Photo of the Week # 33 30/12/10 - 6/01/11

CabanSail

The POTW has been missing a while. I got a bit busy to do it and then it drifted away. However it was a worthwhile thing to do, and so for the New Year it's coming back.



This image from kev_Longshanks100 is the new POTW. Well done.

Would appreciate if you could tell us a bit about this Photo.





While looking through the posts there are a few "Honourable Mentions"




GhostInTheRuins



BorderFox



AnimalRights



Rainbowsend

Tallon

I remember that first photo, blew me away.

The rest are amazing too, well done guys

Tiriel

Wow!! Beautiful images - well done! Great to see the thread is coming back Thanks CabanSail!

.Longshanks.

Wow! Wasn’t expecting that – my first POTW! Thanks for all the thanks guys

Exif info

Camera Canon 40D
Lens Sigma 10-20mm
Exposure 30 secs
Aperture f4
Focal Length 10mm
ISO speed 200


It’s a shot of the Crana Bridge, over the Crana river in Buncrana, Co. Donegal, taken when I was at home over the Christmas break.

There are floodlights lighting the bridge most nights during the year, but the past 3 or 4 times I’ve been home they didn’t seen to be on….bad timing? But over the recent Christmas break (when the snow cleared!) I was at a loose end one evening and decided to try and get a shot I’ve had in my head for a while.

I set up the camera on my tripod and framed the shot with f3.5 or something and ISO 1600 in Aperture priority. After messing about a bit in the dark I have happy enough with the frame. Then put the camera in to Shutter speed priority, manual ISO 100 and set it for 30 secs. ISO 100 wasn’t going to be enough (aperture input was blinking – my lens doesn’t open wide enough), so I set it to ISO 200.

I then got my 430EX speedlight and remote triggers set up. I set it to ¼ power and put a full CTO (colour temp orange) gel over it. Then pressed the camera shutter button and during the 30 second exposure I manually fired the speedlight a 5 or 6 times onto the foreground around the camera.

Because the ambient light (the fluorescent floodlights behind the bridge) was a strong orange colour, by putting a CTO gel on the flash meant that my ambient light and foreground light were approx the same colour / temperature. So when I opened the file on my computer, this meant that if I shifted the global white balance to remove the strong orange cast to the shot – everything moved together. If I didn’t use the CTO gel my foreground would have developed a dose of the smurfs (would have got very cold / blue).

Simple enough really.

There was some light fog about that night as well – this gave the lovely effect of slightly emphasising the beam of light from the bridge floodlights. The light from below the last arch is totally blown out….but I think it ads something to it….like somebody mentioned on flickr “Is that Gandalf the White (from the Lord Of The Rings) on the other side of the bridge”.

CabanSail

Thanks for the explanation. Just shows that often a good shot doesn't just happen but is first seen in the mind and then carefully created.

kelly1

kev_Longshanks100 wrote: »

....
I then got my 430EX speedlight and remote triggers set up. I set it to ¼ power and put a full CTO (colour temp orange) gel over it. Then pressed the camera shutter button and during the 30 second exposure I manually fired the speedlight a 5 or 6 times onto the foreground around the camera.

To me it looks like you have lights coming from right and left onto the foreground. No? Great shot btw and congrats!

.Longshanks.

kelly1 wrote: »

To me it looks like you have lights coming from right and left onto the foreground. No? Great shot btw and congrats!

Well yeah i do. Its all from a single speedlight, fired 5 or 6 times randomly either side of the camera

kelly1

kev_Longshanks100 wrote: »

Well yeah i do. Its all from a single speedlight, fired 5 or 6 times randomly either side of the camera

Where does the remote trigger come into it? If it's remote, you wouldn't have time to move it about, would you? But it's a great idea moving it about in a long exposure!

.Longshanks.

kelly1 wrote: »

Where does the remote trigger come into it? If it's remote, you wouldn't have time to move it about, would you? But it's a great idea moving it about in a long exposure!

The remotes were set up to be used, but i've just remembered that they weren't used. Thinking about it now - it was pointless having them for that shot because I only used a single flash (multiple times)!

kelly1

Thanks Kev I must try that idea some time.