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If the bullets break the glass

PostPosted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 2:26 pm
by dooda
Image

Critique and comments welcome.

Yes I know the fellow on the right is blurry. I must have shot that one at a wider apeture, or messed up the focus on that one or something.

I actually look at these composites as being a little lacking, but I simply couldn't resist while taking these.

These were all taken from 30 second exposures.

PostPosted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 2:45 pm
by PiroStitch
Very abstract and creative :) Love the affect and the person on the right being OOF doesn't matter - adds to the pic.

PostPosted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 5:10 pm
by sirhc55
Very creative Dave - I actually like the person in the middle as it adds just that little bit of balance.

PostPosted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 5:30 pm
by Alpha_7
Very funky, kind of a "Me, myself and I" style shot! Glad to see something a little different from you Dave, not that we are sick of your Dali-esque Nightscapes ;-)

PostPosted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 7:19 pm
by Geoff
THis is great Dave - care to share with how you created it?

PostPosted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 7:41 pm
by wendellt
conceptual with creative execution, excellent work!

are you saying this is a composite from 3 photos?

becuase during a 30 sec exposure you could of stood in each spot standing still for 5 seconds then moving to the next spot and you would of sort of got the same result without any post compositing, i am sure you already knew that

PostPosted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 7:56 pm
by gstark
wendellt wrote:becuase during a 30 sec exposure you could of stood in each spot standing still for 5 seconds then moving to the next spot and you would of sort of got the same result without any post compositing,


Actually, probably not.

If 30 seconds was the crfrect exposure for the whole scene, then a 5 second exposure for each image of the person would have looked more like the centre image - somewhat ghostly, as the 5 seconds exposure would be just enough to get a faint image of the person, but there would be the underlying image of the frames/glass whatever as well.

If you look at the shadow of the person, you can see that the lighting is somewhat harsh, which is suggestive of an off-camera flash.

With a camera like the D2x or D200 and a matte box, this sort of image is actually relatively easy to accomplish in-camera.

PostPosted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 8:11 pm
by mudder
G'day,

I like it, it's creative and something different, I like the faint image of the middle person... :)

PostPosted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 9:17 pm
by Alex
Great image. Well done.

Alex

PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 7:42 am
by dooda
Hey thanks for the comments everyone. Each exposure is 30 seconds long at ISO 400. In each shot I simply stood in the next spot. I used the photo where I stood behind the glass in the middle as the base exposure, then I simply opened the three TIF files in photoshop and cloned the other two characters into it, being careful to line them up so the lines matched up perfectly. The light is coming from the moon. I'm not sure how you could do this in-camera without some kind of transparency (I actually tried to combine the raw files in camera but the figures were pretty transparent.

Thanks for all the comments everyone. I quite like this photo.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 10:16 am
by ABG
Great image Dave. I really like it.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 11:02 am
by gstark
dooda wrote:I'm not sure how you could do this in-camera without some kind of transparency


Dave,

With a D2X or D200, you would set the camera up into its multiple exposure mode. With a matte box - or even a Cokin adapter - you would have two mattes created. One would cover two thirds of the image area, leaving one third open, on one side of the viewing plane. The second would also cover two thirds of the viewng plane, but it have the open area in the centre of the viewing plane.

The camera is mounted on a tripod, and you would make the first image using (say) the matte with the open center. At this time you would have just a one third image, in the center of your sensor.

You now replace the matte with the other one, opening up one of the sides to the image plane, and make your second exposuse, using the multiple exposure feature to expose the same frame. Note that each of your exposures is a normal one, with no compensation for the multiple exposures.

You now have two thirds of the frame exposed.

Flip the matte through 180 degrees, so that the final third of the image area is now being opened up, and repeat the multiple exposure process, and you're done!

I used to do this sort of thing, in camera and on film, routinely. Once you understand the basic technique, it's dead easy and all manner of in-camera options open themselves up to you.


Thanks for all the comments everyone. I quite like this photo.


As do I.

PostPosted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 7:56 am
by dooda
Interesting Gary, thanks for that explanation. I might have to try this just to understand the camera better, I have tried a few of the multiple exposure options, but not very seriously though.