Too wet to Paint.........

I'm sure that it hasn't gone un-noticed that it's been a little wet here in Britain to say the least........

Not forgetting all the devastation that it's caused and the lives it's wrecked and for that I really feel for those involved, it has also meant that getting out and continuing my work for the light painting project has been very difficult.

However, a break in the weather on Thursday of this week meant that I could at least attempt my first larger scale light painting project.

Below is the contact sheets for 21 shots used out of the 37 taken with torch light to produce a single image.

 

 

 

My inspiration for the image

 

 

 

 

In previous posts I have sighted the works of Andrew Whyte (image above) and Eric Curry (image below) as individuals that have become experts in painting with light.

I wanted to try and emulate this type of work. Eric Curry in particular has become a real expert in this type of photography and also quite obviously an expert in Photoshop to combine all the photographs he takes into a single image.

I am no expert photographer and no expert Photoshop user, so my expectations for the first image I am going to produce are levelled accordingly.





The process

 

I shoot in raw, so the first thing I did when I got home was to tweak the colour temperature, as the led torch I used produced a cool blue tinge to the images and I wanted to re-create the white light that the torch emitted.

 

Once I was happy with the white balance of the images, I then proceeded to save them as jpgs in order to load them as layers into Photoshop.

 

I then applied a mask to each layer, the reason for this is that I only wanted to use a specific part of each image I had taken.

The intention was that like Eric Curry, I would combine my 21 photographs into a single image.......

 

 

Above is a snapshot of the image being produced in Photoshop, hopefully you can see the layers on the right hand side, complete with layer masks.

 

 

The Final Image.

 

Below is the final image after the layers have been flattened and the shadows and highlights tweaked.

 

 

What can I say?

Well the overall composition I like, I have the light trails in the background like Andrew Whyte try's to include in his shots.

I have captured the lighting in the foreground and managed to illuminate the inside of the car.

Overall I feel it was a successful first attempt......

Can do better !!!!!

There are a number of issues with the image that will need to be put right.

The car has a dull look to the surface, a "plume" . This was caused by the cold temperatures on the top of the mountain where the photographs were taken. A layer of moisture started to form on the surface of the car during the shoot.
You can see that the side of the vehicle is still quite black whilst the front wing and bonnet have a "light grey" sheen to them.

Warmer temperatures will be required!!!!

My Photoshop skills need improving..... When I combined the layers, there are a few areas where the transition between layers isn't quite right and some of the light trails are missing.

A better sky, I would like to have taken a few shots of the sky at dusk first, before they night fell, This would have enabled me to have more detail in the sky, rather than the "orangey" tinge from street lights.

Overall though, I am happy with my first attempt.

 



 



Exposed for longer!!!!

During my further research into long exposure techniques, I came across a Photographer by the name of Gjon Mili.

Born in 1904 in Albania, Mili moved to America in 1923.

An Engineer and self taught Photographer, he landed a job as a freelance photographer for life magazine. He is also said to be the pioneer of stroboscopic instruments to capture a number of events in a photograph.

The above image is of Picasso “drawing in the air” with a light pen. Given this is 1949, I think this is amazing.

Although, this image could be improved by having a black backdrop and the person dressed in black, that would take away the spontaneity of the image and what it has achieved.

The lighting of the background doesn’t detract your eye from the main subject matter which is Picasso, and there is the expression of enjoyment in Picasso’s face, accomplishing “something new”

A great example of  long exposure.

 

Phil McDermott

Another Photographer I looked at was Phil McDermott. Phil lives on the Isle of Mull, just of the cost of Scotland. Although Phil isn’t famous, he does have a varied portfolio of photographs, and this one took my eye.

 

 

As previously stated, this type of photography interests me and this is another great example of long exposure.

 

The technique of achieving  a silky smooth sea, whilst keeping detail in the sky is a challenge, but it is captured perfectly here.

The above photo has great colours and depth, whilst achieving that cloudy, milky finish to the water. He has maintained texture in the foreground with the rocks and in the background with some ripples evident in the water.

 

I don't think this image could be improved much further, maybe there could have been a little more detail in the sky, but that's nature for you!!!!

 

My 10 Stopper....

Practice makes perfect, or so they say......

 

The more I research individual photographers, the more I want to improve my photography.

 

The image below was taken using my Hitech 10 stopper filter.......

 

 

Taken for 61 seconds at f/16 with an ISO of 100 and at a focal length of 70mm, I think it has worked well.

