Light Painting at Arcadia Rock

[dankearl]

Light painting on the Oregon Coast.
Two exposures, one taken after sunset and another 30 minutes later for more stars.
Light painting on rock.

13 sec.@ iso200
15 sec. @ iso1250
D800

002_2830bp.jpg (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=137007&stc=1&d=1390366387)

[Terry Johnson]

Dan, nice shot. You can see the Plieades and Orion. How long can you make an exposure without the stars showing visible streaking? I am assuming it is around 10 seconds.

...Terry Johnson

[Mike Quigley]

Dan could you share the technique used in the post process. Id give my right arm for a shot like this, nice job.

[dankearl]

Thanks for the comments.
Terry,
I have two 2.8 lens, a 24mm and a 14mm.
I can shoot 20 sec. with the 24 and 30 sec. with the 14 before you get noticable streaking.
I juggle time and iso to get what I want.

Mike,
The PP is easy, it is taking these that is hard.
Light painting is tough to make work well I think and a lot of peole just think it is a gimmick.
I use a bike light, You press the shutter and quickly shine on the area you want lit up.
Depending on the iso, it only takes a second or two and is tough to get uniform.
You also can't really tell from the back of the camera, whether it is going to look good, too bright,
too dark, too patchy, etc.
For this photo, I took one exposure with the bike light after the sunset. It was already dark enough with
a 13 sec. exposure to get a few faint stars. 30 minutes later, I turned the camera a bit to a darker sky
and took another exposure not bothering to light up the rock, but bringing out the stars.
In PP, I overlayed the "good" photo over the star photo and used the gradient tool to bring out the stars in the
star photo until I thought it looked good and somewhat realistic.
I then just did normal PP, lightened some areas, adjusted color, etc.
You Have to do some work on the photos before you bring them together. Adjusting the sky color to blend together
is harder than you would think. I made a number of these with different seastacks and star photos to get just
a couple that I like. I may post another at some time.

[Luis Patacao]

Hi Dan, i like the double composition here but the light in the rocks seems quite pronounced and you can almost realize its origin (by the direction of the light). I would drop the exposure on the rocks for a bit more ambiance.

[Diane Miller]

I think this is a more pleasing image than a previous post, and a nice job of integrating the stars into the base exposure. It's a nice idea to combine a separate star exposure but I think with a recognizable constellation such a Orion, the orientation here isn't right. Shouldn't it be more on its side as it sets (which would be at about 3 am now)?

15 sec is my limit for 17mm. If I zoom in to 100%, I'm getting elongated stars there for anything except the ones near Polaris, whose apparent movement is less.

[andresleon]

Hi Dan,
I really like the detail you were able to bring out on the rock with the light specially toward the bottom and near the sand. Very well done in that respect. I also think you did very well with the stars keeping the exposure time just long enough to capture the stars and not too much to see the trail.

I think reducing the exposure on the rocks a bit to make them not so bright, specially toward the top, may make this a more powerful image. I also think that if you could lowered the exposure on the sand to darken it a bit may make it more interesting as well.

I also like the clouds and orange tones in the background horizon.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Dan, nice work with the light painting...this is something I have yet to try...I only wonder if the skies were a touch darker would the rocks be even more dramatic with the painting.

[Morkel Erasmus]

A nice scene/comp and I like the mixture of last sunset light, the first stars and some drifting clouds you achieved here Dan.
The painting is just a bit too bright for me. Have you tried bouncing the light source off your hand? It evens out the "fall of the light" and adds a hint of warm tone to your normal colder LED and similar torches if needed.
I would try and tone down the lightness of the FG rock using the burn tool.