Category Archives: By Lens

Architecture, Brenizer Panorama, Jupiter-9 85mm f2.0, Pentax K200D

Project 52 – #3 – Anzac Square Eternal Flame

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Anzac Square Eternal Flame
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This is a Brenizer Panorama of the Eternal Flame in Anzac Square, Brisbane. This is landmark #3 in my Project 52 Brisbane Landmarks for 2010.

Taken with my K200D and Jupiter-9 85mm f2.0 lens @ f2.8. It is made up of 204 stitched images (it took a while to shoot it)

Unfortunately the exposure is a bit off (i was shooting in jpeg so i didnt fill up the card too much with 1 photo), and i got some parallax error in the stitch around the pillars above the flame. The midday lighting was also not ideal.

I am going to re-do this shot tomorrow afternoon to try and get a better version. I will update this with the results

Misc, Pentax A 50mm f1.7, Pentax K200D

A Broken Christmas

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A Broken Christmas
Originally uploaded by jezza323

I took this shot to enter in my workplace monthly photo comp in Decemeber. The theme for the month was “Broken”. Being Christmas time I got into the spirit and broke some tree decorations.

I was trying to capture a decoration in the process of breaking, but unfortunately my timing was never quite good enough. This was the best of the lot though, which I took just after it had broken.

There was a LOT of work in Lightroom 2.5 to complete this photo. The key to doing large area Adjustment Brush work like I did in this photo is to use a LARGE brush, and the Auto Mask feature. Don’t be too tempted to use a small brush to get in between things. If you keep the centre of the brush in the right spot, the Auto Masking will take care of the rest!

 

A before/after comparison in Lightroom

Shooting and PP Details as follows:

  • White Nylon backdrop
  • Pentax K200D body, firing onboard flash
  • Pentax SMC “A” 50mm f1.7 lens @ f22
  • Tripod to mount the camera, and a cable remote to fire it
  • Sunpak flash with optical trigger and home made diffuser, placed directly above, and slightly behind the subject
  • Shot in Pentax RAW (PEF)
  • Import into Lightroom 2.5
  • Applied large area of adjustment brush to make background more white, area and settings shown below
  • Minor basic edits to improve contrast and colour in the broken pieces, shown below
  • Edit Detail settings
  • Export to JPG For Web
Brenizer Panorama, Landscapes, Pentax K200D, Tair-11a

Brenizer Shed Recrop

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Brenizer Shed Recrop, originally uploaded by jezza323.

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This shows how cropping can really change an image (well I think so).

Compare to the original which I blogged a while back. It was just bland shot, with a distracting shed on the left of frame, and you couldnt really see the narrow depth of field, except that the foreground was out of focus.

In this tighter crop, you no longer have the distraction on left of frame, and you can see the sharp outline of the shed and tree as compared to the background.

If you like this shot, have a read of my Tair-11a Lens Review or have a look at my other Tair-11a shots

Pentax DA 18-55 AL II, Pentax K200D, Project 52, Urban

Project 52 – #2 – Kurilpa Bridge

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Kurilpa Pedestrian Bridge, originally uploaded by jezza323.

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This is the 2nd shot for my 2010 Project 52 – “Brisbane Landmarks”

This is the recently completed Kurilpa Bridge, a Pedestrian Bridge from the Brisbane CBD over the Brisbane River to West End/Southbank.

This is a 3 shot HDR, taken with my Pentax K200D and Pentax SMC DA 18-55mm AL II

Base shot was 18mm, ISO 100, f9.0, 5 sec, bracketing was at +/- 2.0 EV

UPDATE – Processing details now posted – sorry for the delay.

Shot and Processed as follows:-

  • Shot in Pentax RAW (PEF)
  • Imported into Lightroom 2.5
  • Exported to 16-bit TIFF
  • HDR Generated using Photomatix
  • Tone Mapped using Details Enhancer (settings shown below)
  • Save-as 16-bit TIFF
  • Import into Lightroom 2.5
  • Minor editing applied using adjustment brush to remove some unwanted detail on the right of image (brush positioning and settings shown below)
  • Increased Blacks and Brightness
  • Exported to JPG for Web

 

 

Pentax K200D, Tair-11a

Bird and Stair Testing the Tair-11a

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Bird and Stair Testing the Tair-11a  

Originally uploaded by jezza323

I have already used this one in my Tair-11a review, but I just have to share again. This shot really works for me.

Taken with the Tair-11a at f2.8 (wide open), ISO 100, 1/640.

Post Processing as follows:-

  • Shot in Pentax RAW (PEF)
  • Imported in Lightroom 2.5
  • Exported to JPG for Web

No editing at all!

