I hope this scores well because it took a ridiculous number of attempts to get it right. I think it looks pretty cool considering the restricted editing rules, but it's no dreamy waterfall or rocks in the water shot so who knows. I actually bought a 3 stop ND filter to go snap a cliche shot myself, but 3 days of rain put that on hold and in the meantime I became obsessed with getting this shot. So here it is.
This was set up in a dim room (couple windows letting light in on a cloudy day, not dark by any means). With a modeling lamp turned on, I targeted a light stand in order to auto-focus the lens and then switched the lens to manual. I tried this with the sigma 105 (so-so results), the 70-200 2.8L (lens flare like you would not believe in every single shot) and finally the 85 1.8.
A 16 second exposure gave me ample time to 1) press the shutter button on the camera, 2) walk to the 'spot' where the light stand had been, 3) use a key chain flashlight to blink out the pattern of the Big Dipper 4) drop the light 5) crouch down on the floor 6) hold up hand with feather and hope to god the tip of the quill was centered in the last 'star' and 7) fire the strobes via the pocketwizard held in my other hand. Get up, go to camera, check image, repeat. And repeat. And repeat.
The radical difference in light levels between the dim room and the blasting strobes and keychain light meant I could walk around in front of the camera with impunity while the shot was being taken - the invisible man.
The lighting is a softbox to the left, and to the right is a 7 inch dish angled against the wall in order to drop the most light behind my arm for separation with the fall-off making a gradient which would get darker under the stars. The dish brought out a lot of ugly surface detail on the wall which wasn't apparent on the tiny camera lcd, but I am definitely not going to re-shoot another couple hundred times to fix it. At this small size it's not quite so noticeable (I hope).
The title is a reference to Ursa Major, which this constellation belongs to.
post: well kiddies, if you want to win stick with the standards. Thanks for the comments and favs!
Statistics
Place: 12 out of 127 Avg (all users): 6.5697 Avg (commenters): 7.5714 Avg (participants): 6.6481 Avg (non-participants): 6.5315 Views since voting: 2836 Views during voting: 637 Votes: 165 Comments: 29 Favorites: 15 (view)
amazing! One of the most creative in the bunch. I would like it even more it the arm were a little more delicate looking or if the background was black. Great job!!
Ah! This was one shot that fascinated me, perhaps most, in the long exposure contest. I was so curious to how is it was done.
I should congratulate you on this shot. Great work, and highly creative. Please keep on going. Ribbons may come and ribbons may go. :-). But if I could vote (unfortunately it is a member only vote), it would have been a definite 10.
Fantastic, original idea that's executed very, very well. Your imagination and planning, plus your perseverance, paid off. Congrats! And thanks very much for the setup details.
Excellent set up notes. Thanks for that. Had initially thought holes through the bg with light coming through, but wowowowow.... amazing effort. Loved it, thought there would have been a ribbon here.
lovely use of creative lighting to deliver the shot - i wonder if a conversion to b/w would have been better as the shadows and color in the hand actually distract me a bit...
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
