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Tips for Doing a Summer Project 92 to Get You Out Shooting

22 May

You’ve heard of the fabled Project 365, right? A photo a day for a year. We’ve even posted theme ideas here on dPS for those interested in a long-term project. But what about if you know that you aren’t going to make it all year, especially when the weather turns ugly and you love shooting outdoors? Enter, the Summer Project92.

What is it?

The idea is the same as the Project 365 but with a larger emphasis on getting outside and exploring your world with a camera. Keeping this project short and simple will hopefully encourage you to pick up that dusty camera and head outside. Smartphone, drone, underwater…it doesn’t matter the type of camera you are using, the point is to use it!

If you sometimes get stuck when looking for subjects, I have a list of weekly themes that should help give you some motivation. There are 13 weeks and one day to summer with the first day being June 21. So I’m going to follow the sun on this one and make all weeks start on a Thursday, just to mix it up.

Some Ideas

Week 1 – June 21st – Blooming – There are tons of flowers out there, just begging for a portrait.
Week 2 – June 28th – Endless Sunshine – I know it seems like the days last forever, but they are actually getting shorter, so get out there and shoot how it feels.
Week 3 – July 5th – It’s the Small Things – Time to get up close and personal with the little things that make nature and summer unique.
Week 4 – July 12th – Daydreams – Most of us don’t get the entire summer off work, but that shouldn’t stop you from daydreaming.
Week 5 – July 19th – Sunsets – A whole week of sunsets? Why not! You can throw in some sunrises too if you like.
Week 6 – July 26th – Patterns – Look for the repetitions in life.

Week 7 – August 2nd – Playfulness – Get playful with your shots, either of people and/or animals at play or create a playful scene.
Week 8 – August 9th – Heat – Oh my, is it ever hot out there!
Week 9 – August 16th – Bring on the Night – Yes, a whole week of night photography! It’s a good way to avoid the heat sometimes.
Week 10 – August 23rd – Summers of the Past – This is a chance to dig up some memories and archive those prints from your past. Find seven favorite photos from summers of the past and share them digitally.
Week 11 – August 30th – Roadtrip – All things cars or camping or hotels/motels or the open road.
Week 12 – September 6th – Family and Friends – What’s summer without good people around you to enjoy it with?
Week 13 – September 13th – Foods of Summer – Plan ahead as you might want to shoot this one on food as the summer progresses (yes, I allow that kind of cheating in my photo projects).
That Extra Day – September 20th – Transitions – All good things come to an end unless you are already thinking about doing a fall project?

If you don’t want to follow the schedule above, that’s just fine. There are no hard and fast rules about what to shoot and when. Although might I suggest that if you post your photos on social media, that you use the hashtag #SummerProject92? That way those of us who want to feel inspired (me!) will be able to find and comment on your work more easily.

Results

A blog, Tumblr, Instagram…the format doesn’t matter. What matters is to get out there and start shooting and sharing. And enjoy your summer! Psst, might I suggest posting some results in the dPS Facebook Group?

Forgive me for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere as I realize you are about to head into winter. You can start a #WinterProject92 and we’ll catch up with you in about six months.

The post Tips for Doing a Summer Project 92 to Get You Out Shooting appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Behind the scenes: Shooting a documentary atop a moving train

22 May

From 2015 to 2017, filmmaker Miguel de Olaso (AKA Macgregor) and his crew spend many months traveling back and forth on the famed Mauritanian Railway—one of the longest and heaviest trains in the world, the so-called ‘Backbone of the Sahara—to document the grueling journey endured by merchants who regularly travel atop this train to transport goods to people living in remote Saharan towns.

The result is a beautifully-executed 12-minute documentary titled The Mauritania Railway: Backbone of the Sahara, which follows the journey of Malick: a 27 year-old merchant who relies on the train for his livelihood, even as he risks death each time he climbs aboard.

The short doc was shot entirely on a Sony F35 that was modified to take Nikon lenses (for reasons you’ll understand in a moment), and filming the documentary was a grueling process. We spoke with Macgregor shortly before the documentary was released last week, and he shared some details about the kit he used, the challenges he faced, and why he would never ever do this again.

The Mauritania Railway

by Macgregor

My crew and I put ourselves in the shoes of one of these merchants (over a two year period) and filmed the journey they go through on a daily basis. The result is a cinematic and immersive glimpse into a way of life that exists nowhere else in the world.

I shot the entire documentary on a Sony F35, Not sure how much you know about this “old” digital cinema cameras. The F35 was the successor of the Panavision Genesis, which was a big, heavy beast. But after the arrival of the solid state recorders a few years ago, the F35 became pretty compact and lightweight given the image quality it provided. Still not a DSLR in terms of size, but comparable to an Alexa for a fraction of the cost and size.

