Rodney Campbell's Blog

Before Gerry and I embarked upon our light painting extravaganza at Middle Head Fort we each looked for some potential at sunset. With the lovely late afternoon light hitting both north and south head over to the east of us we were both thinking we might be able to do some telephoto landscape or panorama work in that direction… and then fickle as always the lovely light was gone and it looked like it was going to stay that way behind heavier clouds over where the sun was setting 🙁

I headed up onto the roof of the highest fort whilst Gerry headed over to one of the open forts.

I wanted to try a more telephoto perspective panorama so fitted the new Sigma 85/1.4 (I know a portrait lens in the hands of a Landscape photographer! :)) and also added my usual Lee filter kit (in this case the Heliopan CPL + a Lee 0.9 (3 stop) Graduated ND).

It’s surprising how difficult it is to frame up a wide panorama sequence when using a tele (I’m much more used to doing it with much wider 12 to 35mm focal lengths)… Anyway this is the result of stitching twenty two (22) vertical/portrait frames shot at 85mm 0.8 sec @ f/11 and ISO 100. The field of view is probably a bit over 180 degrees and the resultant image was stupidly large (around 55 thousand pixels wide and almost 8GB in filesize) so I downsized to a 17 thousand pixel wide master to work on instead.

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Sunset over the Fort

NIKON D600 + 85.0 mm f/1.4 @ 85 mm, 0.8 sec at f/11, ISO 100 x 22 Frames

This really is an image you have to see larger to appreciate (you can click through for a somewhat larger version) and it’s surprising just how much very fine detail remains even in my downsized master version when you zoom into the image, also shows you just how sharp this Sigma 85/1.4 is. The following is a very small section of 100% image crop about 1/8th of the way in from the left side.

NIKON D600 + 85.0 mm f/1.4 @ 85 mm, 1/1 sec at f/11, ISO 100

My friend Gerry and I recently received our order of miscellaneous light painting toys from an online store in Canada. The place stocked all sorts of crazy lighting toys and implements we thought we could repurpose as tools for light painting. Basically most of the stuff is cheap chinese toys designed for children (light sabers, fibre optic wands, light wands, space guns, finger lights, spinning glow ball, light necklaces and so on). It took two months for our crap to traverse the globe and arrive here in Australia so we figured we’d go out somewhere and experiment with how some of these things looked in the dark so we could assess what works and what doesn’t and better incorporate them in future.

What follows are some of our crazy experiments on the night… These are all single shots out of camera and for most of them not a lot of post production work.

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

It’s all pretty bizarre stuff – keen to hear what works for you and what doesn’t?

Time Tunnel

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 18 mm, 101.00 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Tracks

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 18 mm, 307 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

Gerry also brought his Russian GP-5 gas masks for some added themed interest which we looked to incorporate into some of the light painting shots…

Apocalypse

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 26 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Warped

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 217.00 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Inner Space

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 222 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Merry Christmas!

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 284.00 sec at f/8, ISO 100

I’m doing a little project for a friend which involves creating a panorama of a scene down at Balmoral here in Sydney.

Here in Sydney we’ve been having glorious sunrise skies here of late – each morning I’d look out my bedroom and bathroom windows and see this fabulous sky out east and wish I was out there shooting. Monday and Tuesday had very nice skies so I figured I’d try my luck on Wednesday morning and head out early and see what transpires. The sun is rising later at this time of year but it still requires a 5AM start to get there early enough – I arrived before 6AM, about 50 minutes before the 6:40AM sunrise.

This first pano was taken at 6AM and is the result of stitching 8 frames taken at 29mm (with the trusty Nikon 16-35/4) with exposure times ranging from 120 seconds down to 40 seconds @ f/9 at ISO 200 (I bumped the ISO so the exposure times wouldn’t be too ridiculous). I actually took most of the pano sets going in reverse from right to left (I normally tend to shoot panos from left to right). I did this because it might take quite a few minutes to finish the whole set and as the sun is rising all the time and the sky/ambient is getting brighter as I’m going through the set I wanted to start with the brightest part of the scene first and work my way around to the darkest (which would brighten up a bit more by the time I got around there :))

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Even with it being 40 minutes before sunrise you can see there’s quite a bit of colour in the sky and the long exposures have helped here

Balmoral Evening

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 29 mm, 43 sec at f/9, ISO 200

This second pano was taken just before sunrise at 6:32AM and is the result of stitching 9 frames taken at 20mm with exposure times of 2 or 3 seconds @ f/13 at ISO 100. I’d actually taken 12 frames for this set for a full 360 degree panorama but I didn’t stitch that (yet)

Burning Sunrise over Balmoral

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 3 sec at f/13, ISO 100

I’d been on the lookout for a powerful handheld torch to use for larger scale light painting (buildings, trees, mountains :), etc) for a while now. With the rapid advances in LED technology very powerful and compact models are becoming more readily available for lower and lower prices.

