October '06 Challenge Photos - "Natural Light" - Sponsored by Lensbabies.com

[Mohain]

Excellent pic Uberben, you had my vote What exposure? 2 hours? What kit?

Who was no. 10? That was another fav of mine. I also really liked 21, 37 & 49. Some top quality entries :mrgreen: (I was No. 5 for what it's worth).

 

[kulakova]

Yeah! Congrats!!
But Uberben!! You have to told us how it was done!!
please...

 

[kulakova]

BTW, I was 10.
It was my test for the photo art school

 

[uberben]

Thanks everyone....I was trying to think of something unique for this contest. I figured there would be a lot of nice sunset/sunrises and some good sunbeam shots...I didn't want to compete head to head in those shots. I had already visualized this shot a good month ago, but hadn't found a good night to do it. My luck came through the weekend before the contest ended and I got a clear night up by the cabin.

This is on the north shore of lake superior in minnesota pretty late in the night since I had to wait for the moon to go down. Its a 1hr 15minute exposure done in 15 minute exposures to reduce noise on the DLSR sensor then stacked in Photoshop. I was using a 20d with a grip for extra battery life, a tokina 12-24 f/4 lens, and of course a remote. i don't have the exif data on my now, but I think I shot its around f.6.3. All the light you see there is natural light put off by the stars and I was pretty happy on how well the land/trees lit up. Other then layering the photos, adjusting the levels a little bit, and cropping.. its pretty much they way the photos were shot. It was pretty cold that night too..20 degrees F. I was doing the keep warm dance since I didn't dress quite warm enough.

Thanks again.

~Ben

 

[zx3guy2000]

Excellent photo Uberben!

I never knew you could get a shot that bright late at night, just by leaving the shutter open longer! I'm going to have to do some experimenting with this feature when I finally break down and purchase a DSLR !!

I thought those lines were rain, didn't think about them being stars!! Very Nice shot once again! This is an inspirational shot for me so Thank You!!


Again congrats!!

 

[meotter]

AWESOME shot uberben! i hadn't noticed your photo detail in the thumbnails, and when i finally did check it out, i was upset i hadn't voted for you off the bat. photos of this quality just floor me. I knew right away it was stars from an exhibit i saw in the Glasgow museum of modern art (looked like this)

my buddy who i showed it to thought it was fake, because he thought it was meteorites in the pic and assumed there is no way to get this many meteorites in a shot.

however, i digress, awesome shot and congratz. your shot was definitly a cut above the rest!

oh yea, i was picture 2 if anybody cared.

 

[uberben]

I used to shoot star trails on my old 35mm canon thats fully mechanical... Since you could leave it out there for 6 hrs and not have to worry about sensor heat degrading your photo or your battery dying on you mid shot. I am just so much more comfortable with CS2 then darkrooms. So if you have a film camera, go out on a clear night with no moon in a dark area away from any big city. You will be amazed at how easy it is to get something that is pretty cool. Make sure you bring a high powered flashlight though, its hard to compose the shot in absolute darkness.

 

[Elli]

Congrats! That was an amazing shot and one of my favorites.

 

[lankysmom]

Congrats, Uberben! I just feel honored to have gotten 3 votes on my nekkie baby!
Thanks to those who voted for me!
Steph

 

[mad_malteaser]

Congratulations uberben, that was a beautiful photograph and my particular favourite. And well done to everyone else who entered.

 

[JTHphoto]

great shot ben, congrats. i love your technique/process for using the dslr for startrails. even 15 minutes seems like a long time, i start getting hot pixels after as short as 30 seconds...

 

[karissa]

yeah... thats a lot of work for one photo.... but.. it is one great photo... Gratz!