AzAP Three-Year Anniversary Night Shoot - CAF Falcon Field

[Brian Lockett]

[trmphoto]

MiG-15 at the CAF Museum in Mesa, AZ

[Joe Copalman]

NIGHTHORSE

[cpasley]

Correct thread this time

P-51D Mustang "Stang" N151RJ by Chris Pasley, on Flickr

[Jay Beckman]

Sunset On Mother Russia

[Rob Silliman]

Sunset Silhouette

[Jeff D. Welker]

Dramatic Stang.

Great images everyone. I'm glad that dust storm did not put the kibosh on the photo shoot. I especially like Voyles' image above. The balance of exposure and tonalities are exceptional. I note you credited Jay with some assistance. Maybe you'd be willing to share exif data and other tidbits on how you achieved the image. It sure looks like you took full advantage of the setting sun.

[FelipeG]

Just out of curiosity, is that a monopod attached to the top of the ladder?

[Chris V]

Dramatic Stang.

Great images everyone. I'm glad that dust storm did not put the kibosh on the photo shoot. I especially like Voyles' image above. The balance of exposure and tonalities are exceptional. I note you credited Jay with some assistance. Maybe you'd be willing to share exif data and other tidbits on how you achieved the image. It sure looks like you took full advantage of the setting sun.

Jay gave me some pointers for my settings when I used my off camera flashes (I am a noob at off camera flashes and this was the first time using them) and that was most appreciated. This shot was done at sunset with no flashes used. In after thought a shot or 2 with some fill flash might have been good here. This was a 9 shot HDR, I manually bracketed the shots from a tripod covering the exposures from almost blacked out to extremely over exposed. The more shots you use the better the results can be with HDR stuff. Using the 3 shot bracket that Canon has (40D in this case) if fine for some instances but more is better for the most part.

The dust storm actually helped this shot a lot, they can make for some great sky's at sunset. So as for processing I used Photomatix Pro to combine the exposures, then LR4 & CS6 to tweak it. Obviously the sky wasn't this dramatic when we saw it but I processed into some more to give it the feeling. I like the results and the fact that I edited this at 1am after the shoot and was tired I think I need to go back and mess around some more to see if I can improve on it some. I would like to try and clone out the other plane that is visible behind the canopy and try some other things to the image.

[Joe Copalman]

Just out of curiosity, is that a monopod attached to the top of the ladder?

Sort of.  It's a Canon ball-head desktop tripod with two legs inside a metal pipe and the third leg on the outside, secured with a generous amount of gaffer's tape tightly wrapped around the outside.  Stable enough for 30+ second exposures.  My only complaint - aside from the size and the weight of that damned ladder - is that I can't adjust the height of the pole.  Aside from that, I love being able to get some of the angles I can get with it.

[FelipeG]

So basically it's a tiny tripod that you turned into a monopod using a pipe, that's pretty nice. At least the ladder is fiberglass, an aluminum one would be a lot heavier. Now you're giving me ideas for what to build next semester :\

It's something I'd trust more than a really long stand-alone monopod. One time I was in Coolidge some dude was trying to get a shot like that using a really long monopod, except the camera looked like a D3x. I have no idea how I'd trust a setup that looked highly unstable to hold an $8k camera.

[Jeff D. Welker]

Jay gave me some pointers for my settings when I used my off camera flashes (I am a noob at off camera flashes and this was the first time using them) and that was most appreciated. This shot was done at sunset with no flashes used. In after thought a shot or 2 with some fill flash might have been good here. This was a 9 shot HDR, I manually bracketed the shots from a tripod covering the exposures from almost blacked out to extremely over exposed. The more shots you use the better the results can be with HDR stuff. Using the 3 shot bracket that Canon has (40D in this case) if fine for some instances but more is better for the most part.

The dust storm actually helped this shot a lot, they can make for some great sky's at sunset. So as for processing I used Photomatix Pro to combine the exposures, then LR4 & CS6 to tweak it. Obviously the sky wasn't this dramatic when we saw it but I processed into some more to give it the feeling. I like the results and the fact that I edited this at 1am after the shoot and was tired I think I need to go back and mess around some more to see if I can improve on it some. I would like to try and clone out the other plane that is visible behind the canopy and try some other things to the image.

Thanks for the info Chris. I hope this sounds like the compliment I intend it to be; that does not look like an HDR shot to me. I'm also not convinced that adding off-camera lighting would significantly improve the image, it looks pretty darn good as is. I'll be interested to see your 2nd version in the future. Well done sir.

[cpasley]

Thanks to Harvey for the use of his really keen wide angle lens

MiG-15 "Fagot" by Chris Pasley, on Flickr

[Chris V]

Thanks Jeff!!

 

[Jay Beckman]

Arrested For Flashing A Stearman!

2 X :30 Second Exposures + Running Around Hand Flashing