Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Project 52 - #11 - Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane


Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Originally uploaded by jezza323
This is the major local football stadium in Brisbane - Suncorp Stadium (previously known as Lang Park). Just a few minutes from the CBD it is the home of 3 major teams competing in national competitions. The Brisbane Broncos (Rugby League), The Queensland Roar (Soccer) and The Queensland Reds (Rugby Union).

This is a HDR composed of 3 shots, taken at +/- 2.0 EV and blended in Photomatix using the Details Enhancer. It is also cropped in a 16:9 ratio.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Lake Moogerah Sunrise Again


Lake Moogerah Sunrise Again
Originally uploaded by jezza323
Here is another HDR Panorama from my Lake Moogerah camping trip. I really like the colour of the sky and the reflections in this.

Let me know what you think!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Moogerah Milky Way


Moogerah Milky Way
Originally uploaded by jezza323
I spent the weekend just gone camping out at Lake Moogerah, about 1.5 hrs drive south west of Brisbane. I went on Friday night after work, and returned just before lunchtime on sunday. The sky was beautifully clear on Friday night (despite a tropical cyclone hitting the coast about 1000 km's away). So immediately after setting up camp, we broke out the tripods and cameras and started snapping the amazing stars which were visible.

People who have seen this shot keep asking how I knew where to point the camera, but its very easy, you can see almost as much as this with the naked eye. It really is amazing how much light pollution kills the view of the stars.

I went with a good mate of mine, and my fiance. It was due to be a boys photography weekend, but when my fiance said she wanted to come and check out this whole camping caper, who was I to say no? She enjoyed viewing the stars, and the two of us took enough photos to last a few weeks of PP.

This shot was taken using the K200D and the Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II kit lens. I set the lens to f4.0, as it is slightly soft wide open, 18mm because I wanted the shot as wide as possible (I really wish I could have gone wider! When Zennon posts his shots with the Sigma 10-20mm I will be sure to share them). I set the ISO to 1600, the camera's inbuilt long exposure noise reduction to ON, and the mode to Bulb.

Carefully I aimed my shot at our campsite (yes those are our tents, my fiance is even in the one on the right sleeping) and started the exposure using a cable remote (with a lock). I could lie and said I timed the exposure to perfection, but in reality I just waited till I thought it might be a good time to stop, and unlocked the shutter button on the cable remote. This is where it gets frustrating....now I had to wait again as long as the shutter was open for the noise reduction to process.

What happens here is the camera takes another exposure, the same length, at the same ISO, but with the shutter closed. This creates a dark frame, but with all the same noise/hot pixels as the original shot. The software in the camera then subtracts this dark frame from the original, which leaves it with much less noise.

I was immediately happy with this shot upon seeing it on the LCD, but I was unable to get more the same. The dew in the air was at all time record highs it would seem, anything and everything exposed to it was getting covered with a lovely layer of moisture, including my lens. Everytime I tried another long exposure after this one, the lens would fog up so badly it would ruin the shot.

This was processed in Lightroom 2.5 with the only the following 2 changes, Brightness +87, Contrast +51

I am really keen to head back to the camping spot for more of these kind of shots in the near future. Hopefully after I have myself a wider lens. I am currently looking at something like the Sigma 10mm f/2.8 EX DC Fisheye, which would give great views of the milky way, and allow me to do little planet photos and VR tours. Lets keep hoping!

Friday, March 19, 2010

Project 52 - #10 - Brisbane Riverwalk


Brisbane Riverwalk
Originally uploaded by jezza323
This is looking down part of the Brisbane Riverwalk. I took this shot from next to the Riverside Centre building, the main building in the shot is the Riparian Plaza and the building at the left is Waterfront Place.

Taken using Pentax K200D, Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II and Slik 500 DX Pro Tripod. This is a HDR Panorama, composed of 5 HDR images (I overlapped them a lot), each composed of 3 images shot at +2, 0, -2. Blended and Tone Mapped with Photomatix batch processor using Details Enhancer, and stitched using Autopano.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Interested in my Ghosts


Interested
Originally uploaded by jezza323
I shot this as I was setting up for the "Ghosts in the City" shot. I had the tripod all set, almost ready to go when this guy came wandering over for a look. So I took some shots of him. I had to up the ISO a bit to get him to stay still, but it came out ok.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Ghosts in the City


Ghosts in the City
Originally uploaded by jezza323
This is yet another stack, this time with ppl in it as well. Taken looking up Creek St in the Brisbane CBD on Thursday afternoon. The shots were only 1.6 sec exposures as it wasnt very dark yet, but the effect seems to have worked out ok.

There are no people directly in front of the camera as they were walking too fast past there to really show up in the shots.

I like the look of the people in motion here, so I think I will try for shots like this again in the future. It may be easier to get these shots during the day if I can get the shutter speed slow enough. Maybe it is time to order that Hoya ND400 filter I have been keeping an eye on.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Project 52 - #9 - Old Customs House


Old Customs House
Originally uploaded by jezza323
This is a shot of the Old Customs House in Brisbane. This is the view from the Brisbane Riverwalk.

