This is the major local football stadium in Brisbane – Suncorp Stadium (previously known as Lang Park). Just a few minutes from the CBD it is the home of 3 major teams competing in national competitions. The Brisbane Broncos (Rugby League), The Queensland Roar (Soccer) and The Queensland Reds (Rugby Union).
This is a HDR composed of 3 shots, taken at +/- 2.0 EV and blended in Photomatix using the Details Enhancer. It is also cropped in a 16:9 ratio.
Here is another HDR Panorama from my Lake Moogerah camping trip. I really like the colour of the sky and the reflections in this.
Let me know what you think!
I spent the weekend just gone camping out at Lake Moogerah, about 1.5 hrs drive south west of Brisbane. I went on Friday night after work, and returned just before lunchtime on sunday. The sky was beautifully clear on Friday night (despite a tropical cyclone hitting the coast about 1000 km’s away). So immediately after setting up camp, we broke out the tripods and cameras and started snapping the amazing stars which were visible.
People who have seen this shot keep asking how I knew where to point the camera, but its very easy, you can see almost as much as this with the naked eye. It really is amazing how much light pollution kills the view of the stars.
I went with a good mate of mine, and my fiance. It was due to be a boys photography weekend, but when my fiance said she wanted to come and check out this whole camping caper, who was I to say no? She enjoyed viewing the stars, and the two of us took enough photos to last a few weeks of PP.
This shot was taken using the K200D and the Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II kit lens. I set the lens to f4.0, as it is slightly soft wide open, 18mm because I wanted the shot as wide as possible (I really wish I could have gone wider! When Zennon posts his shots with the Sigma 10-20mm I will be sure to share them). I set the ISO to 1600, the camera’s inbuilt long exposure noise reduction to ON, and the mode to Bulb.
Carefully I aimed my shot at our campsite (yes those are our tents, my fiance is even in the one on the right sleeping) and started the exposure using a cable remote (with a lock). I could lie and said I timed the exposure to perfection, but in reality I just waited till I thought it might be a good time to stop, and unlocked the shutter button on the cable remote. This is where it gets frustrating….now I had to wait again as long as the shutter was open for the noise reduction to process.
What happens here is the camera takes another exposure, the same length, at the same ISO, but with the shutter closed. This creates a dark frame, but with all the same noise/hot pixels as the original shot. The software in the camera then subtracts this dark frame from the original, which leaves it with much less noise.
I was immediately happy with this shot upon seeing it on the LCD, but I was unable to get more the same. The dew in the air was at all time record highs it would seem, anything and everything exposed to it was getting covered with a lovely layer of moisture, including my lens. Everytime I tried another long exposure after this one, the lens would fog up so badly it would ruin the shot.
This was processed in Lightroom 2.5 with the only the following 2 changes, Brightness +87, Contrast +51
I am really keen to head back to the camping spot for more of these kind of shots in the near future. Hopefully after I have myself a wider lens. I am currently looking at something like the Sigma 10mm f/2.8 EX DC Fisheye, which would give great views of the milky way, and allow me to do little planet photos and VR tours. Lets keep hoping!
This is looking down part of the Brisbane Riverwalk. I took this shot from next to the Riverside Centre building, the main building in the shot is the Riparian Plaza and the building at the left is Waterfront Place.
Taken using Pentax K200D, Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II and Slik 500 DX Pro Tripod. This is a HDR Panorama, composed of 5 HDR images (I overlapped them a lot), each composed of 3 images shot at +2, 0, -2. Blended and Tone Mapped with Photomatix batch processor using Details Enhancer, and stitched using Autopano.
I shot this as I was setting up for the “Ghosts in the City” shot. I had the tripod all set, almost ready to go when this guy came wandering over for a look. So I took some shots of him. I had to up the ISO a bit to get him to stay still, but it came out ok.
This is yet another stack, this time with ppl in it as well. Taken looking up Creek St in the Brisbane CBD on Thursday afternoon. The shots were only 1.6 sec exposures as it wasnt very dark yet, but the effect seems to have worked out ok.
There are no people directly in front of the camera as they were walking too fast past there to really show up in the shots.
I like the look of the people in motion here, so I think I will try for shots like this again in the future. It may be easier to get these shots during the day if I can get the shutter speed slow enough. Maybe it is time to order that Hoya ND400 filter I have been keeping an eye on.
Here is a slightly abstract shot of a plant I spotted at the Mt Cootha Botanic Gardens on Sunday. It was raining a little at the time, and you can make out the rain drops on the leaves.
I took this very quickly (it was raining on my remember) using the K200D and Jupiter-9 85mm f2.0 which was already mounted on the camera.
Almost no editing done here at all, just a slight crop
This is a sign on the front of a local bank branch in Brisbane, I was waiting for a friend to make a deposit inside, waiting for someone interesting to be James 
This couple came out of the branch about the same time as my friend, so I quickly snapped them. Its got a little more motion blur than I would like…but thats life I guess!
Almost time to get myself an AF prime for this sorta stuff i think, just have to convince my fiance. I’m sure she will go for it! haha
Here is another abstract shot of a building. This one is also on Ann St in the Brisbane CBD, its not quite on this much of an angle, but still it is there.
I took this one on the same day as the previous post, and also used the Pentax K200D and the Pentax SMC F 35-70mm f3.5-4.5 lens.
Here is an abstract shot I took last year. It is a building found on Ann St in Brisbane, with a nice pattern to its windows, contrasting against the clear blue sky (haven’t seen many of those lately!)
This one was taken with the Pentax SMC F 35-70mm f3.5-4.5 lens and Pentax K200D body. It was processed in Lightroom, and then I used The Gimp to apply a small amount of perspective correction. The last step I had to do because I was shooting looking up, so the lines were not quite straight.
Perspective correction basically squeezes 1 end of the photo, to correct the converging lines you get as things get further away. In this shot the line between the building and the sky was sloping slightly from left at the bottom of shot, to right at the top of shot, even though I was cropping the image with the line of windows at the right side straight up and down.
Here is a good example of a much more extreme perspective correction on a shot.
