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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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)

Project 52 - #7 - Wellington Point

Sunrise and The Tree
Originally uploaded by jezza323

The sunrise at Wellington Point in Brisbane is a popular location for local photographers. The sun is rising just to the right of frame in this shot, you can see the orange/red glow off the top of the clouds. This is landmark #7 in my Project 52 Brisbane Landmarks for 2010.

Taken with the Pentax K200D and Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II @ 18mm, Kenko CPL, TianYa ND8 and TianYa ND8 Grad Filters (thats a whole lotta filters...I didn't need the ND8 but it was already in the holder from an earlier shot).

Single exposure processed in Lightroom 2.5 with exposure graduated mask, clarity, white balance, contrast, exposure and fill lights adjustments.

EDIT: I just realized I had this marked as landmark #6! It is actually landmark #7.

Busy on Adelaide St

Busy on Adelaide St
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This is an example of using Startrail software for something other than star trails. Here I have taken 44 photos from the same location, each with a 6 sec shutter speed, then used startrails.exe to stack all 44 photos together into 1. This gives the sense of speed and action in the shot.

A single 6 sec shot results in maybe 1 or 2 "car trails" which do not travel through the entire shot. If I were to adjust the aperture such that I could get a much longer exposure then the car trails themselves would be dim and barely show up. Also on long exposures noise can become an issue, by stacking the photos, you end up with less noise, although you do get the odd gap in the trails, which you may notice in this shot. This occurs while the shutter is closed between shots.

To make this method of shooting work effectively I would recommend getting a cable remote for your DSLR which has a button lock down feature. This will keep the shutter button locked down, without you having to sit there with your hand on the camera.

Project 52 - #5 - Cathedral Of St Stephen

Inside The Cathderal of St Stephen
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This is a 9 shot HDR Panorama of the inside of the Cathedral of St Stephen on Elizabeth St in Brisbane. It is composed of 3 landscape orientation HDR's. Each HDR is 3 shots taken at +/- 2.0 EV. This is landmark #5 in my Project 52 Brisbane Landmarks for 2010.

The shots were taken using my Pentax K200D and Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II lens @ 18mm. I also used my tripod to support the setup for the required long exposures.

Processing Details

• Shot in Pentax RAW (PEF)
• Imported into Lightroom 2.5
• Exported 9 images to 16 bit TIFF
• Blended using Photomatix Batch Processing using Details Enhancer for Tone Mapping, this created 3 16 bit TIFF files
• Stitched resulting 3 TIFF's using Autopano
• Rendered to 16 bit TIFF
• Imported stitched TIFF to Lightroom 2.5
• Minor adjustments in Lightroom (crop, tone)
• Exported to JPG for Web

Project 52 - #5 - Not here yet!

I have had a really busy wekk this week, so I haven't been able to get a shot done for the week. I will be sure to post 2 shots next week though. So stay tuned, for 2 new Brisbane landmarks in week 6!

More Digital Infrared (IR) Photography

Mt Cootha Sunrise in IR
Originally uploaded by jezza323

Here is another shot I took recently with my R72 type filter. In this case I used a Hoya R72 filter mounted to my Pentax K200D & Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II combo.

This shot was processed entirely in Lightroom 2.5 (no photoshop trickery going on here!). You can see here the effect quite well, the sky is nice and dark, while the trees are a bit brighter than they would otherwise be. If you compare closely to the image below you can see the difference quite well. The general contrast is also much stronger.

This is the same shot, but taken without an IR filter, just converted to greyscale in Lightroom.

And here is the IR shot in colour (with corrected White Balance and Exposure in Lightroom 2.5). This is what was coverted to greyscale to get the IR image above.

Project 52 - #4 - Mt Cootha Lookout

Australia Day Sunrise - Mt Cootha, Brisbane
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This is a 5 shot HDR of the sunrise from Mt Cootha Lookout, which overlooks Brisbane's CBD and surrounding suburbs. This is landmark #4 in my Project 52 Brisbane Landmarks for 2010.

I have already posted this shot on the blog as a general shot with full processing info, so check that out if you are interested

Project 52 - #2 - Kurilpa Bridge

Kurilpa Pedestrian Bridge
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This is the 2nd shot for my 2010 Project 52 - "Brisbane Landmarks"

This is the recently completed Kurilpa Bridge, a Pedestrian Bridge from the Brisbane CBD over the Brisbane River to West End/Southbank.

This is a 3 shot HDR, taken with my Pentax K200D and Pentax SMC DA 18-55mm AL II

Base shot was 18mm, ISO 100, f9.0, 5 sec, bracketing was at +/- 2.0 EV

UPDATE - Processing details now posted - sorry for the delay.

Shot and Processed as follows:-

• Shot in Pentax RAW (PEF)
• Imported into Lightroom 2.5
• Exported to 16-bit TIFF
• HDR Generated using Photomatix
• Tone Mapped using Details Enhancer (settings shown below)
• Save-as 16-bit TIFF
• Import into Lightroom 2.5
• Minor editing applied using adjustment brush to remove some unwanted detail on the right of image (brush positioning and settings shown below)
• Increased Blacks and Brightness
• Exported to JPG for Web

Bird and Stair Testing the Tair-11a

Bird and Stair Testing the Tair-11a

Originally uploaded by jezza323

I have already used this one in my Tair-11a review, but I just have to share again. This shot really works for me.

Taken with the Tair-11a at f2.8 (wide open), ISO 100, 1/640.

Post Processing as follows:-

• Shot in Pentax RAW (PEF)
• Imported in Lightroom 2.5
• Exported to JPG for Web

No editing at all!

Project 52 - #1 - It Begins

Southbank Peace Pagoda

Originally uploaded by jezza323

Here is the first shot for my 2010 Project 52 which I have decided to use the theme of "Brisbane Landmarks". It is a Nepalese Peace Pagoda located at Southbank in Brisbane, QLD Australia. It was built for Expo '88 and petitioned successfully to remain on the old Expo site (which is now Southbank).

This photo is a HDR, combined from 11 shots. All shots were taken at f16.0 and ISO 100, and shutter speeds were - 1/30, 1/15, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, 30 secs.

Processing as follows :-

• Shot in Pentax RAW (PEF)
• Imported into Lightroom 2.5
• Shots exported to 16-bit TIFF
• Photomatix generated HDR from 11 16-bit TIFFs
• Photmatix Tone Mapped using Tone Compressor
• Saved as 16-bit TIFF
• Imported new file back to Lightroom 2.5
• Cropped in Lightroom 2
• Edited in Lightroom  as shown below (settings not shown were not edited)

A Late Christmas HDR

Just thought I would share this shot I took on Tuesday 22nd December at King George Square in Brisbane's CBD. This is a 3 shot HDR taken at +/- 2.0 EV steps, in Pentax RAW format (PEF). I took it using a my tripod, K200D and Pentax SMC DA 18-55mm AL II f3.5-5.6 lens with +2.0 EV bias (this means the shots is actually 0 EV +2 EV and +4 EV), no filters. I used the +2 starting EV to get more details from the christmas lights. The base shot settings were f13, 10 secs, ISO 100 in Av (Aperture priority) mode.

Processing was as follows

Lightroom 2.5

• Import
• Export all 3 files as 16-bit TIFF format

Photomatix

• Generate HDR - settings shown below
• Tone Mapped using Details Enhancer method - settings shown below
• Save As 16-bit TIFF

Lightroom

• Import
• Crop (rotated slightly)
• Export to JPG for Web