Experimental

Red

Flower Macro using extension tube.

Straight off the camera with no processing.

Nikon D70s, 50mm f1.8 Lens, Nikon PK13 Extension tube, Nikon SB80DX Speedlite


Bird and Smoke

Yes this was done with Photoshop. No birds were injured in the making of this image.


Same Shot 3 Ways with IR

Here is a comparison of the same shot but taken 3 different ways.

Shot 1: Boring!

Nikon D70s, 18-70mm Lens ISO 200. f8 at 1/320th second

Shot 2: Same shot but with Cokin 007 filter straight off the camera.

Nikon D70s, 18-70mm Lens ISO 200. f8 at 2 seconds with Cokin 007 filter.

Shot 3: Using Cokin 007 filte rand processed, much more interesting!

Nikon D70s 18-70mm Lens ISO 200. f8 at 2 seconds with Cokin 007 IR Filter then converted to black and white with photoshop.


Fire in a Bottle

Another shot from the “Fire in a Bottle” series.

Nikon D70s, 50mm f1.8 lens. f1.8 at 1/80th of a second. ISO 200


IR Haunted House

Entry for EOS Photo5 Competition for 2009 in the Practiacally Black section

Nikon D70s 18-70mm Lens, ISo 200, Cokin 007 Infra Red Filter


Goggles?

Ok this is what happens when I get in the proper headspace for photography and then a couple of friends happen to come along.

I had been thinking of using my garage as a studio (albeit a small one) but had always had problems with doing it because my 500W studio lights only have half and full power so getting them powered down enough to use in a small space is kinda problematic.

The workaround for this was just using the modelling lights and bumping up the ISO to round 800 (which using a D70s means noise galore). I kept the white balance on the camera set to Daylight to get the golden light which fitted this shoot.

Yes its a Self Portrait

A very Angry Frog

Red Kris

Nikon D70s, 18-70mm Lens, ISO 800 f5.6 at 1/60th Second. Lighting from Modelling lights of Electra 500W Compact Lights… Last image has red gel over background light.


Diving Man Multi Pop

Diving Man Statue with three pops from from different angles with speedlite on the end of a monopod.

Nikon D70s, 18-70mm Lens at f16, 33 Seconds at ISO 200


Ambient light is not my friend AKA More painting with Light

For those of you who have been following this blog, you will have noticed that I have been trying different things with Painting with Light. The idea of this shoot was to try using some of these techniques in an urban setting, A kinda Urban Grafitti with Light if you will.

This was the first shot at it and I ran into some big problems right from the start. This sculpture is directly behind “The Behive” (New Zealands parliament buildings) so I thought there might be some issues with security guards. In standard New Zealand fashion two burly security guards rocked up and asked what I was doing but in a kinda apolligetic “we are just doing our job” way and then wished me good luck and hoped I got some good pictures.

Because the sculpture was lit from the front I had to shoot it from the back looking towards the road which was brighter than I wanted so I had to use a ND8 filter and an ND4 Gradient to try and balance the light a bit which then made the torch light too dim.

Nikon D70s 18-70mm Lens f8 at 58 seconds

With this shot I took off the ND8 filter but left the ND4 Gradient on and moved the location of the sphere into a slightly darker area of the image then reduced the shutter time from about 1 minute to about 45 seconds.

Nikon D70s 18-70mm Lens f8 at 45 Seconds

After noticing that there was a dark patch behind the “Banana” sculpture decided to try and see if the ball would look better closer to the camera. I think this image probably worked best of the 3 and also offers the best possibility to put someone inside the sphere since the flash will be out the side of the frame.

Nikon D70s 18-70mm Lens f8 at 34 seconds

All in all there was pretty much too much ambient light and these have been rather harshly tweaked in Lightroom and then Photoshop to get them looking any good at all. I think next time I try this it will be somewhere where it is nice and dark… Possible a cemetery… Should be interesting.

Oh and I almost forgot… I shot a heap of video of all this happening… Will try and edit and put on somehow…


Sycamore Seed


A Sycamore seed dropped in a dark room then lit with a speedlite set on multiple flash of 1/50th of a second.

This sounded kinda simple but doing everything yourself ment that I shot nearly 100 shots and only got a few that were any good.

Nikon D70s, 18-70mm f 11 at 1/10th second with SB80dx set to 1/50th second on multiple flash.


More Painting with Light

Up above the Terrace in Wellington.

Experimenting with alternate portrait techniques

Nikon D70s, 18-70mm Lens, ISO 200. f22 at  25 seconds with 10W bike light… Subject moved after 10 seconds


Lit up Flowers

Flowers in my back yard lit with 2 speedlites… One from directly below at full power (Nikon SB16) and one in from the left at 1/4 power (Nikon SB80DX)

Nikon D70s, 18-70mm @70mm, f22 at 2.5 seconds


More Painting with Light

Island Bay Skatepark on a cloudy but moonlit night.

In order to get the desired effect I had to do alot of running around. It took nearly exactly 30 seconds to run a curcuit of the skate park at full speed.

I was glad there was no one around to see me running round in the middle of the night at a skate park with a torch.

The gold coloured light came from the sodium street lamps running beside the road next to the park.

Nikon F5 Tokina 19-35mm lens, Fuji Velvia 50 Film, f5.6 for 30 seconds, 10W bike light used for painting.