lime – photoblog of a fruit

Location:

Underwood, Brisbane

The setup:

Alan and Mick invited me to a drain in Brisbane… for light painting. Oliver was there as well, and he light-painted the floor. Alan set off the flash manually on the count of three. I was further back and took a “making of” shot. Mick’s shot is here.

The camera & lens:

Camera: Canon EOS 400D
Lens: Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX-DC + polariser (filter left on my accident)
Exposure: 79″ @ f/8.0, ISO 800 (M – bulb, remote shutter)

Post processing:

Lightroom 4 -

1. Exposure +0.6 stops, clarity +30

What I don’t like and/or would have done differently:

I’m happy with this!

What do you think?

All constructive criticism is welcome! Please let me know what you think, and what you don’t like about the picture. Everything is on the table, including the setup, equipment used, and the post processing. Nothing is off-limits and I’m always eager to learn!

If you’d like to try your hand at editing this image, you can download the original sized image:
 
Please post the result as a comment and say how you did it!
(Click here for some tips for how to post an image as a comment.)

Location:

Underwood, Brisbane

The setup:

Alan and Mick invited me to a drain in Brisbane south… for light painting. Oliver was there as well, and he painted this great scene. I was further back and took a “making of” shot – though I think it works better cropped as I’ve done here.

The camera & lens:

Camera: Canon EOS 400D
Lens: Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX-DC + polariser (filter left on by accident)
Exposure: 154″ @ f/10, ISO 200 (M – bulb – remote shutter)

Post processing:

Lightroom 4 -

1. Crop down quite a lot
2. Presence: Highlights +45, clarity +35
3. Noise reduction: luminance +50

What I don’t like and/or would have done differently:

I realised after I got home that I had left my polariser on all the time. We were doing long exposures so it all still worked out in the end – just with higher ISO. Also, I accidentally bumped the camera on the tripod and mucked up the composition.

What do you think?

All constructive criticism is welcome! Please let me know what you think, and what you don’t like about the picture. Everything is on the table, including the setup, equipment used, and the post processing. Nothing is off-limits and I’m always eager to learn!

If you’d like to try your hand at editing this image, you can download the original sized image:
 
Please post the result as a comment and say how you did it!
(Click here for some tips for how to post an image as a comment.)

Location:

At home, Ipswich

The setup:

I have wanted to make my own bagels for a long time. Some extended sick leave has provided me the spare time to actually do this. I used a recipe from The Fresh Loaf, which happened to be the first hit on Google for “How to bake bagels”.

Upon tasting them, I made the Sweet Baby Jesus face:

The camera & lens:

Camera: Canon EOS 400D
Lens: Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX-DC
Exposure: 1/60″ @ f/5.6, ISO 1600 (Av) (AEB -2, -1 and 0 stops)

Post processing:

Honestly not much to talk about as I did all the work before pressing the shutter (set the bracketing). The only edit is ACR lens correction for the Sigma 30mm, distortion set to 200.

What I don’t like and/or would have done differently:

In terms of the recipe, my bagels are uneven sizes. Otherwise, all good.

What do you think?

All constructive criticism is welcome! Please let me know what you think, and what you don’t like about the picture. Everything is on the table, including the setup, equipment used, and the post processing. Nothing is off-limits and I’m always eager to learn!

Location:

Riverlink Shopping Centre, North Ipswich

The setup:

This reminds me of what escalators seemed like when I was a kid.

The camera & lens:

Camera: Canon EOS 400D
Lens: Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX-DC
Exposure: 1/200″ @ f/2.5, ISO 1600 (Av)

Post processing:

Lightroom 4 -

1. Crop and rotate first
2. Convert to B&W using auto colour mix
3. Presence: Exposure +1.2 stops, shadows -100, whites +100, blacks -100

What I don’t like and/or would have done differently:

I took some where you can see Lui as well, but I like this perspective better.

What do you think?

All constructive criticism is welcome! Please let me know what you think, and what you don’t like about the picture. Everything is on the table, including the setup, equipment used, and the post processing. Nothing is off-limits and I’m always eager to learn!

If you’d like to try your hand at editing this image, you can download the original sized image:
 
Please post the result as a comment and say how you did it!
(Click here for some tips for how to post an image as a comment.)

Location:

Coolangatta, Gold Coast

The setup:

This is a 4 minute exposure using the the infrared and polarising filter stacked together (for darkest sky).