If you like this shot, have a read of my Tair-11a Lens Review or have a look at my other Tair-11a shots

Brenizer Panorama, Landscapes, Pentax K200D, Tair-11a

Picnic By the Lake, Under the Tree

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This is another Brenizer Panorama I took yesterday at the Mt Cootha Botanic Gardens. Shot with the Pentax K200D and Tair-11a 135mm f2.8 lens, at 2.8.

Shooting and Processing as Follows

  • Shot in Pentax RAW (PEF) – 94 shots
  • Import into Lightroom 2.5
  • Export to 16 bit TIFF with ZIP compression
  • Stitched using Autopano Giga 2
  • Rendered to 16 bit TIFF
  • Imported into Lightroom 2.5
  • Heavy crop (94 images was for a much bigger scene, but I only liked this part of it)
  • Edited as shown below (Basic tab only)
  • Export to JPG for Web

If you like this shot, have a read of my Tair-11a Lens Review or have a look at my other Tair-11a shots

Architecture, Pentax DA 18-55 AL II, Pentax K200D, Project 52

Project 52 – #1 – It Begins

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Southbank Peace Pagoda

Originally uploaded by jezza323

Here is the first shot for my 2010 Project 52 which I have decided to use the theme of “Brisbane Landmarks”. It is a Nepalese Peace Pagoda located at Southbank in Brisbane, QLD Australia. It was built for Expo ’88 and petitioned successfully to remain on the old Expo site (which is now Southbank).

This photo is a HDR, combined from 11 shots. All shots were taken at f16.0 and ISO 100, and shutter speeds were – 1/30, 1/15, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, 30 secs.

Processing as follows :-

  • Shot in Pentax RAW (PEF)
  • Imported into Lightroom 2.5
  • Shots exported to 16-bit TIFF
  • Photomatix generated HDR from 11 16-bit TIFFs
  • Photmatix Tone Mapped using Tone Compressor
  • Saved as 16-bit TIFF
  • Imported new file back to Lightroom 2.5
  • Cropped in Lightroom 2
  • Edited in Lightroom  as shown below (settings not shown were not edited)
Landscapes, Pentax DA 18-55 AL II, Pentax K200D

Cedar Creek Long Exposure

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Cedar Creek 3 Falls
Originally uploaded by jezza323

Here is an older shot I took. This is of Cedar Creek just outside of Samford not far from Brisbane. No processing details from this one as it is from quite a while ago. Although I can promise that the PP was minimal, just some white balance tuning, tone curve and maybe a slight exposure adjustment.

This was taken quite early in the morning, the sun was still hidden behind the trees. I combined this with a circular polarising filter, and a Cokin P sized Tian Ya ND8 filter on my K200D with kit lens at 18mm and my trusty tripod.

The exposure was 8 seconds at f11.0 (where I find this lens to be the sharpest).

Post your water long exposure shots in the comments section!

Brenizer Panorama, Pentax K200D, Tair-11a

A Backlit Brenizer Angel

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A Backlit Brenizer Angel
Originally uploaded by jezza323

Another Brenizer Panorama from the Toowong Cemetary taken yesterday. This one is again with the Tair-11a on K200D. Its 58 images stitched with Autopano Giga 2 and edited (cropped, curves, colours, exposure brush) in Lightroom 2.5.

Processing :-

  • Shot in Manual Mode, ISO 200, f2.8, 1/320 sec shutter – Pentax RAW (PEF), custom white balance.
  • Imported into Lightroom 2.5
  • All shots in pano exported to subfolder “Pano-5″ as 16 bit TIFFs
  • Stitched using Autopano Giga 2
  • Saved-as 16 bit TIFF
  • Imported result back into Lightroom 2.5 library
  • Edited in Lightroom as show below (click pics for more detail). I did use a preset for most settings. Also cropped but not shown.
Exposure Brush to show more detail in the Angel
Develop settings
Brenizer Panorama, Landscapes, Pentax K200D, Tair-11a

Rusted Shed on a Cloudy Day

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Rusted Shed on a Cloudy Day
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This is a Brenizer pano of a shed I spotted on the side of the road near Minden, Qld. I shot it with my Tair-11a (135mm m42 mount) wide open (f2.8). It is a 45 shot panorama. I would have liked to get a bit closer, to narrow the DOF a bit more. But this is as good as I could get without gumboots.

Shot in JPEG (to save space on my card)
Stitched with Autopano Giga
Adjusted levels and colours in Lightroom 2.5
UPDATE: I have since re-cropped this image and re-posted, it works much better with a tighter crop.