Anyways, even though I owned a set of PL mount lenses, I didn’t want to get them ruined in the desert sands of Mauritania so I decided to modify my Sony F35 with a custom built Nikon mount. That would let me travel lighter and use way cheaper glass than PL, but still capture a super high-quality image. We needed to travel with all our gear for more than a month and be able to move fast. Would a DSLR or Canon C300 had been a better choice? Possibly, but this project had to look amazing and I did not want to compromise on image quality. This had to look like a feature, shot on real locations and with real people.

Of course not all the lenses made it back home, but the camera did and it’s still working to this day.

This was a passion project that we did for the fun of it. But shooting atop of this damn train was horrible, dusty, endless, painful… I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. It might all look very pretty with nice music, etc. but oh man, after three trips I said I’m not doing this again. Of course, we did end up going back and shooting more footage… #filmmakerlife

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Check out the full short doc at the top to see the final product, and then scroll through the behind the scenes photos above for a glimpse at what it takes to create this kind of documentary. And if you want to see more of Macgregor’s work, be sure to pay his website a visit or give him a follow on Instagram.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Shooting Greenland in Winter: Part 2 – The Better Part of Winter

13 May

In the previous article, I wrote about reaching Uummannaq and the relatively difficult conditions I found in the beginning. Luckily, the days after the gale had passed were much more comfortable, so I began scouting around and shooting, and continued to do so throughout my stay.

The little guesthouse I stayed at was very well located—right next to the harbor. This was advantageous since, firstly, I didn’t have to walk too far to get to the sea ice (Uummannaq’s streets are steep and slippery in winter, not the best setting for a hike), and secondly, I had a very good point of view to judge the light and weather outside without having to dress up and walk out, which was quite a project.

Sunrise at the harbor right next to my guesthouse

Throughout my stay in Uummannaq, my guide Paaluk and I walked and snowmobiled all around the Fjord and took shots of beautiful icebergs in various conditions, from overcast to pink sunrise light. It was astounding to be able to walk right up to these gigantic icebergs and shoot them without the need for a boat.

Note that the icebergs are mostly under the surface and since currents shift them, getting too close is dangerous and shouldn’t be done without a local expert. Paaluk was very experienced in checking the ice with his spear and deciding what distance was safe for me to stand, and I trusted his calls.

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Once I was several kilometers away from town, I also used my drone to get aerials of the icebergs and of Uummannaq Island. There is something so incredibly iconic about Mount Uummannaq, it’s hard to look away. The scale can be very confusing—this mountain is 1,170 meters tall, and the island 7 km long!

The cold conditions can be quite problematic for drone photography. Yours truly has previously lost a drone to cold weather and was determined not to do so again. To keep the batteries warm, I kept them next to the heater in the room, put them into the sort-of-insulating polystyrene box and went on the shoot. I then usually put a battery in my armpit for 10 minutes, after which it was warm enough to operate safely… if a bit stinky.

Once the drone is up in the air the battery is kept warm on its own.

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One of the definite highlights of this visit was shooting Mount Uummannaq in golden afternoon light, reflecting in the frozen lake Tasersuaq (Greenlandic for “big lake”).

Paaluk drove me to the starting point of the hike and it wasn’t long before we were walking on scaringly-clear black ice with a million patterns, cracks and even Canadian-style methane bubbles! Walking on that lake was a surreal experience, since at some points you could see all the way down through the ice. Rest assured, it was so thick it could hold a semi-trailer, so there was no risk whatsoever.

After shooting last light above the cracked lake Tasersuaq, I went back to the guesthouse and got updated with the Aurora situation. It appeared that a minor solar storm had happened, and that we were going to get some lights. The sky was totally clear and scheduled to remain so. The only question was when it would happen.

I returned to the lake with Paaluk and took a few moonlight shots, before the sky began turning green. It was looking pretty good, so I quickly decided to hike back to the icebergs embedded in the sea ice. Paaluk had to switch back to the snowmobile, and by the time he found me I was shooting very strong Aurora above the icebergs.

The lights gained more and more strength, and soon enough they were shining all around the sky, even to the north—quite a rare occurrence in Uummannaq, whose 70-degree latitude is too far north to be in the center of the party, figuratively speaking.

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I shot the lights for several hours, and even took a few shots of Mount Uummannaq with Aurora above it. Even though the moon was a bit brighter than optimal, this had turned out to be the very best day of the trip.

In the next part of the series, I will tell you about my visit to Ilulissat.

Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez’s work on Instagram and Facebook, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates.

If you’d like to experience and shoot some of the most fascinating landscapes on earth with Erez as your guide, take a look at his unique photography workshops in Southern Iceland, Northern Iceland, The Lofoten Islands, Patagonia, Greenland in summer, Greenland in winter, Namibia and the Faroe Islands.

Erez offers video tutorials discussing his images and explaining how he achieved them.

