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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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