 

I have got detail in the foreground and the image is sharp. The water has been smoothed out by the long exposure and there are leading lines of pillars, pulling you into the image to the central point.

 

Improvers to the image could be that there should more detail in the background, there is burn out in the white areas in the centre of the image.

 

Also, although I like the support beam at the top of the image and it has plenty of detail, it does present a barrier to your eye, and cropping it out may improve the composition.

 

The image below is a cropped version of the image above.

 

 

Compositionally I think it works, there is no beam stopping your eye moving through the image, I still think the white areas could be toned down a little but this image is now an improvement on the original.....

 

Gowtham

 

My continued research of photographers of water lead me to this photographer from Michigan

Whilst relatively unknown, Gowtham has had his work published in National Geographic.

 

The above image is of Porcupine Waterfalls, Michigan. This again is exactly the type of image that excites me. I love water, and using the longer exposure to accentuate the flow of water is exactly the type of image I want to produce.

 

The colours of the foliage are vivid, whilst the texture of the rocks throughout the image are well preserved.

 

The trees add colour to the image, framing the waterfall and leading you in.

Although naturally occurring, picking the right composition for the image is vitally important.

 

 

Waterfalls....

 

Living in Wales there is no shortage to the two commodities required for water falls, Mountains and Water and we have had plenty of water in the last few weeks, that's for sure......

 

I decided to take my camera out and try and shoot a few waterfalls, trying to think of composition when taking the photo.

 

My first attempt was this one....... No 5790

 

 

Taken from this series of images.....

 

 

 

I converted the image to Black and White to make the image more dramatic.....

 

The image works well, The composition is good, it has foreground detail in the rocks and the water is suitably blurred, the path of the stream leads you in from the front of the image to the back, where the falls are situated.

 

However, I think that the water falls are too burnt out. There is loss of detail in the water, caused by to long an exposure and too much light getting in.

 

If you look closely, there is also a light band covering the left hand third of the image, possible cause by light seepage through the eye piece of the camera as I forgot to cover the eye piece.

 

The sunlight was very strong and directly onto the back of the camera and the waterfall.

 

Taken with a shutter speed of 30 seconds at f/13, ISO 100 and at a focal length of 24mm the above image is a lesson in all the things you have to get right to produce a great image. Some of these things that I forgot..... So it's not so great!!!!!!

 

Take Two

 

It was time to venture out and try again.......

 

Although I liked the image above there was certainly some improvers that could be made......

 

The following images were taken from this series.....

 

 

 

 In particular I like image 5952, 5957 and 5976. Image 5976 being a re-visit to the original location of 5790 above.

 

Image 5952....

 

 

 Personally I think I have achieved the right amount of blur in the water with this image.....

 

Compositionally I think it works, the water flows through the image from back to front, excuse the pun!!!!

 

There is detail in the foreground, mid ground and background with no blown out sections at all.

 

There is no light seepage, because I covered the eye piece, although due to the subdued lighting conditions the shutter was only open for 6 seconds using a ND filter and not the 10 stopper.

 

I think it works better in black and white than colour (colour image below), although there is some messy bits of twig in the foreground that I perhaps should have moved to make it less cluttered.

 

The branches are a little distracting too, that overhang the waterfall.

 

Coloured version or black and white.......... which is best?

 

 

 Image 5957.....

 

 

This time I positioned myself right in the middle of the stream to get this image.

 

I place the tripod feet in between rocks on the stream bed to get a good composition....Good job I wore my wellies.......

 

Using the rocks as foreground detail and the stream as a path to the waterfall, compositionally it works.

 

I tried to reduce the amount of sky that was on the picture above the waterfall, to limit the amount of burnt out that I would get, and again chose to produce it in black and white. 2 second exposure at f/13

 

I need to get better at Photoshop, I think the image could do with having the branch removed to improve the image and have a continuous wall of water.....

 

Again Black and white or colour?

 

 

Return to the original......

Having made a few errors last time, I decided to go back to the original waterfall and take it again.

Taken from a slightly different position, I think that the image has been improved.

No burn out and good foreground detail. Blurred water, but not so blurred that you can see detail in the bed of the stream all add to what I think is a good image. Taken for 3 seconds at f/14, I think it's an improvement on the original image.

                          Image 5790                                            Image 5976

Again, here is a coloured and black and white version of the image for comparison.

Which is best? I think Black and white has more impact with these types of image....

Everyone will have their own opinion....