Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Landscape & Nature Photography => Topic started by: Lonnie Utah on October 12, 2011, 04:59:08 pm

Title: Arches Aurora
Post by: Lonnie Utah on October 12, 2011, 04:59:08 pm
Known for it's famous Red Rocks, Arches can present other colors too. Turret Arch shot under a full moon on an overcast night.  

(http://www.landshapephotography.com/img/v32/p243337787-4.jpg)

LandShape Photography | Arches Aurora (http://www.landshapephotography.com/p651328193/he810a3b#he810a3b)

Exposure 259 seconds
Aperture F/11
ISO 800
Focal Length 16mm
Filters: 9 stop ND filter
Title: Re: Arches Aurora
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on October 12, 2011, 05:32:03 pm
Refreshingly non-red!

Great shot!

Eric
Title: Re: Arches Aurora
Post by: FrameMaker on October 12, 2011, 09:15:40 pm
+ 1  I like it!  A new (blue) envisioning.
Title: Re: Arches Aurora
Post by: francois on October 13, 2011, 05:21:20 am
Refreshingly non-red!
…

I agree 100%
Title: Re: Arches Aurora
Post by: Rendezvous on October 15, 2011, 11:18:36 pm
Beautiful image!
Title: Re: Arches Aurora
Post by: Jose L on October 16, 2011, 02:57:45 pm
Bella imagen y bella luz la que ha capturado. Saludos.
Title: Re: Arches Aurora
Post by: Lonnie Utah on October 18, 2011, 01:27:33 pm
Gracias, Jose.  

Here's another comp from the same shoot...

(http://www.landshapephotography.com/img/v33/p678655305-4.jpg)
Title: Re: Arches Aurora
Post by: francois on October 18, 2011, 02:33:15 pm
Gracias, Jose.  

Here's another comp from the same shoot...


Fantastic!
Title: Re: Arches Aurora
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on October 18, 2011, 02:42:03 pm
Truly wonderful! If you'd been just a fraction further to your right, though, the tree branches would have been clear of the rock and it would have been even better.

Jeremy
Title: Re: Arches Aurora
Post by: Lonnie Utah on October 18, 2011, 03:58:02 pm
Truly wonderful! If you'd been just a fraction further to your right, though, the tree branches would have been clear of the rock and it would have been even better.

Had I been just a fraction further over to the right, the heads of all the folks shooting the moon rising in the east would have been in the frame of the arc.  :)

I saw them all standing there and I asked myself, why do I want to shoot the same thing that at least 5 others are shooting? I'm sure they all got great shots, but everyone got the same basic one.   I think this came out really well, and I've never seen anything like it from this part of the world. 
Title: Re: Arches Aurora
Post by: Ken Bennett on October 18, 2011, 05:23:38 pm
Hey, Lonnie,

Great photos, and totally different from anything I've seen in that part of the world.

May I ask a stupid question? Why choose ISO 800 with a 9-stop ND filter? Why not choose ISO 100 with a less-powerful filter?

As this is not the sort of photography I do, I wonder if I am missing something obvious.

Thanks!

Ken
Title: Re: Arches Aurora
Post by: Lonnie Utah on October 18, 2011, 06:05:47 pm
Cause the 9 is the only one in the kit! :)

Just as an FYI, here's upload of the original, un-doctored raw file (dust spots and all).  I converted this straight to jpg in ACR6.5.

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ibur-qgOXX8/TpZw8ZbHQ7I/AAAAAAAAIJ8/js1_W_Shwb8/s720/DSC08815%252520-%252520Copy.jpg)

As you can see, there was a luminance tremendous amount of noise in the image even with a 5 min exposure (it was way past twilight when I took this).  By pushing that part of the image to black, it essentially reduces (eliminates) the amount of noise in that part of the image.  You can try this on your own.  Under expose an image by a couple of stops and then push it back up those two stops.  You'll see the noise level really increase in the shadow areas. 

I could have pushed the exposure even longer to reduce the noise, but I would have burned the sky and lost the detail there.  Given that this image is pretty much an abstract at this point, a took a fair amount of liberty with the processing.
Title: Re: Arches Aurora
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on October 19, 2011, 03:35:11 am
Had I been just a fraction further over to the right, the heads of all the folks shooting the moon rising in the east would have been in the frame of the arc.  :)

I saw them all standing there and I asked myself, why do I want to shoot the same thing that at least 5 others are shooting? I'm sure they all got great shots, but everyone got the same basic one.   I think this came out really well, and I've never seen anything like it from this part of the world. 
I suspected there might have been a good reason! You've certainly managed to produce something that's both unusual and beautiful: either alone isn't too difficult but managing both is quite an achievement.

Jeremy
Title: Re: Arches Aurora
Post by: PasZ on October 20, 2011, 08:48:36 pm
Excelent picture!!! power of simplicity!
Title: Re: Arches Aurora
Post by: rcarpenter3d on October 26, 2011, 04:57:31 pm
Wonderful work. :)