This shot is another HDR Panorama, this time blended at stitched from 12 photos. It is stitched from 4 HDR images in a 2x2 layout using Autopano Giga, and each HDR image was shot at +/- 2.0 EV and then blended using Photomatix with the Batch Processing function, using Details Enhancer for Tone Mapping.

Shooting and Processing
  • Shot all 12 photos in Pentax RAW (PEF), 4 lots of +/- 2.0 EV brackets
  • Imported all images from memory card using Lightroom 2.5
  • Exported all 12 photos to a new subfolder as 1bit TIFF files
  • Opened Photomatix and ran Batch Process over the new subfolder
  • Opened Autopano and selected the 4 resulting TIFF HDR images to stitch
  • Rendered the created panorama to another 16-bit TIFF
  • Imported final TIFF into Lightroom 2.5
  • Edited white balance (its a hard one because the Riverwalk is lit with different colour lights to the lights on Customs House and cropped image
  • Exported to JPG for Web

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Spikes in the Rain


Spikes in the Rain
Originally uploaded by jezza323
Here is a slightly abstract shot of a plant I spotted at the Mt Cootha Botanic Gardens on Sunday. It was raining a little at the time, and you can make out the rain drops on the leaves.

I took this very quickly (it was raining on my remember) using the K200D and Jupiter-9 85mm f2.0 which was already mounted on the camera.

Almost no editing done here at all, just a slight crop

I'm James...


I'm James...
Originally uploaded by jezza323
This is a sign on the front of a local bank branch in Brisbane, I was waiting for a friend to make a deposit inside, waiting for someone interesting to be James :)

This couple came out of the branch about the same time as my friend, so I quickly snapped them. Its got a little more motion blur than I would like...but thats life I guess!

Almost time to get myself an AF prime for this sorta stuff i think, just have to convince my fiance. I'm sure she will go for it! haha

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Abstract Awnings


Abstract Awnings
Originally uploaded by jezza323
Here is another abstract shot of a building. This one is also on Ann St in the Brisbane CBD, its not quite on this much of an angle, but still it is there.

I took this one on the same day as the previous post, and also used the Pentax K200D and the Pentax SMC F 35-70mm f3.5-4.5 lens.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Building vs Blue


Building vs Blue
Originally uploaded by jezza323
Here is an abstract shot I took last year. It is a building found on Ann St in Brisbane, with a nice pattern to its windows, contrasting against the clear blue sky (haven't seen many of those lately!)

This one was taken with the Pentax SMC F 35-70mm f3.5-4.5 lens and Pentax K200D body. It was processed in Lightroom, and then I used The Gimp to apply a small amount of perspective correction. The last step I had to do because I was shooting looking up, so the lines were not quite straight.

Perspective correction basically squeezes 1 end of the photo, to correct the converging lines you get as things get further away. In this shot the line between the building and the sky was sloping slightly from left at the bottom of shot, to right at the top of shot, even though I was cropping the image with the line of windows at the right side straight up and down.

Here is a good example of a much more extreme perspective correction on a shot.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Project 52 - #8 - Japanese Garden, Mt Cootha


Japanese Garden, Mt Cootha
Originally uploaded by jezza323
I am a little behind, but I hope to catch up this week. We have had rainy weather non stop for a couple weeks now. Yesterday I got out amongst the showers in the Mt Cootha Botanic Gardens, and in particular wanted to visit the Japanese Garden. You can read about the garden here.

Over the last week or so I've been discussing shooting in various different aspect ratios with a friend at work. He had the idea to shoot only in a particular aspect ratio for a bit. After this discussion I decided to copy his idea a little, and try shooting some stuff in the movie aspect ratio of 2.39:1 (my friend has decided on 16:9 btw). This is from my first shoot where I specifically considered shooting in this aspect. I dont plan on taking lots of shots in this aspect ratio, but it is fun to consider.

This is a Brenizer Panorama, taken with my Pentax K200D and Jupiter-9 85mm lens at f2.8. I stitched the shots using Autopano, then did some editing in Lightroom 2.5 to get the final result (crop, contrast, exposure, blacks)

Friday, March 5, 2010

Sunset Reflection Timelapse


Timelapse Fail
Originally uploaded by jezza323
I set this shot up before i left work last week, to try and get sunset and the city lights coming on, however I totally failed to think about the reflections on the glass in the office, this timelapse could have gone on for another 2 hrs worth of seeing the chairs and desks in my workplace, but I decided to cut it once the reflections started to take over from the outside view. Something to remember for next time!

On a more positive note, i have finally found a really good CHDK script for sunset/sunrise timelapses. If you have CHDK look at the CHDK forums, in the scripts section, for the Sunset F16 script. works wonderfully, even if it takes 4-5 shots at the beginning to get the exposure right.

I will set this shot up again tonight, with less reflections (i hope!)

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Brisbane Airport in Action


Brisbane Airport in Action
Originally uploaded by jezza323
Here is another example of using Startrails.exe for something other than startrails. This shot was taken almost a year ago now, its made of many 30 sec exposures stacked together to get the multiple trails of planes coming in to land, and taking off.

This shot is another example of using startrails for adding elements into a shot