I had a few criteria in mind:
– I wanted a relatively small, light and compact torch – something I could just leave in my camera bag
– I’d rather it run on “standard” rechargeable batteries (AA or AAA) and not use the advanced rechargeable Li-ion batteries found in many higher powered torches (e.g. 14500 and 18650)
– high power (500+ lumens)
– preferably a warm white beam rather than cool
– a zoom head would be nice but is unlikely on any high powered models

I already had a few smaller AA powered LED torches – e.g. a 4 x AA Fenix HP-10 headlamp (225 lumens) and a few small single AA powered 120 lumen zoomable torches.

Nitecore had recently released their new EA4 model and it was getting mostly rave reviews on the various forums (e.g. candlepower) and when FastTech announced a super special price I jumped on board.

I ordered the Neutral White version from FastTech for the princely sum of $46.90 which is insanely cheap for a torch of this power.

Specifications:
Battery: 4 x AA
LED Type: Cree XM-L U2
Switch: Side
Modes: 8 [Micro (65lm 22hr), Low (135lm 11hr), Medium (300lm 4hr30min), High (550lm 2hr), Turbo (860lm 1hr45min), Strobe, SOS, Beacon]
Throw: 283 metres
Weight: 159g (without batteries)
Dimensions: A tiny 117mm long with a diameter of 40mm
Waterproof: IPX-8 (2m submersible)

The overall quality of the torch is very nice – it is solidly built, nice anodised finish and it feels good in the hand. It is a very compact torch for the power it generates – I’d expect it’s currently the smallest 860 lumen torch available. Given it’s diminutive size it weighs more than it looks but it certainly isn’t heavy.

The user interface leaves a lot to be desired. Nitecore touts this as a feature with it’s “innovative single button two-stage switch offering a user friendly interface”. It may be a nice concept but it is a lot more complicated than it really needs to be. 1 click, 1 half click, 2 clicks in 1 second, hold down for 1 second, to access different modes and functions.

But that’s only the start of it — the 8 brightness levels are grouped into 3 operating modes (Daily, Search, Special) with various switching/cycling options, and there are 2 ON states, 2 OFF states, as well as a dual-purpose power indicator light integrated into the button.

Once you start to use the flashlight, you soon realise that the interface is anything but user-friendly. Some of the challenges include…
– how do I activate Turbo again?
– was that half, single or double-click?
– why does the button keep flashing at me?
– now that it’s locked, how do I turn this bloody thing on?

Anyway, a helpful forum soul created a colour-coded Quick Reference Guide as printable PDF’s:

Nitecore EA4 Quick Reference Guide – A4
Nitecore EA4 Quick Reference Guide – Letter

The user interface is probably the only real con of this torch – everything else is awesome

– it uses AA batteries
– a power pack in a small and light package
– has a smooth deep reflector
– very bright and a very nice hotspot
– has a long throw distance
– it can stand on it’s tail
– a neutral white version is available
– good quality build and finish

After my little light painting exercise with some rocks at Turimetta beach some of the FOCUS crew were arriving for twilight and sunrise so I joined them for a pleasant morning of shooting and chatting followed by some nice breaky nearby.

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

It’s 6:30AM and about 20 minutes before sunrise so it’s time for some long exposure seascapes – 16-35/4 at 19mm, 61 sec @ f/11 and ISO 100

Turimetta Myst

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 61.00 sec at f/11, ISO 100

The seas this morning were really rough and the waves were relentlessly battering the coast

Turimetta Churn

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 18 mm, 1/2 sec at f/8, ISO 100

I headed back to the rocks where the seas were coming in a little higher and washing over the shelf under the rocks. I setup for some shots with the waves coming in under the rocks and… well.. was lucky my gear wasn’t washed away… got the shot tho 🙂

This was the first time I’ve ever shot under base ISO (ISO 100) on this camera – however I needed a slower shutter, I was already using a CPL to cut a few stops of light and didn’t have time to setup with an ND – 16-35/4 at 19mm, 0.6 sec @ f/11 and ISO 50

Seaswept

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 1/2 sec at f/11, ISO 50