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Christmas lights are up in central London.
 
Portavaddie Glow
December 2017

There was a beautiful sunset glow over the Irish Sea tonight from Portavaddie Bay, just south of Killantringan Lighthouse and near the route of the Southern Upland Way.

Fuji X-T2 with Samyang 12mm f2 NCS lens using LEE Filters 0.9 Neutral Density Hard and 0.6 Neutral Density Soft Graduated filters.

0.8s / f11 / ISO 200

Portavaddie Glow - small PL.png
 
For the assessment piece on movement we need to submit an example of frozen motion. I'm submitting this one. These guys are crazy! He's about five metres up in the air leaping from one thin piece of scaffolding to another, and they are about two metres apart! I wouldn't even climb five metres off the ground, let alone leap from one thin pole to another with no padding underneath to help save you if you fall.

There's a little bit of motion blur to it, but considering the lowlight situation and that I couldn't use a flash for risk of temporarily blinding the guys and girls, I'm pleased with it. We have to shoot in manual mode, with no auto ISO, capturing and submitting jpeg's straight out of camera with no editing to them for the first third of the course. This means I was limited to stopping at ISO 3200 for my camera as the noise at ISO 6400 would be annoying on a SOOC jpeg, so this was the fastest shutter speed I could get with my camera and lens setup. Oh, to have a 24-70mm f/2.8 for that extra light!

I did delve into the cameras setup menus and tweak things so that it locked focus as quickly as possible, and making sure all shots were in focus as a priority. Considering this is not a camera or lens renowned for action, this combo did pretty damn well.

_MG_8562-X3.jpg

Canon 6D, Canon 24-105mm f/4 L, Manual, Partial Metering
ISO 3200, 67mm, f/4, 1/250

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@Alexander.Of.Oz
Excellent drive in my humble opinion. getting out there, receiving feedback.
MR's weekly contest is also a good opportunity for smaller projects.
That's how I got my first interesting photos created.
Best of luck with the course!!
Thanks, Patrick. I enjoy the weekly challenges for getting me to think about what I could do and how to achieve it and have actually been making an effort to do something each week for them of late.

I spent about a half an hour playing with some Christmas lights last night for a similar effect as your image, with the out of focus lights behind someone to illustrate shallow depth of field, but the only place we have to hang them is over the shower rail, and it wouldn't work. I kept getting the wires between the lights being obvious and lots of reflections off the shower tiles as it's too tight a space to work in! Grr... I have an idea for doing it outside though, which should work. I'll give it a bash later in the week as I'm off to have some kidney stones smashed with a laser today and will have an overnight hospital stay for observation. The joys of getting older! :rolleyes:
 
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For the assessment piece on movement we need to submit an example of frozen motion. I'm submitting this one. These guys are crazy! He's about five metres up in the air leaping from one thin piece of scaffolding to another, and they are about two metres apart! I wouldn't even climb five metres off the ground, let alone leap from one thin pole to another with no padding underneath to help save you if you fall.

There's a little bit of motion blur to it, but considering the lowlight situation and that I couldn't use a flash for risk of temporarily blinding the guys and girls, I'm pleased with it. We have to shoot in manual mode, with no auto ISO, capturing and submitting jpeg's straight out of camera with no editing to them for the first third of the course. This means I was limited to stopping at ISO 3200 for my camera as the noise at ISO 6400 would be annoying on a SOOC jpeg, so this was the fastest shutter speed I could get with my camera and lens setup. Oh, to have a 24-70mm f/2.8 for that extra light!

I did delve into the cameras setup menus and tweak things so that it locked focus as quickly as possible, and making sure all shots were in focus as a priority. Considering this is not a camera or lens renowned for action, this combo did pretty damn well.

_MG_8562-X3.jpg

Canon 6D, Canon 24-105mm f/4 L, Manual, Partial Metering
ISO 3200, 67mm, f/4, 1/250
Good to see you challenging yourself. Looks good. You'll have to treat yourself to a nice 2.8mm at the end of the course.

Or a cheap 1.8mm 50 mm might be better if you need to shoot in low light. Not sure about Canon, but can be had pretty cheap (especially second hand) for Nikon's.
 
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Good to see you challenging yourself. Looks good. You'll have to treat yourself to a nice 2.8mm at the end of the course.

Or a cheap 1.8mm 50 mm might be better if you need to shoot in low light. Not sure about Canon, but can be had pretty cheap (especially second hand) for Nikon's.
Thanks, AFB. I have the Canon version of the nifty-fifty, but it's a bugger of a thing to try and get it to focus quickly... It never does... :(
 
Yeah, the 6D is not exactly a 'fast' camera. Having only one decent AF point doesn't help either.
That's true, Adam. I did experiment with letting it have all AF points active and the camera operating them, which actually worked surprisingly well for these folks moving around so much! :eek:
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Must be a Canon thing!

Mind you not many of my subjects are fast moving so what do I know!
With this particular lens, it's true! It's a Canon thing! :oops: It has excellent IQ, but tracks all over the place trying to achieve focus...
 

Fantastic image and I love the monochrome technique and look applied here. It's a look I've wanted to do for a while for certain shots but sadly, I lack the knowledge.
I know another photographer who does a similar style to this and his work is very eyecatching in the same way your image caught my attention. Do you have any information in the way of tutorials or guides for this processing style? I won't be offended if you decline :)
 
My panning submission for the current assessment on movement. It’s subtle, but there’s a nice blur to the background and it’s not a vehicle like everyone else has done! SOOC jpeg, with no edits applied.

_MG_8693-X3.jpg

Canon 6D, Canon 24-105mm f/4 L, Manual, Partial Metering
ISO 800, 60mm, f/4, 1/60
 
A wider shot of yesterday's window then. Which do you prefer? The challenge with this one was nothing was straight. So you have to make a choice. Still I think it works.

_DSC5899 by apple fanboy1, on Flickr

Comments always welcome.
I like the strong symmetry and horizontals to this one. Great details on the walls brickwork. And a nice rich sky.
 
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