Porsche 928 Photoshoot
This last weekend I went out to photograph my colleague´s Porsche 928, a 1987-model which he has imported from Sweden. The challenge was to get some photos that could go into the Norwegian Porsche Classic magazine.
I brought the Canon 5D MkII with the 24-105mm lens for wide angles and 70-200mm lense for details. The challenge was to find a good location with a cool background which brought out the best from the Porsche.
Location #1 was in an underpass which with tagged up walls – the perfect scenario for an urban feel. The combination of urban feel and black & white high contrast look gave good results. Here are some of the results:
A Black & White photo of the Porsche´s back-end. By zooming in with the 24-105mm lens I made the car look even more bulky than it was, and a bit more square. Focal Length: 105mm, Aperture: F4, Shutter: 1/125s, ISO: 400
The Porsche 928 from the side, with the tagged wall as a background. The vignetting gives the photo an extra cool look and helps put the car in the context of its surroundings. Focal Length: 24mm, Aperture: F4, Shutter: 125s, ISO: 800
After finishing in the underpass we went to the IKEA parking lot, which was deserted because it´s Sunday (yes, IKEA is closed on Sundays in Norway!). A combination of B&W and coloured photos, but again I prefere B&W!
The Porsche from the front, with its special round headlamps. We used a trolley shed as background which worked well. Focal Length: 105mm, Aperture: F8, Shutter: 1/125s, ISO: 100
HDR Interior photo from the 928. The interior was in great condition with special edition seats. Nice! I used a narrow aperture to get the required depth. Focal Length: 24mm, Aperture: Various, Shutter: Various, ISO: 400
Another HDR, using 3 photos. I did this to capture the details of the clouds whilst not under exposing the car. Combine it with black & white and you get a very cool photo. Focal Length: 24mm, Aperture: Various, Shutter: Various, ISO: 160
These are just a few of the shots I took. Go to my Smugmug site to check out the rest. Enjoy!
Gloomy and Starry Nights
The latest news is that my wife and I have moved from the UK to Norway! It´s been going great and we´re both getting down and dirty with our jobs.
Moving to Norway also gives great new opportunities for photography. Stunning landscapes, plus my dad´s cabin which is a very nice and dark location for starry night shots.
We went to the cabin this Easter – 2011 – and I brought the Canon 5D MkII, my tripod and three lenses on the trip:
- 24-105mm
- 70-200mm
- 50mm
I brought the 50mm to make the camera light and easy to carry when I was shooting my wife learning how to ski. She really improved during our stay this Easter! For the starry photos I used the 24-105mm Canon lens which gives excellent colours and quality, plus the widest angle of the 3 lenses – perfect for capturing the stars!
It took me this trip to realise that I needed to replace the Canon RC-1 remote control with a new one after losing the old one (or leaving it on location and not bothering to go pick it up). So I have now bought the Canon RC-6 which basically has the same functions – it just looks slightly different.
For the shoot I mainly used a 30 second shutter speed, which is the max you can go to (as I know) without using bulb mode. I could not use bulb mode as it would cause camera shake when pressing the button (hence why I´m replacing the remote). I put it on a 2 second timer with mirror lockup, both reducing vibration in the tripod which was fixed in the snow. Mirror lockup puts the mirror in the right position before the shutter actually opens, removing even more vibration, making the photo clearer.
Dark and moody photo of the stars with the cabin in front. The cabin is lit up by a small flash light I brought outside - handy! Focal Length: 24mm, Aperture: F4, Shutter: 30s, ISO: 2000
As you can see in the above photo I had to go with a high ISO of 2000 to get a bright enough photo within the 30s shutter speed. If you want it brighter without increasing the ISO you either need a wider aperture or longer shutter speed. Fortunately the Canon 5D MkII is reasonably kind on high ISOs.
This next photo is part of a series of photos I used for a star trail shoot (see below). On this shot I needed to boost the ISO even further, to 4000, to get sufficient brightness and take advantage of the little remaining light left from the sun, which already had set a while ago. Other than this settings were consistent with the previous photo.
The orange purple colour combination affected by a sun which has set a while ago. Focal Length: 24mm, Aperture: F4, Shutter: 30s, ISO: 4000
Finally, the jewel of the night. Star trails are normally created by very long shutter speeds of 5 minutes and more. Don´t have a remote? Stitch together several 30 second shots, which I have done here using a Lightroom plugin called Enfuse. Enfuse is especially designed for merging HDR photos and star trails, and the results look good. Check it out!
The below photo is stitched together using 26 virtually equal photos, but showing the trail of the stars, which actually do move quite quickly although it doesn´t seem like it when you look at the stars. With the 2 second timer, mirror lockup and tripod mounted in the snow, I managed to capture enough photos to make this star trail photo.
Star trail stitched together using 26 photos with the same settings as the previous photo I used the Enfuse plugin for Lightroom. Focal Length: 24mm, Aperture: F4, Shutter: 30s, ISO: 4000
I hope you liked the shots. I will return with more star trails using my new remote. So watch this space!