More in this Series:

Part 1: Uummannaq Whiteout

Selected Articles by Erez Marom:

Parallelism in Landscape Photography
Winds of Change: Shooting changing landscapes
Behind the Shot: Dark Matter
On the Importance of Naming Images
On Causality in Landscape Photography
Behind the Shot: Lost in Space
The Art of the Unforeground
Whatever it Doesn’t Take

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Shooting polar bears with the $12,000 Nikon 180-400mm F4E TC1.4 FL ED VR

10 May

In many respects, the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 180-400mm F4E TC1.4 FL ED VR is a dream lens. Earlier this year, with the support of Nikon Europe, I tested it out in some of the harshest conditions on our planet—on a special Polar Bear production in Svalbard, near the north pole.

I took this lens on two different expeditions—first in early April with temperatures reaching well below -20°C with wonderful low-light, and the second expedition at the end of April with the midnight sun and higher contrast. As a professional wildlife photographer, I have to trust my gear to perform and deliver the sharpest images possible, and while this lens took a beating (sorry Nikon) it survived the freezing temperatures and functioned perfectly while providing razor sharp results.

Nikon D850, Nikon 180-400mm F4 @ 250mm (No TC) F4.5 1/800sec ISO 80

Construction and Handling

This lens is part of the new generation of E lenses with reduced weight compared to older designs. That’s important, since it makes hand-held shooting a lot easier. The entire body of the lens feels firm and well-balanced, although it’s a bit front-heavy in my opinion.

Compared to the much-loved Nikon 200-400mm, the new lens weighs less, and is in fact even lighter than the Nikon 300mm F2.8. The wide zoom ring and focus ring, plus the TC lever, make it easy to manipulate even when wearing the thick gloves required at this latitude, in temperatures well below freezing.

During my shooting, this lens “ate” a lot of snow and wind, and survived being transported for hundreds of kilometers on my snowmobile with nary a complaint.

Nikon D850, Nikon 180-400mm F4 @ 195mm (No TC) F4.5 1/2000sec ISO 80

Zoom Range

Without the 1.4X teleconverter engaged, the 180-400mm has wonderful range and the advantage of a constant F4 aperture. Going from one zoom extreme to the other requires only a 1/4 turn of the zoom ring, which is much quicker than the Nikon 200-500mm.

However, while 180-400mm is a usable range for large mammals or medium-sized ones that allow the photographer to approach relatively closely, its not long enough for safety if you want to capture a tight portrait of a predator like a polar bear. For that extra reach, Nikon has integrated a 1.4X teleconverter, which turns the 180-400mm into a 250-550mm lens at the cost of one f-stop—making it an F5.6 constant aperture zoom.

Nikon D850, Nikon 180-400mm F4 @ 210mm (No TC) F4.5 1/500sec ISO 80

Focus

As you might hope from a lens of this type (and price) autofocus is blazing fast. It feels faster than the old 200-400, and also faster than the Nikon 600mm F4. I didn’t notice any hesitation or ‘hunting’ during focusing.

Aperture, Vignetting and Sharpness

Image quality at F4 is really great—not only usable but actually really sharp throughout the zoom range. My Nikon D850 was pushed to its resolution limit even with the widest aperture selected. When engaging the TC, the lens does get a bit softer, and there is very noticeable vignetting wide-open; the converter is there if you need it, but I’d recommend engaging it only when absolutely necessary.

Nikon D850, Nikon 180-400mm F4 @ 550mm (TC) F5.6 1/320sec ISO 80

100% crop (click to view)

Overall, the images came out crisp, sharp and with excellent contrast—even when shooting backlit subjects. I saw no flare, no ghosting and no noticeable chromatic aberrations.

Vibration Reduction

This lens features Nikon’s new-generation VR system, which is good for around 4.5 stops of correction. During my shooting, VR was very useful for hand-held shots.

Price and Value

The sadistic part of my personality enjoys looking in people’s eyes when they get all excited about the lens and ask me how much it costs. When I say $ 12,000 USD, the bright light of childish enthusiasm is quickly extinguished.

It’s a lot of money, but as the expression goes: “you get what you pay for.”

This is a dream lens with so many advantages, both optically and in terms of handling, and that comes at a cost. The cheaper and more approachable option would be the Nikon 200-500 F5.6, which costs a mere $ 1,500. As a friend of mine said, “I could buy eight of those for the price of one 180-400 F4.” I don’t know what he would do with eight lenses, but you get the point.

Nikon D850, Nikon 180-400mm F4 @ 250mm (No TC) F4.5 1/800sec ISO 80

Final Thoughts

So the 180-400mm is a dream lens, but the dream doesn’t come cheap. For a safari in Africa, a project in Svalbard or any action-packed wildlife shooting it’s perfect. In sports or any activity where the subject is moving in your direction, this lens could be a great option. For capturing birds, small mammals or any subject where you know you’d end up cropping after the fact, I’d tend to go for a long telephoto prime instead.

So… is it worth it? That depends on your standards, requirements and the depth of your pockets. The 180-400 lets in an extra stop of light compared to the 200-500mm and offers much better sharpness, faster focus and better handling, not to mention the ability to reach 550mm with the flip of my thumb. I’d go for the 180-400mm without hesitating.

