for the first time I go to Kedah (northern part of Peninsular Malaysia) but just up to Sg Petani – Kota Kuala Muda … a happy and wonderful outing again with my gang …..
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update 2013 Sept 2
… the reflection Dawn … 1. Singh-Ray RGND 2 stops 2. Lee CPL 4×4
update 2012 Nov 6
… queue up … – Lee Filter GND .9s – Singh-Ray LB Warming and Neutral Circular Polarizers
update 2012 Nov 1
… slow rainbow … – Lee Filter GND .75s – Singh-Ray LB Warming and Neutral Circular Polarizers
update 2012 Oct 31
… the Crab …
update 2012 Oct 22
without famous, best view, great picture, best tool , best result… But I feel great, happy on this picture … we spend a wonderful moment with my gang (capture this while raining, lightning)
… tricolor sunset … – Singh-Ray RGND 2 stops – Lee Filter Big Stopper… Mount Jerai … – Lee Filter GND .75s – Lee Filter Big Stopper
star trail need a lot of patient.. after hours capture the compo could be wrong , the weather could be change to cloudy …. etc but yet we still trying our best to capture to share
I always telling friends of mine to have bigger aperture to get clearer Milky way shot … and it really give impact with more light fall onto the sensor … but what if we do not have big aperture len .. e.g. we own F4 or F3.5 lenses ?
theoritical , if we can increase the shutter time which allow more light abosrb on the sensor.. we should able to capture beautiful stars sky … but according to the rule 600
…
I had aiming a polarie star tracker but too bad, i had been turn down by the cost and size …
recently, I managed to test the
Vixen Polarie… a square box size small and weight <1kg … and not really difficult to operate …
i may not able to share how do use this .. but it is really simple and let me share the simple test result
both shoot at F4 , exp 151s +- , ISO 400
1. without start tracker – Vixen Polarie
2. witho start tracker – Vixen Polarie
with minimu setup time and minimu knowledge of Astronomy , I am able to create a image without “start trail” effect
**** rule 600 simply basic rule to avoid “star trail” effect while we have too long exposure on our effective focal length.. e.g.
16mm on FULL frame, we should have max exposure of 600/16=37.5s
16mm on canon APS-c , we should have max exposure of 600/16*1.6=23.4
so if we have anything more than the exposure time the the rotation of earth will create “star trai;” effect create blur effect on to our frame.
we are keep looking for possible angle to get the reflection but too bad we fail to capture it ….
... looking for reflection ...
by the way … how many of us .. actually know it is a black and white while we shooting or convert it after it do not look good on the computer screen ? … and we should know what/how we edit our picture before press the shutter ….?
not too long ago, me and my gang (shunfa) still struggle to find and capture the
Milky way … think we went to wrong places and wasted a lot of time .. but
recently , with the help of Iphone/Ipad tools (star chart) we can easily locate
the Milky way and capture it easily (as long as we choose low pollution light
area)… sharing some experience how I shoot star previously
I actually want to share this “black card” quite some time ago .. but I always forget and not really able to get some good result to share … and while I am doing this , one of my gang actually notice me shaking my finger around the front len .. and she did ask what was I doing … 😀 and here you go ….
what is black card method and when will we use it ?
when we having different exposures, I normally do GND filter, exposures blending, black card, HDR …(we not going to discuss all here but share some sample)
A. GND filter
this is just like GND filter, most of the time we have big dynamic range/different between sky and foreground.. it normally have different from 2-9 stops …. e.g. for standard sunrise/sunset/magic hour environment, we face 2-4 stops different between foreground – sky… to resolve this we normally use GND to single frame picture have the correct exposure among foreground and sky e.g.
1. without GND
Magical moment - no GND
2. GND
... the magical moment ...
– the sky is ~4 stops different from the foreground…
– I use GND.9s for above picture and do some PP trick to make the right exposure
B. HDR (seldom do this …but think we still good to know this)
Cold Reflection
– why I choose HDR … this was shoot use my SIGMA12-24mm which cannot fit any filter
– it was too cold to think which method to choose so I simply shoot 7 exposures back 😀
3. black card
– seldom use this as I am not really experience
– filter much easy
– need a lot of try and error but the good light could be disappear any time
original shot without any filter, blending, black card
– why I choose black card, the environment was dark, not sure how/where to apply GND
– multiple exposures will take double or even more times for single shot
– the exposure different >3 stops
for me I know the area that make me concern as below
the over expose portion
– so what I did was, use my fingers block the over expose area
– allow only ~2-3 seconds exposure over 30 seconds exposure, so I block it until last few seconds and I remove my finger
so I get
... another milky way ...
most of the time we just need try and error, where some fail sample .. think only expose for ~1s
wrong timing to shake the black card/finger
I will discuss more on other method in future … but let’s try and error on black card 😀
I will have a mini workshop for long exposure so I decide to make one South (Muar – Batu Pahat, Johor) …
this is not a full Workshop but I will share some tips
1. what tools - filter explanation - which filter to use
2. how to shoot Long Exposure
– how do we calculate the exposure time
– some experience what setting
– what’s best exposure for different effect
3. what accessories require for Long Exposure
4. Post Processing tips (my Long Exposure and Star PP workflow)
5. How I shoot Stars
this trip will limit to 4-6 participants and now 2 have been fill …..
*** update 23 March 2011 , 4 seat had been fill …..
*** update 28 March 2011, 6 seats had been fill … and this is close now !!!
RM499 will include
1. travel from KL
2. accommodation (we will have quick rest after sunset) (3 stars hotel 2 share 1room)
3. monitor calibration, if you bring yours notebook along
*** this is not a basic class, will assume participant already know basic of DSLR, A-mode, M-mode, exposure, Aperture, ISO, Bulb-mode (will share how to calculate for right exposure)
Contact me for different fee, if you arrange yours own transport …
