DSLRUsers.com

Headed to Turimetta to join the FOCUS crew for another dawn seascape shoot. I'd never shot at this location before (South Turimetta beach) and I decided to head out there early so I could try some pre dawn light painting along the coast.

I arrived at the ungodly hour of 4:30AM (almost two and a half hours before sunrise) so it was extremely dark along the coast with minimal light pollution. Luckily I had my new uber torch (a small 860 lumen hand torch - which I'll review soon) which allowed me to check out the coastline looking for some likely light painting candidates.

The sea was really rough with ferocious waves constantly battering the coast and constant wet spray in the air.

I found these two very nice looking rocks with shallow water at their base and setup for a few hours of light painting.

I'm very keen to hear if people have a preference for one of these - they are all similar but different - so vote 1, 2 or 3

This first is at 4:45AM and was to be a test shot - 4 minute exposure at f/5.6 and ISO 400 with the 16-35 at 19mm. I lit the two stones from the left with my smaller zoomable single AA LED torch for about two minutes of the exposure

Amber Neoliths


I also have another slightly different version of the above (not posted)...

The second is at 5:15AM and by this time quite a bit of the cloud had cleared revealing the sky and stars. A 6 minute exposure at f/7.1 and ISO 400 at 18mm. Similar lighting for the stones as above however I also use the monster torch to light the water canyon on the left and a touch on the water on the ground and finally a bit of blue EL wire to add the meteor landing (and this is where I got very wet when some waves came in whilst I was doing the EL work and drenched me up to my knees )

Meteor Storm


Finally at 5:55AM and we're starting twilight so we have a lot more colour in the sky. Another 6 minute exposure at f/9 and ISO 200 this time

Two to See in the Day


and the upside - well over an hour of shooting - and just 8 shots in the can

Yep they all suck

Only joking, but #1 is my choice, I think the light painting under the rock ruins #2

I'm not a big fan of crazy light painting so I'm very bias against the second in particular which I don't like at all. #3 looks like you shone car lights at the rocks, too stark.

#1 is quite simply extraordinary. If I took that I'd print it big and hang it up. It one if my favorite images from this site all year. Spectacular in its simplicity.

The number one and winner is ...number 1. It has almost
a mystical quality to it with those colours and the effect
that the rocks are in mid-air, quite surrealistic I think.

aim54x wrote:Only joking, but #1 is my choice, I think the light painting under the rock ruins #2

Rooz wrote:I'm not a big fan of crazy light painting so I'm very bias against the second in particular which I don't like at all. #3 looks like you shone car lights at the rocks, too stark. #1 is quite simply extraordinary. If I took that I'd print it big and hang it up. It one if my favorite images from this site all year. Spectacular in its simplicity.

zafra52 wrote:The number one and winner is ...number 1. It has almost a mystical quality to it with those colours and the effect that the rocks are in mid-air, quite surrealistic I think.

Thanks fellas - that was exactly what I was looking for. Personally the first was my own favourite by far - I'd rated them in Lightroom as 5*, 3* and 4* respectively - but when my daughter looked at them she liked them in the reverse order (I think she is biased by colour) so I was interested to see what others thought.

Thanks Chris re #3 - I've done some more work on it all over - thoughts?

Much much better !

I like this last one very much too, but not as much
as the first one.

Number 1 for me Rodney.

Excellent work.

#1 is the best of the three. However, there is a shadow on the face of the left rock which is not as evident on the rock in the second shot. That shadow spoils the shot for me.

Rooz wrote:Much much better !

zafra52 wrote:I like this last one very much too, but not as much as the first one.

Sylvia wrote:Number 1 for me Rodney.Excellent work.

Thanks folks

CraigVTR wrote:#1 is the best of the three. However, there is a shadow on the face of the left rock which is not as evident on the rock in the second shot. That shadow spoils the shot for me.

Thanks Craig - yep probably from the different strengths of torches I was using and the angle I painted from - that said I was trying to do it from the side so I would have some shadow areas happening so it wasn't just all evenly lit.