If your budget is tight and you can’t afford this lens, the Nikon 200-500mm F5.6 is a very attractive option, but it can’t match the 180-400mm for speed, critical sharpness or versatility.

About the Author: Roie Galitz is an award-winning wildlife photographer. He travels in extreme conditions to the remotest places on earth, from the Arctic right down to Antarctica, capturing images of rarely viewed animals in their natural habitats. He is a sought-after public speaker, a photography expedition leader and a proud ambassador of Nikon Israel, Global DJI and Greenpeace.

You are welcome to see more of his work and bio on his website and follow on Instagram and Facebook.

Roie Galitz was not compensated for this article in any way either by Nikon or DPReview, and Nikon had no involvement in its publication.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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7 Tips for Shooting and Processing Star Trails

08 May

Have you ever looked at an image of the night sky where the stars leave long, arching trails? These images, called “star trails”, record the movement of the stars as the earth spins around its axis. This is a compelling way for you to capture a phenomenon not observable to the human eye.

As with many creative photography techniques, there are can be a steep learning curve for shooting star trails. A basic understanding of the night sky, knowing the impact of focal length, and composition can help you maximize a night out with the goal of shooting star trails.

Star Trails, Alaska, Tutorial, Starlapse - 7 Tips for Shooting and Processing Star Trails

This star trails shot adds to the native art of the Hoonah Tlingit.

Some fairly simple post-processing techniques can help you perfect your shot once home. I will walk you through the basic technique of photographing star trails, help you think about how your gear affects the outcome, and highlight two post-processing techniques that I find useful.

1 – Basic Technique for Shooting Star Trails

The concept of the shooting star trails is actually pretty simple. Set up your camera on a tripod and then compose the shot. I recommend disabling autofocus at this time. Once you have your composure right, set the exposure on your camera. In general, you will want to expose the shot for as long as possible without over-exposure. You can check the histogram of your image to decide if it has been overexposed or not.

On dark nights without a moon or light pollution, you can start in Manual Mode, ISO 800, f/2.8 (or lower/wider), and 15-seconds. Modify these settings to best capture your scene. Once you are happy with the exposure, you will need to set your camera to take pictures at a steady interval. You can do this by setting your camera’s internal interval meter or by attaching an external intervalometer.

Each camera model has different intervalometer connections or internal settings (or may not have this feature), so consult your camera’s manual to get this set up correctly. As you set up your camera, think about the number of shots you want to take. The more shots you take the more the stars will move – with many lenses you will start to capture significant movement in about 8 minutes.

Below I will go through a couple scenarios where fewer or more shots may be better. As a rule of thumb, I shoot for a minimum of 45 minutes and as long as several hours. Let your camera shoot and enjoy the night sky!

Processing or Stacking the Star Trails

Once I am done with the shoot, I import the photos to Lightroom and Photoshop (using Adobe Bridge). There are other star-stacking programs that you can experiment with, but I like Photoshop for this task. To import the photos from Adobe Bridge open the program and then navigate to where the photos are stored. Highlight the photos you want to include in the star trail and then go to Tools –> Photoshop –> Load Layers into Photoshop As Layers.

Once the layers have loaded into Photoshop you may want to use the Auto-align feature (disregard this if you are certain your tripod did not shift) by highlighting the layers in the right panel and then going to Edit –> Auto-Align Layers –> Auto. The final step is the use the “lighten” blend mode in the Layers panel and apply it to all the layers.

The lighten function examines all of the overlapping layers and then keeps only the lightest pixel. Keep that in mind as you can use it to your advantage (examples of that below). To complete the image export it to a lossless format (I like TIFF). You may then continue to edit the new TIFF in Lightroom or Photoshop.

2 – Shooting Tips

Know the North Star

Having a basic understanding of astronomy will aid you as you compose your shot. The North Star is often the focus of star trails because it does not move in the sky as the earth spins on its axis. To find it, locate Ursa Major (e.g., The Big Dipper) and then follow the line created by the stars at the end of the dipper to locate the North Star.

Star apps on your phone are also a great way to locate the dipper or the North Star. Once you know where it is, you can use it in your shot. I often like to bury the North Star behind a piece of a foreground element giving the final image a pinwheel effect.

Polaris, North Star - 7 Tips for Shooting and Processing Star Trails

Knowing the north star will help you with your star trails! In this image of Ursa Major, I have circled the stars of the constellation in red and the north star in green.

I buried the north star behind this black spruce and shot for nearly three hours to make this shot. The resulting image has a pin-wheel effect.

I put the north star behind a Sitka Spruce and shot this image at 14mm providing many stars in the shots and a pinwheel effect.

3 – Find Some Foreground Elements

Foreground elements are always important for landscape photography. When shooting star trails, think about foreground elements that capture the essence of the scene or that you can place prominently and by themselves.