I have been experimenting with a hack for my camera (400plus – http://code.google.com/p/400plus/). It has a few features like extended exposure bracketing (9 shot), with any length of exposure (instead of the 30 second maximum). It didn’t work as I expected it to, but it did go straight to the maximum exposure that I set. I’m sure I just need to read the manual again.

The camera & lens:

Camera: Canon EOS 400D
Lens: EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II @ 27mm + R72 filter + polariser
Exposure: 240″ @ f/7.1, ISO 100

Post processing:

The GIMP -

1. Imported to GIMP and used auto-levels

(I had intended to do a colour swap, but it didn’t look as good as the red version)

Lightroom 4 -

1. Imported to Lightroom
2. Presence: Blacks +100, clarity +60
3. Curves: lights +15, darks -25
4. Noise reduction: luminance +50, colour +100 (while ISO was set to 100 for minimum noise from signal amplification, the long exposure created different noise from sensor heat)
5. Spot removal – to clone out some hot pixels
6. ACR lens profile correction for EF-S 18-55 lens

What I don’t like and/or would have done differently:

It still eludes me how to get a completely dark sky but it seems to have worked alright.

What do you think?

All constructive criticism is welcome! Please let me know what you think, and what you don’t like about the picture. Everything is on the table, including the setup, equipment used, and the post processing. Nothing is off-limits and I’m always eager to learn!

If you’d like to try your hand at editing this image, you can download the original sized image:
 
Please post the result as a comment and say how you did it!
(Click here for some tips for how to post an image as a comment.)

Location:

Coolangatta, Gold Coast

The setup:

This was shot using the the infrared and polarising filter stacked together (for darkest sky). This was a 4 minute exposure. There was a surf championship on at Kirra, though the surfers didn’t sit still long enough to feature.

I have been experimenting with a hack for my camera (400plus). It has a few features like extended exposure bracketing (9 shot), with any length of exposure (instead of the 30 second maximum). It didn’t work as I expected it to, but it did go straight to the maximum exposure that I set. I’m sure I just need to read the manual again.

I was actually trying to do an HDR as well but it was quite windy and the shots didn’t line up (it works okay without it anyway).

The camera & lens:

Camera: Canon EOS 400D
Lens: EF 75-300 f/4-5.6 II USM @ 75mm + R72 filter + polariser
Exposure: 240″ @ f/7.1, ISO 100

Post processing:

Lightroom 4 -

1. Convert to B&W (auto colour mix)
2. Auto-tones
3. Presence: Contrast +25, whites +50, blacks -65, clarity +100
4. Curves: Lights -15, darks -35, shadows -35
5. Noise reduction: Luminance +45

What I don’t like and/or would have done differently:

I didn’t quite know what to do with the composition of the shot. I still don’t!

What do you think?

All constructive criticism is welcome! Please let me know what you think, and what you don’t like about the picture. Everything is on the table, including the setup, equipment used, and the post processing. Nothing is off-limits and I’m always eager to learn!

If you’d like to try your hand at editing this image, you can download the original sized image:
 
Please post the result as a comment and say how you did it!
(Click here for some tips for how to post an image as a comment.)

Location:

Bundamba State School, Ipswich

The setup:

I’ve wanted to do this all week. Katter is a nutter. This is my political comment.

The camera & lens:

Camera: iPhone 4
Exposure: 1/2500″ @ f/2.8, ISO 80

Post processing:

Lightroom 4 -

1. ACR lens correction – profile for iPhone 4.
2. Custom lens correction – distortion +40, vertical +12, horizontal +10 – this squeezed the shot back to something straight.
3. While this straightened the sign, it bent the fencing behind it a lot, so I’ve cropped most of it out.

What I don’t like and/or would have done differently:

I was avoiding confrontation, so I went around the side of the school – less travelled by people, but the sign was bulging. It would have been easier to photograph a straight one from the start. I also had the idea to get a flyer and stick googly eyes on that afterward.

What do you think?

All constructive criticism is welcome! Please let me know what you think, and what you don’t like about the picture. Everything is on the table, including the setup, equipment used, and the post processing. Nothing is off-limits and I’m always eager to learn!

If you’d like to try your hand at editing this image, you can download the original sized image:

Please post the result as a comment and say how you did it!
(Click here for some tips for how to post an image as a comment.)