Light Painting the pushie

[biggerry]

Big G's replacement mode of transport

I remember another member did a similiar thing with their bike with some tidy results, so i thought i would have a crack. CC welcome.

(suren, wait until i get that EL wire happening )






*edited fixed a few of them with that were a bit too cool, WB prolly off...

[surenj]

Nicely done. soft box painting I guess?

second composition draws my eye because it's bit more dynamic. another winner for AWB!

How in the world did you prop the bike up?

I am not entirely sure about the background. I would prefer concrete floor with an urban background.


You know what, it would be cool do darkfield lighting on this... I suppose you need a large 'dark' field.

(suren, wait until i get that EL wire happening )

Can't wait for mine to come through as well. Wonder whether I could still make it in time for the bondi sculptures.

[Mr Darcy]

How in the world did you prop the bike up?

A spike through the wheels of course

#2 for me too.
I am happy with the concept of the urban/grass background, but find the urban part too busy. It distracts my eye.

#3 too much glare off the fork.

[hellman]

Sweet pics, what fstop did you run with?

[Mr Darcy]

Sweet pics, what fstop did you run with?

I recommend you get an Exif viewer. This is from the fXIF addon for FireFox

Camera Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Camera Model: NIKON D80
Image Date: 2009:11:17 20:02:59
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 26.0mm (35mm equivalent: 39mm)
Exposure Time: 20.000 s
Aperture: f/8.0
ISO equiv: 100
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual
Comment: (C)GERARD_BLACKLOCK_0415702740

EDIT: The page I referenced above seems to be an old version (0.2.3). Here is the Firefox Link to the new version:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5673

[ian.bertram]

These are really interesting and I love number 2- the bike looks big and proud and I want one!
Could you give a few more details on how you set up the shot. 20 seconds @f8 iso 100 is great, but what about the light you used and is getting the exposure right complete guesswork or is there a method. I'd love to give this a go with a few mates as from what I can see the results are great.

[hellman]

Cheers Mr Darcy, makes things a little easier.

[biggerry]

As Greg has mention exif data is there, i played with different apertures and shutters basically to achieve the correct exposure, I typically had a shutter speed of 15 to 30 secs and worked around f5.6 to f8, probably using f4 or larger might have been better to isolate the subject.

In terms of gear, I used a LED torch in this case fenix tk40 (however any LED torch of substance will work) and softbox (similiar to this but bigger. I used the D80 with 17-55mm lens. Subject is a Kona Caldera, last years model . Location, well I will leave that up to ya's to guess.

Method; trial and error will be required, however I basically used two methods, one with the softbox and one without and somethings a combo of the two, ie softbox it for awhile then pull out the LED torch and light up the main bits. Basically I would release teh shutter and start at one end of teh subject and work my way round, making sure light was applied from down low and up high (thats easy for me ), i walked around the camera but you can just go in front if you like. Basically I applied nice even consistent spread of light over as many surfaces as possible, you have to apply more light to those darker items, like tyres and objects further away in teh composition, some objects/colours really suck the light...I think that about covers it..

The first image is with the LED torch only.

The second is a combo one with both softbox and vare LED - I thin this one would have been better with softbox only since you can see some harsh highlights from the LED light reflections.

The last one is softbox only, you can tell this since it has that nice matte fiish to the light, a softbox or diffsuer is essential for this.

I may do this again before the bike gets a flogging, if so i will try and take a setup picture next time.

I am not entirely sure about the background. I would prefer concrete floor with an urban background.

yeah, i had visions of a nice OOF skyline, but it seems to cut right through the middle of the subject and is a bit too cluttered. Concrete / bitumen was an option, but it was pretty windy and the last thing i wanted to was drop the bike on the concrete so grass it was..

How in the world did you prop the bike up?

thats the easiest part, just a short length of cane to prop it up - basically propped up at the crankshaft, you can just see the cane in the last picture, however in the others it was a two click clone.

#3 too much glare off the fork.

agreed, more softbox /reduced light strength required there...

Thanks for the comments - if anyone is keen and in the area let me know - this stuff is kinda fun and ya dont have to stress about the sun going up or down

[Mr Darcy]

Cheers Mr Darcy, makes things a little easier.

No worries. Glad I could help. There are others around. - I use two regularly. The other one tells me he used normal contrast, low saturation & high sharpening Also the lens was Maxf2.8, so it was probably the 24-70 zoom (Not sure why this info was missing - its usually there too.)

EDIT: OK I got the lens wrong, but I was in the right ball park

Unfortunately all too often, the EXIF has been stripped out, so they don't help all the time.

[surenj]

The other one tells me he used normal contrast, low saturation & high sharpening

Greg, would that be only relevant if RAW wasn't used?

[biggerry]

Greg, would that be only relevant if RAW wasn't used?

thats a good point, whilst the exif states;

# White Balance = auto (0)
# Digital Zoom Ratio = 1/1 ===> 1
# Focal Length in 35mm Film = 39
# Scene Capture Type = standard (0)
# Gain Control = n/a (0)
# Contrast = normal (0)
# Saturation = low (1)
# Sharpness = hard (2)
# Subject Distance Range = unknown (0)

I was under the assumption that this only applied to jpegs images...does the 'in camera optimize' image settings affect the raw files as well?

[surenj]

I was under the assumption that this only applied to jpegs images...does the 'in camera optimize' image settings affect the raw files as well?

I hope not. That would take away the 'raw edge'

[DebT]

OK so how did you hold the bike up?
DebT

[biggerry]

OK so how did you hold the bike up?

[aim54x]

nice work there Gerry, great to see the pushbike!

[biggerry]

but find the urban part too busy.

I suppose you need a large 'dark' field.

How about about this? less cluttered?

[Mr Darcy]

The other one tells me he used normal contrast, low saturation & high sharpening

Greg, would that be only relevant if RAW wasn't used?

Maybe. It depends what post processing was done.
While RAW records the data direct from the sensor, it also records the various settings as well. Post processing programs use the settings data to display the starting point image on screen, so they will have an effect on the final image.
CaptureNX (Yes I know you have Canon - you silly twisted boy you - but I don't) allows you to alter the settings, and thereby the image. I assume (I haven't actually checked this) the new settings are recorded to EXIF in place of the old ones when you make a change.
Photoshop (CS2 & 3 - I don't have 4) takes the settings into account when it does its RAW conversion (These days though I always use NX2) so again they flow through to the final image

I was under the assumption that this only applied to jpegs images...does the 'in camera optimize' image settings affect the raw files as well?

I hope not. That would take away the 'raw edge'

No it doesn't. With RAW, you have all the original information recorded, so you can always refer back to it. JPG throws away much of the information. Once gone it is lost forever. Each time you save a JPG, more information is thrown away, so after 10 saves or so, the image is useless. With RAW, you still have a workable image, and can still go back to your original OOC.

How about about this? less cluttered?

Gerry, I like your new shot. Perhaps brush ou the bright light crossing the back wheel though.

[surenj]

Thanks for that Greg.

I wonder whether the sharpening settings are also stoed on the raw file? My camera seems to have this setting which I haven't worried about.

Gerry, I really like the rework. As Greg mentioned maybe the fix the light on the two wheels to be the same. This one could be a product shot easily.