By this, I mean objects that stand away from the background of the image. You may also want to choose elements that can be lit by the light of the moon or by using light painting. I like to think of star trails as telling the story of the night and the objects that you include in that frame will aid you in that storytelling.

Star Trails old barn, Minnesota, Tutorial, Starlapse - 7 Tips for Shooting and Processing Star Trails

I chose this old barn because the moonlight helped light up its character and I felt it captured the essence the Minnesota field in which it stands.

4 – Use Light Painting

Using Adobe Photoshop’s Lighten blend mode provides a lot of options for creativity when shooting star trails! Remember, that Lighten only keeps the lightest pixels in the whole stack of images. So by using light painting, you can selectively lighten objects in the frame.

Illuminate the foreground with your phone, headlamp, or another light source. You can light up the whole thing or selectively light elements of it. Experiment with lighting angles, intensities, and colors. If you don’t like the lighting of a certain exposure simply remove it from the layers that you import into Photoshop. I usually spend the first 10-20 frames lighting the foreground to make sure that I capture the lighting that I want and then let the camera take the rest of the shots.

Star Trails, Alaska, with american flag - 7 Tips for Shooting and Processing Star Trails

Here I used light painting to illuminate this flag that I placed in the foreground. I lit the flag in several different ways and then chose the best frame to include in the final shot.

Star Trails, Alaska, evergreen trees - 7 Tips for Shooting and Processing Star Trails

In this image, I used light painting the softly illuminate the snow-covered trees in the foreground of this shot.

5 – Pick Your Lens Focal Length Wisely

Focal length will strongly impact the amount of time it takes for the stars to move in your shot. Shorter focal lengths (e.g, 14mm) will take longer for the stars to have trails than longer focal lengths (e.g., 50mm). Knowing this will help you plan your shot. The three images below emphasize this effect.

MThe wide-angle of my 14mm wide-angle lens allowed me to capture the North Star and a distant mountain landscape, but I stood there for three hours to get the amount of movement in the stars that I wanted. The second shot was taken at 50mm and only 45-minutes elapsed before significant movement in the stars occurred. The third shot is an extreme example, shot at 300mm. The green streak is Comet Lovejoy and shows only a couple minutes of movement.

Star Trails North Star - 7 Tips for Shooting and Processing Star Trails

This image was shot at 14 mm, full frame and captures about three hours of star movement.

Star Trails landscape night - 7 Tips for Shooting and Processing Star Trails

Shot at 50mm, this image took 45 minutes to capture the star movement.

Star Trails 300mm lens - 7 Tips for Shooting and Processing Star Trails

This image was captured at 300mm on a crop sensor (effective 600 mm) and shows only a couple minutes of movement. The green streak is Comet Lovejoy.

6 – Play with Exposure Times

The length of your exposure will strongly influence the final image that you create. There are no guidelines to what is the right length, instead, you should be guided by what looks good to your eye. As a tip – you can always choose to use fewer shots than you captured so by default I would take as many images as you think you’ll need and then modify the amount once you import them into Photoshop.

Which of the images below do you like better? The longer exposure or the shorter one?

Star Trails, Alaska, - 7 Tips for Shooting and Processing Star Trails

This image captures about 45 minutes of star trails at 50mm and I like how the falling arc of the stars lead my eye to the subtle mountains in the background.

Star Trails, Alaska dock - 7 Tips for Shooting and Processing Star Trails

This image captures 30 minutes of star trails at 24mm. I felt that including any more stars would take away from the dock in the foreground.

7 – Compositing Tips

Photoshop gives you a lot of flexibility to mask and preserve or remove elements of the shot. Since star trail shots are composite images and thus art, I do not worry about these alterations from an ethical standpoint. The two techniques below may help you improve the final shot. They assume you are familiar with masking and healing in Adobe Photoshop. If not you will find the linked articles helpful!

Masking a Foreground

Once you compile the images you may find elements that draw your eye away from the phenomenon you are trying to capture. Since the horizon and foreground are the same for all of the images you can choose which foreground looks best to you. Use that foreground to create a selection and convert the selection to a mask.

You can use that mask and exported TIFF file to maintain the foreground you like. In the images below, I wanted to remove the hikers that walked up to the lava flows in Volcanoes National Park and the bright highlights of the lava which became overexposed as the lava moved. I used a mask to preserve the foreground elements I liked.

Editing out Planes and Satellites

Almost all dark nights will have a plane or a satellite come through your frame. Fortunately, these are very easy to remove! Use the Healing Brush tool and set the tool to replace and content aware. You can draw a linear line with the tool over the track of the satellite or plane. Voila! The offending track will disappear.

Star Trails, Alaska, Tutorial, Starlapse

I used the healing brush to remove the satellites and planes from the final image above. Can you tell the difference?

Summary

So there you go! I hope this article can help you get out there on your first night of shooting star trails. Remember, knowing your stars, picking a foreground and playing with exposure length will help bring the shot you imagine to reality.

