I suppose DoF comes into play?
I suppose DoF comes into play?
Hey, how do you get the idea that this is how those images were done? Not only is Thomas a member here, he also has a blog where he described his process:Originally Posted by Van Camper
http://thomasbirke.com/post/34444991...uction-process
A quote:
"To determine the correct exposure time I use experience a lot lately, since conditions are pretty standard all the time after the sun got down. Just to be sure I use my Minolta Autometer IV with a 5° Spot Attachment or my small digicam to make test exposures and reference the result to my f22 aperture. It mostly is between 4 and 16 minutes."
Looks much like the process I have been using for years.
However I learned one additional thing that I always observe... with my spot meter I meter the sky in the area directly behind my subject. Sometimes this is precisely where the sun set or other times it is not. That just depends on the direction of my composition.
If there are city lights in the scene... then eV6 is my reference point for shots that will balance the level of city lights in the foreground with available sky-light. These attached photos were all taken when the sky was ev6.
One of my favorite times for photos much as Thomas Birke describes in his blog.
Cheers. Bob G.
All natural images are analog. But the retina converts them to digital on their way to the brain.
They sure don't look like nite shots to me, at most dusk/night. They look as much like shadowless light as anything. Besides, the exposures aren't even adequate.
Lynn
Lynn: Thanks for the criticism. I guess you don't like them.
As I stated in my post the sky was eV6. So true. More late-dusk shots.
Why not post a few of your own so I can critique?
Bob G.
All natural images are analog. But the retina converts them to digital on their way to the brain.
From his blog it sounds like he does them as single shots, no double exposure trickery. I guess he is just taking advantage of the huge range that color neg allows. And there is sort of a Euro style to how all these guys are editing their images....
It seems like he has a fair amount of money to piss on this.... I wonder how? That's always the most important question!
I think he is running out of money, but he has a dream:
http://thomasbirke.com/post/341050878/my-goal
As it says in the link above, he's an "IT consultant for one of the largest IT companies"
I follow this Thomas's work and think it's beautiful. Those massive enlargements he makes (often from stiched 8x10!) must be absolutely stunning. He seems like a swell guy too.
When I was young and starting out I tried two exposure twilight shots. The trouble is even with really heavy tripods, subtle things like air temperature changes, settling of the tripod feet etc. led to small shifts ruining alignment. I learned to do do it with one exposure and never looked back. I've had hundreds of them published over the years. Thirty years latter I still do it with one exposure. For 25 of those years I did it with transparency film then like three years with negs and then switched to digital.Negs were more forgiving than transparencies and made bracketing exposures largely unnecessary. You just wait for the good balance. Same with digital. See my website and blog. It is full of twilight shots.
Thanks,
Kirk
at age 73:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep"
Since it's dark for most of the hours of the day where I live, I photo mostly at night in the winter. For the past four years I've been using a fairly massive monolight system of up to seven high powered lights with battery packs. I have nearly 9,000 watt seconds of power. My subject is an unusual one--freight trains. Moving at track speed. I can light up about 250 yards of train now. I only shoot in total darkness, not the twilight stuff. Often it's below zero (F), and sometimes it's really below zero! So far I've only been shooting my Nikon D300, but this winter I am gearing up to start shooting my Shen Hao 4x5 and Ilford HP5. Mostly, I just want to see if I can pull it off. I sometimes photo other things besides trains, such as country churches, waterfalls, and have even lit the giant redwoods in Yosemite's Mariposa Grove before. I've been thinking that night photography is actually easier than daytime shots. For starters, if I don't want something in the photo, I simply keep light off of it. For anther thing at night, I am totally in control of the most important thing in any photo--The Light!
Kent in SD
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