setting helps to reduce noise. Then I adjust the shutter speed to cater for the amount of light. In a brighter scene I might have used only around 10 secs or less.

POST PROCESSING:

I straightened the shot because it was a bit lopsided and I slightly boosted the colours from memory.

END RESULT:

There are some pretty colours you can catch shooting Brisbane from across the river but shooting from this view added in that dominant orange reflection from the bridge lights which I thought was very striking and bright enough to create a silhouette effect in the foreground. This added some depth perception also.

Getting lightning photos is often on many new photographers list of things to shoot but often many of them have little idea how to go about it. The reality is, if you have a suitable storm, it’s really quite easy.

Lightning over Clear Mountain

OBJECTIVE:

My original objective for this shot was to capture a decent lightning shot but not over a lake as I’ve done before.

OBSERVATIONS:

It was around dusk as the storm was approaching my chosen location, the top of a nearby mountain. Here in Australia, a large hill is considered a mountain for some reason. Probably some geological thinking behind it I guess.
The storm was coming in with a vengeance from the west and removed all the light. Some storms have a heap of rain ahead of them which ruins the shots but this one was putting on a good show first. Sometimes a storm will put on a better show after it passes by. If it doesn’t leave rain set in that is.

COMPOSITION:

Looking west, where the storm was coming from, I could see the twin peaks of Mt Samson being silhouetted with the flashes of lightning. I decided to make sure I had those in frame and hope I’d get some good strikes across the photo.

SETUP & SETTINGS:

36 secs (Bulb setting with a remote release) – f8.0 – ISO 100. 18mm focal length. No filters on the lens. Tripod. Manual focus set to infinity.
If you don’t have  a remote release then simply use your timer function.

POST PROCESSING:

Very little processing was done to this photo at all. A slight sharpening, curves/levels adjustment, was about all.

END RESULT:

During the 36 seconds I had 4 individual lightning strikes. I didn’t get all those at once of course. The 4 strikes gave off enough light that I got the mountains silhouetted but also the farmland in the middle of the shot as well.

Thanks for coming.

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.

Sunset over Lake Samsonvale

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.

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