Once you process the stacked images you have lots of flexibility in Photoshop to fix parts you do not like. As I always say, pixels are cheap. So make lots of them as you learn to shoot and process star trails.

The post 7 Tips for Shooting and Processing Star Trails appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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FRAMES, Chapter 1: What it’s like shooting a 24-hour endurance car race

03 May

Motorsport and sports photography can be an exhausting in the best of circumstances—lugging around incredibly large and heavy lenses, not to mention multiple camera bodies, and scrambling to edit and file images ASAP. But Chapter 1 of the short documentary series FRAMES covers something a whole order of magnitude more difficult: shooting a 24-hour endurance race.

The 12-minute video follow professional motorsport photographer Jamey Price as he prepares for and tries his best to survive the grueling TOTAL 24 hours of Spa at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.

This is one of the most prestigious endurance races in the world, and the short documentary gives you just a glimpse at what it takes shoot for 24 hours straight, stay awake for close to 40 hours, hike miles worth of race track, and survive the whole experience on a few bits and pieces of junk food you scrounged along the way. It is, in a word: fascinating.

And for just a bit more motivation, Jamey was kind enough to share some of his photos from the race with us, which you can see in the gallery below:

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Almost as interesting as the behind the scenes look itself is the story of how FRAMES was made… or almost not made. Bringing even a short doc to the public can be a herculean effort, even when you have the money, the backers, and interest from the media to share what you’ve created.

Jamey details the whole process in a blog post that will either inspire you to embark on your own such journey or scare you out of ever trying it.

From a successful Kickstarter, to the Daytona 24 saying “no,” to the film’s original producer backing out just three weeks before the Spa 24, the journey from idea to final product was almost as grueling as shooting the race itself. So watch the video above, read Jamey’s blog post for an even deeper behind-the-scenes dive, and let us know what you think about FRAMES and the idea of shooting race cars for 24 hours straight.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Days Inn is advertising a $10k summer gig shooting sunsets around the US

03 May

Here’s an interesting opportunity for any landscape photographers who need a “summer job” in the most literal sense of the term.

Wyndham Hotels’ property Days Inn—which features a rising Sun as its logo—has posted a job add seeking a photographer to serve as its “Sun-tern” for a one-month gig this summer. The chosen photographer will capture images of the sunset in cities around the US, providing them to Days Inn for use in hotel properties, on the company’s social media accounts, and more.

Days Inn is offering a $ 10,000 stipend for the gig, paid travel expenses, Wyndham Rewards Diamond status, as well as “a glowing recommendation upon completion of the Sun-ternship from Barry Goldstein, Wyndham Hotel Group’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer.”

The company is seeking “a creative amateur photographer,” according to the Sun-ternship Web page. Applicants must be at least 21-years-old, located in the US, and have an open schedule during the project. Anyone can submit an application via email until May 20th, and all applicants should include an original outdoor photo as well as 100 words detailing “why you’re the best person for the job.”

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Tips for Converting an Old Camera for Shooting Infrared Photography

30 Apr

A few years ago I become friends with a guy who likes dong infrared photography. It was something that I had tried when I was shooting film, but never quite figured out. My friend had converted an old camera of his and it seemed like a good idea. At the time, I had two old cameras and thought perhaps I could use one of them for infrared. However, the price was too high then.

Tips for Converting an Old Camera for Shooting Infrared Photography

Port Arthur and the main Penitentiary looks a lot better in infrared.

Move forward to a few years, and after buying a second-hand camera from a friend, I found myself in the same position. I had two extra camera bodies, so why not convert one to infrared.

You can do this by putting a filter on the end of the lens, but from searching around for information, getting the camera converted specifically for infrared seemed like a better alternative.

What is infrared photography

Perhaps before going any further, it might be good to get an understanding of what infrared photography is actually all about.

Infrared photography is the capture of part of the spectrum of light that is invisible to the naked human eye. Infrared light is at the top end of the spectrum and is not visible to the eye, so to capture it with a camera some special techniques and equipment are required.

It isn’t an easy concept to understand, but once you get out there and start doing it, you will figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Late winter at Alowyn Gardens. It never snows here, but the infrared camera makes it look like it had.

Different ways of doing infrared

As with most types of photography, there are various ways to go about it. Infrared photography is no different.

Computer conversion to infrared

You can find ways to do infrared conversions on the computer. There are processes that you can use that will help give you that infrared look, however, it is just a look and won’t be the same as doing it with filters or a dedicated camera. If you are curious, though, you could try this first before investing any extra money into it.

Filters

Alowyn Gardens again, looking again like winter and snow, or perhaps a frost.

There are filters that you can get to put on your lens that will help you to get infrared-style images. These will let the IR light through to your sensor. The advantage is that you don’t have to give up a camera body to do this. I’ve never tried them, so I can’t comment on how good they are or are not.

Camera

One thing a lot of photographers who love this kind of photography do is to get one of their cameras converted to be dedicated just for doing infrared photography. Some do this themselves, or you can take it to camera repair place to do it for you.

