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Headed to Glebe/Blackwattle Bay (directly opposite the Anzac bridge) for a dawn photoshoot with Gerry and Suren.

Another nice early morning with a 5:20AM start at Glebe, instead of having no clouds in the sky like we've usually been having lately this time we had too much with a think bank of low fog like clouds hanging over the city. It was however noticeably moving very fast towards us across the sky so it at least boded well for some long exposure streaky skies.

It was pano time today - this first was taken about 30 minutes before sunrise and is a panorama stitched from 8 vertical frames using the Nikon 16-35/4 at 26mm and 60 sec @ f/9



Just after sunrise we started to get some nice stringy clouds in the sky (too late) and interestingly we still had the fast moving thick low cloud but had almost stationary high stringy clouds (moving very slowly in a different direction). Another pano stitched from 7 vertical frames using the Nikon 16-35/4 at 24mm and 1.3 sec @ f/11



With the sun now rising in the sky it was BigStopper time - here's a single frame showing the low clouds moving towards us from left to right and the high cloud moving slowly from right to left - 120 seconds @ f/11 and ISO 200



Happy Australia Day everyone...

I like the second of these Rodney, it has more appeal than the other two. Is there something funny going on with the clouds on the LH side or is it just me!

These are pretty awesome but the fisheye-like bulge in the panos are a bit off putting. Glad to hear that you guys got out there and shooting!

Geoff M wrote:I like the second of these Rodney, it has more appeal than the other two. Is there something funny going on with the clouds on the LH side or is it just me!

Good spotting (it's where I did some clonage) - will take another look

aim54x wrote:These are pretty awesome but the fisheye-like bulge in the panos are a bit off putting. Glad to hear that you guys got out there and shooting!

Thanks Cam - I did consider fixing that (I tried it an it does unbulge ) - but personally I liked the way the bulge happens right at the middle of the bridge)

Update - with the second pano I did a little cloud fixing for Geoff and for you Cam I tried a little unbulging and tried straightening the main span of the bridge - thoughts?

(Oh and I made it so you can click through to a much larger version to see)

Do those clouds extend higher up passed the top of the frame?
If they do maybe a 1/3 water and 2/3 sky would look good?

That second image is a stunner - especially so now the LH clouds are fixed. I'm ambivalent about whether a more symmetrical crop would look better ie lose some of the RHS. The dilemma with panos is whether every frame in the sequence should be used just because you have it. Regardless it's a fine image.

Wink wrote:Do those clouds extend higher up passed the top of the frame? If they do maybe a 1/3 water and 2/3 sky would look good?

Unfortunately not Adam - well they do (and nicely so) but not in the frames I shot. I already cropped a little off the bottom (to make a neat 3:1 ratio). I did like the higher clouds so I did take another set for a pano at 19mm (the ones above were at 24mm) with the intention of getting more sky but unfortunately I seem to have bumped something when taking the sequence and I've stuffed the middle frame (two of them in fact) in the set

stubbsy wrote:That second image is a stunner - especially so now the LH clouds are fixed. I'm ambivalent about whether a more symmetrical crop would look better ie lose some of the RHS. The dilemma with panos is whether every frame in the sequence should be used just because you have it. Regardless it's a fine image.

Thanks Peter - I could crop the right side but I do like the underlit clouds from the rising sun over there on the right

I agree Rodney. The clouds are an integral part of the image. I think it's the fisheye bulge that makes me like it less than it deserves.

Rooz wrote:I agree Rodney. The clouds are an integral part of the image. I think it's the fisheye bulge that makes me like it less than it deserves.

Thanks Chris - I might try fixing that in the first (like I did in the rework of the second) - did the unbulging of the second make enough difference?

Rodney,

May I add my congratulations. Awesome shots which are both inspirational and daunting to me, a mere mortal.
Great location. I have been looking for something that side of the bridge.
II does make me realise that I have to get out before dawn more! And to try a pano - have not thought to do that.
You say that your first picture is a series of vertical frames - do you mean portrait mode?

And the second shot used a shutter speed of 1.3 sec!? I assume that is a programmable setting on the Nikon?

Thanks for sharing your work.

Victor03 wrote:II does make me realise that I have to get out before dawn more! And to try a pano - have not thought to do that.

Thanks Victor - yep - gotta get up or stay out for the good light

You say that your first picture is a series of vertical frames - do you mean portrait mode?

Yes

And the second shot used a shutter speed of 1.3 sec!? I assume that is a programmable setting on the Nikon?

Well each of the 7 individual frames was shot with a shutter speed of 1.3 seconds (I used Manual mode and dialled in the Aperture and Shutter speed I wanted - pretty much any camera with manual mode should be able to do this) - for Pano's (stitched) it's better and easier if you shoot all the frames with the same exposure settings constant across all the frames (than means manual focus. same aperture and shutter and ISO, same WB (if you shoot in RAW you can set them to be the same in post))

I have to be different and say I like the bulge created by the pano. It makes an awesome bridge look more awesome. Now if the road was cambered to match the curve it would be awesome to race ride across.

Rodney,

[/quote]((Well each of the 7 individual frames was shot with a shutter speed of 1.3 seconds (I used Manual mode and dialled in the Aperture and Shutter speed I wanted - pretty much any camera with manual mode should be able to do this) - for Pano's (stitched) it's better and easier if you shoot all the frames with the same exposure settings constant across all the frames (than means manual focus. same aperture and shutter and ISO, same WB (if you shoot in RAW you can set them to be the same in post))[/quote]

Thanks for the tips on using manual mode to control settings. And regarding shutter speed of 1.3 secs, yes, duh! It is on my camera of course.

One final question; what ISO setting do you prefer pre-dawn?

Victor03 wrote:One final question; what ISO setting do you prefer pre-dawn?

Typically for any landscape work I'd prefer to shoot at as low a native ISO as possible (e.g. ISO 100 on my camera) however when it's really dark and I still want depth of field (and may still be using filters on front (e.g. CPL or Grad) so I may be knocking the light down further still) or I'm using a 10 stop ND I might need to bump up the ISO so I don't have to deal with rediculous (or inappropriate) shutter speeds (exposure times). e.g. the BigStopper image above was shot at ISO 200 so I didn't have a 4 minute exposure (just a 2 minute one ).

These are really good. One of these days when I'm travelling through the big smoke I'll have to join in with one of these pre dawn photo shoots. Great perspective here.