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Patience or Persistence? by ~ZephonSoul:iconZephonSoul:

Categories Photography > Animals, Plants & Nature > Waterscapes

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©2007-2009 ~ZephonSoul
:iconzephonsoul:

Artist's Comments

-[:pencil:]-[]-----------------------------------------------------------------
Obviously same subject as The Last Heir, just a different composition and some time later (what was it, about 1 hour and something more after sunset). In this case I wish I had the Tokina to experiment different angles and compositions as well.

To give away some details, the place got really dark, but we were still shooting happily. I used the GND8 and the sunset filter here, because I wanted to have punchy colors in the sky even though the sun got down. Since the meter stated that three stops of compensation were a bit too much (and I didn't have a gradual ND4), I slided the filter a bit towards the top and used an high contrast response curve on the camera. The saturation was kept high. I had some troubles judging the correct exposure (and somehow I failed). When I have to deal with long exposures I often switch to higher sensibilities until the meter suggests a shutter speed faster than 30s, and then do the math to go back to iso 100 or 200. This scene was quite dark indeed: I found out that with f13 at iso 1600 I was having the correct exposure with a shutter speed of 30s. I wanted the best sharpness and dof, so my aperture value had to be about f13 and my sensitivity about 200 iso (I couldn't wait too much to take the shot, the light was quickly fading to black). Now the math: 30s x 2^(3 stops from 1600 to 200 iso) = 240 s. The correct exposure should have been 240s at iso 200. My error was not considering that the meter tends to underexpose in very dark scenes (and also that the light was fading as the seconds passed), so I should have added at least 1 stop to the calculus (that would have meant about 500s). I used the remote cable and a cronometer to take the bulb shot.

On postwork, I'm trying out a "new" software (new to me at least! =P): DxO Optics Pro 4. There is a fifth edition close to release, but I must say I was pretty impressed and satisfied with this fourth version as well. One outstanding thing is that it applies quite a bunch of automatic corrections on photos based on the known characteristics of the lens mounted on the camera body. As I expected, the software suggested to brighten the picture of about 1 stop, and so I did: it was like shooting iso 400. I cleared some dust spots and a bunch of hot pixels, adjusted curves and cleaned dark shadows from noise with the Neat Image plugin in Photoshop CS2.

:bulletblue:[NFO:]
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: Nikkor 18-70 DX
Filters: P.121S + P.197
Focal Length: 18 mm
Aperture: F/13
Shutter Speed: 247.8 s
ISO speed: 200

:bulletred:[PSTWRK:] RAW processed in DxO Optics Pro, fine tuning in Adobe Photoshop CS2

Comments


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:iconall4glory:
~All4Glory Oct 7, 2007, 5:47:45 AM
Amazing colors!
Pretty nicely done :clap:
:iconkayley1590:
=Kayley1590 Oct 7, 2007, 6:05:29 AM
very nice! :clap:

--
:heart: Kelly :heart:

Live together, die alone. :ahoy:
:iconkjellsai:
~Kjellsai Oct 7, 2007, 6:25:12 AM
Fantastic shot! Nice of you to share how you took the picture, postprocessed it and what equipment you used as well =)

When I'm taking exposures longer than 30 seconds I usually set the aperture at the minimum avaliable to get 30 seconds, then I can figure out how much longer I have to shoot if I increase the aperture by a few stops.

:+fav:

--
"Some mornings it's just not worth it chewing through the leatherstraps."
*natures-beauty-club
:iconfree-y0ur-mind:
~Free-y0ur-Mind Oct 7, 2007, 6:25:22 AM
whao :aplause:

I love it !
:icondavincipoppalag:
`davincipoppalag Oct 7, 2007, 6:26:28 AM
Amazing photo Alessandro..

--
Fiddle dee dee tomorrow is another day!
:iconodora:
~Odora Oct 7, 2007, 7:04:11 AM
These misty lights on the bacgroung, a reminding of the city nearby... I just love them.)) Colours, light... I love everything.)))
:love:
Wonderful work!

--
Where's the fun without complications? © Beckett (VtM)
:iconodora:
~Odora Oct 7, 2007, 7:04:31 AM
Er... I meant 'backgrounD';))))
^^;

--
Where's the fun without complications? © Beckett (VtM)
:iconparadigmparadox:
~ParadigmParadox Oct 7, 2007, 7:05:00 AM
Very beautiful, as was the one just before this. Though math has never been my strongest subject, I really appreciate your giving the mathematical explanation behind what you did and what you should have done. It will take me a bit to really understand how to adapt the apertures and exposures in my own work...but with your explanation, I am sure I will figure it out, improve my technique on dark shots and plan ahead better. Thank you.

--
Thanks for all :+fav:s and comments! Here's my New and Popular stuff, and I love seeing your experiments!
:iconloganx78:
=LoganX78 Oct 7, 2007, 7:31:52 AM
Again, uno dei tuoi lavori migliori. Mi piace tutto. Forse l'ombra nell'angolo alto a destra stona leggermente ma il resto è fenomenale. Complimenti :) Una nota, l'apertura: Shutter Speed: 247.8 s.. hai tenuto aperto per oltre 4 minuti?

--
... La vita è fatta di priorità...
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