I took mine to a place to get the infrared conversion done. I’m always wary of playing around with the sensor. They have to remove the filter that comes with the camera and replace it with one that will let through the infrared light, and block all visible light.

Late winter at Alowyn Gardens. It never snows here, but the infrared camera can give it that look.

Choosing which sensor filter

You do have to choose which filter you want and some places will give you many choices. Where I sent my camera there were only two options.

The first choice is the 720nm filter. This will give you close to a full infrared effect, but it will allow you to put some color into your images. The second is the 850nm which would give you very rich dark blacks and perfect if all you want to do is black and white infrared.

For me the choice was easy, I wanted to get some of that color. Not all the time, but it was important to have a choice, so I went with the 720nm filter.

Tips for Converting an Old Camera for Shooting Infrared Photography - color infrared image

The 720nm sensor filter allows you to get some color, like having a blue sky.

What to photograph in infrared

Like any type of photography, you can photograph anything with an infrared camera or one with a special filter. However, not everything will have the same effect or give you great results. You really need to experiment with it to see what will work.

People

Portraits can be quite weird, and the infrared light does strange things to the skin and facial features. The hair can look funny too and the lips almost disappear. I don’t know that many people would enjoy getting their portrait done this way. Perhaps for a special event or something, maybe. Who knows.

infrared portrait - Tips for Converting an Old Camera for Shooting Infrared Photography

The infrared camera gives Chris a completely different look.

Trees and nature – give your scene the look of winter

Trees are fantastic for this type of photography. All the leaves come out looking white. The more moisture the leaves have the whiter they are in the image. The gum trees in Australia don’t have quite the same effect as trees that are not indigenous to the area.

It makes photographing in rain forests pointless as everything shows up as white and doesn’t have the same effect as it does with a color image. It’s hard to see any definition between the plants.

Tips for Converting an Old Camera for Shooting Infrared Photography - b/w of trees and forest in IR

Australian natives are a little different with infrared photography.

One thing I found was that dead trees looked amazing in infrared. If you photograph them surrounded by lots of other trees, or on their own you would get a very different look. They stand out with an elegance that color photography just doesn’t give them.

When traveling around Tasmania with my infrared converted camera I was looking for dead trees everywhere.

dead trees in IR b/w - Tips for Converting an Old Camera for Shooting Infrared Photography

Dead trees on the side of the road in Tasmania.

Architecture

One of the first times using the camera was in the city of Melbourne. I just walked around and took photos of the buildings and streets to see what could be captured in infrared.

The images were disappointing. Once converted to black and white they didn’t look any different than other images done with a normal camera. They did have a quality that gave them an antique look, but other than that there was no discernable differences.

b/w IR architecture - Tips for Converting an Old Camera for Shooting Infrared Photography

St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne, it looks like any black and white image, though taken with the infrared camera.

While on that same trip to Tasmania there did seem to be some buildings that were really suited to infrared, like some old sandstone structures. Places like Port Arthur, where all of the buildings are made of stone, came out looking really good with the camera.

When visiting Port Arthur I took images with the infrared camera and the normal one. Once the photos were on the computer it seemed clear that the ones done with the special camera were by far more interesting. Many of the images were processed, some hand colored and then published on social media. The color images of the same subjects were boring in comparison.

Processing

All the images taken with the infrared camera need to be processed. You may find the sepia quality of the images quite good, but there is so much you can do to them. You can convert straight to black and white or play around with the white balance to get some color in the images.

hand colored IR image of a church - Tips for Converting an Old Camera for Shooting Infrared Photography

A small church in Tasmania, the sky was made blue because of the filter and the stone was hand colored on the computer later.

Experimenting

Really, this is what photography is all about. Get out there with your camera to see what you can capture, what will work, and what doesn’t. Each subject will look different with infrared photography, but you should try every type of photography you can think of to take images and then review your results.

Right now, I’m experimenting with a red filter on the lens. The images are interesting, but I need to try it a lot more.

Cascade Brewery is an old sandstone building that came out well. In the background, you can see the snow on Mount Wellington.

Finally

While it can be an expensive exercise converting a camera to infrared, if you have an old body lying around, then you might want to consider it. You can do a lot of experimenting with it and you will likely not regret getting it done.

If you like the look of this sort of photography, then there are also other options. It is amazing how much the world can change with infrared and it is a great way to add something different to your portfolio.

The post Tips for Converting an Old Camera for Shooting Infrared Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Shooting Greenland in Winter: Part 1 – Uummannaq Whiteout

21 Apr

Earlier this year, I was sent on assignment to shoot Greenland in winter. This was a trip I had been wanting to do for years, but it always fell through due to scheduling conflicts and the fact that visiting Greenland would be quite expensive to do on my own. Luckily, I was approached by Air Greenland and Visit Greenland, in collaboration with my long-time friends and partners at Square Rock, and given the necessary financial support to finally realize this dream.

