Thursday 30 October 2014

How to shoot American cars via time exposure

Although late in the year Keith Robins Photography reveals how using a time exposure plus a high aperture brings out the strong colours and the beautiful shapes of iconic American cars at Poole Quay 2014.

Canon 70D set to completely to manual
F22 at 1/25th second, ISO 100
Sigma 10 / 20mm zoom at 14mm

White balance is set to the Kelvin scale  and adjusted to suit, almost every ten minutes as the sun is fading fast!



 Between 1/30th and 1/2 second DSLR cameras vibrate for a very short time as the mirror pops up and the first part of the shutter snaps across with 1/15th having the most shake.

To save my back muscles and to help reduce camera shake I'm using 'Live View', which also shows whether the colours, focus and composition are spot on.



 Manfrotto tripods are among the world's best and is my favourite go-to tripod for the sort of semi low speed photography I am anticipating at this annual event.
Yes it is heavy but having spent a lot on camera, lens, travelling 45 miles to be here I'm not going to waste it all on a lightweight shaker. Besides, if it gets too heavy the Manfrotos are meaty enough to drag behind me on a length of string. (Joking!)


 
 The times are gradually getting longer throughout the evening until the pink car below took 13 seconds to capture still at F22 and ISO 100.
Can't remember the Kelvin details exactly but the 'K' control definitely helps.



 Lightroom 3.6 might be old hat now but it's so much quicker than putting all the Jpegs through Photoshop.
Did I say Jpegs then? I always use Jpegs, have done for the last ten years which amounts to over half a million photos.
However, with maximum quality in mind I decide to shoot in Raw + large Jpegs just in case. 
Damned good job I did both as Lightroom 3.6 does not deal in Raw images from my Canon 70D and refuses to upgrade.
Adobe CC here I come, not just because of this Raw issue although I will upgrade myself one day soon, but I've seen so many brilliant tutorials using the latest from Adobe that I'm temped beyond reason. So watch thsi space.

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