Over UAE's National day we took a trip to the dunes of Oman to camp, drive, make some photos, and relax a bit. This was an excellent way for me to recharge my batteries whilst draining my camera's!
On day one I saw the epic dune that was just screaming for me to climb, just a stones throw from camp. It didn't take much convincing for me to get my buddy in his Jeep to tote me half way up so I could hike the rest. It was just starting to get dark outside, and by the time I hiked the giant dune with the tripod and camera, sunset was well underway. I knew I wanted to do a full 360 degree pano, so I did a few quick exposure tests and got to work.
This was a trickier task than I had planned for, as the crest is so steep and slippery that it become increasingly difficult to keep the tripod steady whilst I moved to turn it. I probably chose exposures that were too long - but I really wanted to get some nice depth of field with the smallest aperture I could possibly use. I was shooting at f/22, ISO 100 - and that required a 4 second exposure - so a few frames I shot twice just to be sure I got it tack sharp. I knew that as I shot the frames to build the pano the sun would go down a bit and the exposure would too - but I didn't think it would be quite as fast as it was. In the image you can really see that it is brighter on the right side of the image than the left due to the sun setting. *Best viewed by clicking on it and zooming side to side* - See if you can spot 1) our camp area, and 2) the jeep that brought me half way up!
Lesson learned: Keep cleaning supplies with you whilst on a hike in the dunes. I was carrying a Nikon D300s with a 70-200 f/2.8 attached and my Infra Red Nikon D200 with an 18-105mm attached. I wanted to do a lens change to get the shot below. I saw the lines in the dunes and it looked like a great composition. I also thought it would like great as a black and white infrared image. So I did a quick lens change.
Apparently the wind and dust in the desert made its way straight to the image sensor! UGH! I had nothing with me to clean it and had hiked for about 45 minutes, so by the time I would have gone back to clean up and returned the light would have changed. I decided to just shoot it and edit out the dust later. What a bugger!
To the left is the dusty image sensor, and below is the version with the sensor dust edited out. Aside from a slight contrast adjustment and the dust removal on the bottom image, these are straight out of the camera.
I am planning a post about the difference between shooting in infrared and converting to black and white verses shooting in color with a normal camera and then converting it to black and white. Just for fun - inspect these two images of the same scene. One is an IR conversion, the other a Color to B&W conversion. (and yes - I know there is dust on the image sensor of the top image. Now ask me if I care?)
Both images are straight out of the camera, converted to black and white, and only have mild contrast adjustments. The edge vignetting on the bottom image is caused by the polarizing filter, not post processing.
Above is a point called "Top of the World" - for good reason... and to the right is how we got there. Talk about FUN with a capital F! Usually I have more fun exploring with a camera than driving to the destination - but thanks to the Oasis Off Road group I had one heck of a good time!
On day one I saw the epic dune that was just screaming for me to climb, just a stones throw from camp. It didn't take much convincing for me to get my buddy in his Jeep to tote me half way up so I could hike the rest. It was just starting to get dark outside, and by the time I hiked the giant dune with the tripod and camera, sunset was well underway. I knew I wanted to do a full 360 degree pano, so I did a few quick exposure tests and got to work.
This was a trickier task than I had planned for, as the crest is so steep and slippery that it become increasingly difficult to keep the tripod steady whilst I moved to turn it. I probably chose exposures that were too long - but I really wanted to get some nice depth of field with the smallest aperture I could possibly use. I was shooting at f/22, ISO 100 - and that required a 4 second exposure - so a few frames I shot twice just to be sure I got it tack sharp. I knew that as I shot the frames to build the pano the sun would go down a bit and the exposure would too - but I didn't think it would be quite as fast as it was. In the image you can really see that it is brighter on the right side of the image than the left due to the sun setting. *Best viewed by clicking on it and zooming side to side* - See if you can spot 1) our camp area, and 2) the jeep that brought me half way up!
 |
| Nikon D300s, Nikon 18-105mm VRII, Kenko 67mm Circular Polarizer, Manfrotto Carbon Fiber Tripod. 18 shots at: ISO100, 18mm, f/22, 4 seconds |
 |
| Infra Red Nikon D200, Nikon 70-200mm VRII ISO200, 1/60th, f/16 |
Apparently the wind and dust in the desert made its way straight to the image sensor! UGH! I had nothing with me to clean it and had hiked for about 45 minutes, so by the time I would have gone back to clean up and returned the light would have changed. I decided to just shoot it and edit out the dust later. What a bugger!
To the left is the dusty image sensor, and below is the version with the sensor dust edited out. Aside from a slight contrast adjustment and the dust removal on the bottom image, these are straight out of the camera.
I am planning a post about the difference between shooting in infrared and converting to black and white verses shooting in color with a normal camera and then converting it to black and white. Just for fun - inspect these two images of the same scene. One is an IR conversion, the other a Color to B&W conversion. (and yes - I know there is dust on the image sensor of the top image. Now ask me if I care?)
Both images are straight out of the camera, converted to black and white, and only have mild contrast adjustments. The edge vignetting on the bottom image is caused by the polarizing filter, not post processing.
Comments
Post a Comment
All comments will be reviewed before being posted. Please keep them clean! Thank you!