Being sent on an assignment and given a green light to shoot whatever I wished and realize my passion was incredible. Indeed, on the one hand, I was a bit stressed by the need to justify the costs and produce good results for my sponsors. But on the other hand, I was completely free to go and do as I pleased, all taken care of.

I was determined to take full advantage of the opportunity, and I’d like to tell you the story of my trip in this series of articles.

Selecting the Destinations

When Air Greenland is one of your sponsors, imagination flies. At the beginning, I naturally leaned toward destinations which I would never conceivably visit on my own. Qaanaaq, in the far Arctic north of Greenland, was a candidate. But I was very quickly made to understand that since I was to produce images that would promote tourism in Greenland, I would need to go somewhere where tourists might actually go!

Domestic flights to Qaanaaq cost upward of $ 2,000, and that’s not including the flight to Greenland in the first place… not exactly tourist friendly. Alright, now what? A few options came to mind.

The first was the southern tip of Greenland, which boasts fantastic fjords and mountains, and a good latitude for Northern Lights. It was a good option but the problem was that there is no stable sea ice to go on. I really wanted to drive or walk close to icebergs embedded in sea ice.

Another option was Scoresby Sound, an excellent location to which I also hadn’t visited. There is plenty of stable sea ice there and an option to dogsled all around and get close to embedded icebergs. The problem with this one is that there wasn’t quite enough material there to fill my two-week time frame.

Finally, I made the choice of going to Uummannaq and to Disko Bay. I had been in Uummannaq once in the summer for just a few hours, and I was seriously intrigued by its beauty and iconic grandeur. Uummannaq Mountain is a landmark which sparks the imagination, with its twin 1170-meter peaks and iconic heart-like shape (Uummannaq means heart-shaped in Greenlandic).

It’s a perfect background for many types of shots, which would give me the diversity I wanted:

Mount Uummannaq above Uummannaq town

Uummannaq Island lies in the middle of Uummannaq Fjord, which was perfect in what it offered: solid, far-reaching sea ice and several glaciers which produce beautiful icebergs. The icebergs travel into the fjord and, in winter, they get stuck in the sea ice—some of them very close to town.

Houses in Uummannaq and an iceberg stuck in sea ice next to town

Uummannaq is a small town but not too small—the infrastructure was more than enough for my needs. I was housed in a very comfortable little guest house right next to the harbor, and there was a restaurant downstairs and a supermarket nearby. I was assigned a local guide who took very good care of me throughout my stay, accommodated my photographic needs and schedule, made sure I was safe and warm at all times and was fun to be around.

First Day in Uummannaq

Uummannaq is at about 70 degrees north, in the far west of Greenland. Getting there from Leknes, Norway, where I had been guiding beforehand, involved no less than eight flights, the last of them by helicopter. The views from the air were admittedly spectacular, but I would have appreciated a shorter route.

Upon arriving at the heliport I was greeted by very cold weather. Even though I had already been in the Arctic for 1.5 months right before arrival, it had been in places with milder weather. For example, temperatures in the Lofoten Islands rarely go lower than -10 Centigrade. Greenland is a different story altogether, and your first breaths at -25 degrees are hard. I had never had to experience this type of temperatures for an extended period of time before—my lungs rejected the cold air and I started coughing until my body got used to the new situation.

Bleak conditions upon my arrival in Uummannaq

After meeting my guide Paaluk and settling into the guest house, I started exploring. That is, if you call being bombarded by snow and gale-force winds exploring.

The first day was quite miserable. With temperatures down to -28 and strong winds, it was very hard to move around, much less shoot. My hands and feet went numb several times, I suffered frostbite on my nose, and was generally frustrated with the lack of light and the harshness of the situation.

The upside was that the weather conditions supplied very interesting photographic material, and even though I sometimes had to go back to the guesthouse to get warm, I did get interesting shots of the locals working and handling their sled dogs.

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I also hiked to the icebergs embedded in the sea ice to shoot them during the whiteout. There were several beautiful icebergs right outside town, and all I had to do to get to them was go down to the harbor and walk for 20 minutes, which also warmed me up a bit. There were also several additional icebergs a bit further away, and I sometimes hiked there or took a ride on Paaluk’s snowmobile.

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Finally, I also took some images of the ice fishermen at work. It astounded me how these men were working throughout the day, no matter the weather. These guys are tough!

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Shooting in the snow and gale was very interesting but a bit hard. Luckily, the upcoming days were much nicer and offered other kinds of photography like the shot you see below. But more on that in Part 2.

Erez also offers video tutorials discussing his images and explaining how he achieved them.

Selected Articles by Erez Marom:

Parallelism in Landscape Photography
Winds of Change: Shooting changing landscapes
Behind the Shot: Dark Matter
On the Importance of Naming Images
On Causality in Landscape Photography
Behind the Shot: Lost in Space
The Art of the Unforeground
Whatever it Doesn’t Take

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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