Astro Visual Photography

Playing around one evening with some lights, my daughter and I decided to get a shot of her ‘driving’ her car.

Driving

OBJECTIVE:

I wanted this to look like one of those shots we see in the movies where the actor is supposed by driving along at night.

COMPOSITION:

The composition this time was created with the vignetting as much as the subject placement.

SETUP & SETTINGS:

1/60th – f2.8 – ISO 320. 51mm focal length. No filters on the lens. Hand held. No Flash.
Not wanting too much noise I kept my ISO down but chose a low f-stop to still try to keep my shutter speed above where I needed a tripod. Generally speaking I try to never use anything under 1/60th when shooting people because it doesn’t take much to create motion blur even at that speed.
The light is produced from a bright LED light/flashlight/torch sitting on the drivers floor.

POST PROCESSING:

A little sharpening for her eyes, curves to both brighten the light areas but also darken the dark areas. I may have also used a black brush to darken a couple of areas a bit more but I don’t remember exactly.

END RESULT:

I’m happy with this one. The light source has produced strong shadows but also highlights. A reflection of part of the dashboard suggests that the light source is in fact the cars dashboard lights.

Walking through a rain-forest early last year I looked up and saw an almost abstract image above me.

Backlighting in the Canopy

OBJECTIVE:

Simple this time. I just wanted to reproduce what I could see … the yellow/greens of the light passing through the leaves of the trees and plants high above me in the rain-forest.

COMPOSITION:

The composition is simple . I just zoomed around until I found a spot that had a few elements in it I liked. Several different leaves and shadows with plenty of bright back lighting to create the vivid colour and silhouettes. This one appealed because of the dark corners at the bottom left and top right which helped contrast the green/yellows.

SETUP & SETTINGS:

1/640th – f6.3 – ISO 640. 320mm focal length. No filters on the lens. Hand held. No Flash.
I chose my longer zoom lens in order to get in close to the canopy some 30 metres above me.
It was quite dark in the rain-forest but I wanted to use a mid range f-stop to create a reasonable depth of field. Because I was zoomed well in AND shooting almost directly above my head I also wanted a fast shutter speed to help get some sharpness so I cranked the ISO up to 640. Being a fairly busy scene I was hoping any noise would not be apparent.

POST PROCESSING:

Again, nothing I remember. I may have saturated the colour slightly but that’s all.

END RESULT:

I got what wanted. Strong, contrasting blacks for the bright, leaves and obvious shadows.

Sometimes when it’s cold and wet outside, or I simply can’t think of a good location I can be bothered with, I look around the house for something to photograph. I found this big teddy bear staring at me from the corner of the bedroom and decided to try something I’d seen done.

Light Painted Teddy Bear

OBJECTIVE:

I’d seen objects lit up with various lighting sources using long exposures so I wanted to try to get some cool result using that method. This bear (which stands about 1 metre or 3 foot tall) is totally white so I figured he’d make a good subject.

COMPOSITION:

The composition is simple as I was just trying to learn this technique. I simply placed Yogi there on a black bar chair (seeing as black doesn’t reflect so well) and that was about it. How he sat was what I had in terms of composition.

SETUP & SETTINGS:

20 secs – f20.0 – ISO 100. 32mm focal length. No filters on the lens. Tripod. No Flash.
This was at night so darkness wasn’t an issue. The ISO of 100 was chosen to help reduce any noise from the long exposure.
To shoot this I first focused on Boo Boo with the light on and using manual focus.
For the lighting I used a red (has an orange strip as well) rear bike light, just the usual LED type you get these days in a decent bike shop. I set that to on solid, not flash. I then simply traced around the outside of the bear while using the camera timer. I could have just  used the bulb setting and walked over in the dark to turn it off but figured a timer can do that for me and I won’t trip over anything that way.

POST PROCESSING:

Nothing I remember. I may have saturated the colour slightly but that’s all.

END RESULT:

I think I got a cool result with the light creating some strong shadows in the bears fur and the light ‘trace’ forming a frame around him. Something different to play with anyhow.

Walking around the botanical gardens one day in 2008 I had the opportunity to shoot many of Eastern Water Dragons that call the place home.

Eastern Water Dragon

OBJECTIVE:

Although these lizards were in a botanical garden setting, I wanted to get a shot that did not make that obvious.

COMPOSITION:

The choices were huge. It was warm and there were lizards everywhere if you looked for them. Many were simply sunning on the paths, others on logs or under bushes and trees. In the Japanese Gardens section I sure this one above. By walking around him and zooming in a little I was able to place foliage between him and myself to create some depth.

SETUP & SETTINGS:

1/200th – f5.0 – ISO 400. 180mm focal length. No filters on the lens. Hand held. No Flash.
The ISO of 400 was needed as the day was overcast and the scene darker than it appears here. By using a higher ISO I could use a fill flash, to make sure his face was well lit, without creating harsh flash shadows.

POST PROCESSING:

Sharpening and curves/levels to increase contrast. Then, using layer masking, I applied a selective sharpening technique to make sure that eye was sharp as possible.

END RESULT:

I think this photo has turned out much as I wanted. The low f-stop combined with the 180mm focal length has created a narrow depth of field which gives some feeling of depth to the photo. The foliage between myself and lizard boy there, along with the low angle, helps to give the impression he is in his natural environment and not sitting on a strip manicured grass.

I’d never been to a hill climb motorsport event so we drove up to Noosa Heads a couple of years ago to see the nationally famous Noosa Hill Climb event and shoot some snaps. The drivers were good. Too good for me because there was little action to catch with the camera. Getting creative was the only way to come away happy.

Ferrari Enzo 308

OBJECTIVE:

To catch some sort of ‘attitude’ in the car as it took a high speed corner.

COMPOSITION:

The car was the main subject here but totally filling the frame with the car doesn’t show the viewers where the car was or what it was doing. I chose a section of track that swept through the frame hoping to show how the car had driven in from one corner of the frame and would drive out through the opposite corner.

SETUP & SETTINGS:

1/800th – f5.6 – ISO 400. 300mm focal length. No filters on the lens. Hand held. No Flash.
The ISO of 400 allowed me to keep the shutter speed higher in order to capture the subject sharper than a slower shutter speed would have. In this case I wanted that so the road and it’s direction remained visible. I’d have lost that had I chosen a slow shutter speed and panned with the car.

POST PROCESSING:

Sharpening and curves/levels to increase contrast. Then, using layer masking, I applied a selective colour technique and finally a slight blur effect.

END RESULT:

I think this photo achieves what I wanted quite nicely. The Ferrari is definitely the subject and the car immediately grabs your eye. We can see the car has turned right into this corner and we can follow the road to see it must now prepare to turn left to exit out the top left of frame. That, combined with the blur treatment, gives a sense of movement and purpose to the car, leaving us in no doubt what it’s doing and where it’s going.