Category Archives: Technique

Framing Time-Lapse: A few days before the show

Posted on by joe

Two minutes in the life of a photographer. Well, 2 minutes in time-lapse form anyways. Today I framed some 20″x30″ prints for the Dark Resort show that opens next week. The video above shows a time-lapse of the framing process. The music is from Serge Gainsbourg’s album Histoire De Melody Nelson. At first listen, it’s mellow music with a French guy talking. But there’s a lot going on here. The string arrangements by Jean-Claude Vannier are superb. This album will get under your skin. I also highly recommend Gainsbourg’s hilarious novel Evguenie Sokolov, a bizarre meditation on flatulence and art.

Anyhow, here’s how the video was made:

  • A Ricoh GRDII was setup to record exposures at 5 second intervals
  • Exposures were 1/2 second at f/4.5, ISO 200
  • A total of 371 photos were used for the video
  • Music was added in Lightroom 3, using “Fit to Music” for the slideshow timing
  • The video was exported from Lightroom, and imported into iMovie to add titles and credits
  • iMovie has a built-in YouTube upload feature

And a few notes about the framing process:

  • The photos are digital c-prints made on a Lightjet
  • The finished prints were mounted on 3/16″ black gatorboard by Colortone in Berkeley
  • Frames were ordered from Frame Destination, including spacers to separate the print from the glazing
  • Essential tools included: Brillianize polish, anti-static cloth, a cardboard tube to remove peel the paper on the plexi, needle-nose pliers, a white glove, yerba mate, and some good tunes.

Hope you enjoy the video — let me know if you have questions about what’s happening. See you at the Dark Resort show next Friday, November 5th!

How to frame photos without a mat

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Framed Mad Mouse panorama without a mat -- by Joe Reifer

Framed Mad Mouse panorama without a mat — by Joe Reifer

I’ve always framed photographs with a mat, both for the traditional look, and to keep the print separated from the glazing. Over the last year, I’ve noticed the variety of framing methods for photographs at the high-end New York galleries via the art show reviews on DLK Collection. Recently I was printing a panorama for a show with a 36″ size restriction. I wanted to use the full width for the image. If you just put a print into a frame without a mat or spacers, contact with the glass can cause sticking, buckling, newton rings, and a variety of other problems. The trick is to use spacers to create an air gap between the print and glazing (glass or acrylic).

Here’s what I did:

  1. The image was printed on 36 1/2″ wide by 9 3/8″ high paper that included 1/4″ black borders. The actual image area was 36″ x 8 7/8″.
  2. The print was mounted on black gatorboard. The mounting process removes about 1/16″ from each side of the borders.
  3. A custom frame was ordered to fit the overall size of the mounted piece at 36 3/8″ x 9 1/4″. Measure the mounted piece carefully before ordering your frame.
  4. The thin profile Nielsen 117 metal frames hang over the artwork by about 1/4″ on each side, covering the remaining black borders.
  5. I applied a 1/8″ black spacer to the entire edge of the acrylic glazing. The spacers covered the remaining black borders on the print, and are not visible under the 1/4″ lip of the frame. The EconoSpace spacers are easy to cut with garden pruners (really!), and the 3M adhesive is easy to apply. The whole process only took a few minutes.
  6. Insert the mounted print and backing board, tighten the frame, and add your wire hanger. Ready to go!

There is another variety of plastic spacer that doesn’t use adhesive called FrameSpace. Here’s a FrameSpace and EconoSpace comparison chart.

My favorite online retailer for mats and frames is framedestination.com. They carry a great selection of mats and frames in the 2:3 aspect ratio, and their customer service is top notch.

If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, I highly recommend The Framer’s Workshop in Berkeley. I brought my print down and they helped me install the spacers and make sure the finished piece looked great. I felt like I was in a parallel universe where everyone is genuinely friendly. Framing a piece at The Framer’s Workshop was one of the best customer service experiences I’ve had in a long time.

If you’re printing photos for an art show or your wall and don’t want to use a mat, I hope these resources are helpful!

Night Photographer Jerry Day: One Night in the Valley of the Gods

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One Night in the Valley of the Gods -- by Jerry Day

One Night in the Valley of the Gods — by Jerry Day
Valley of the Gods, Utah, 2009

Jerry Day has some great new work on his website, including the incredible long star trail image above. I often talk about making 6-8 minute long exposures with noise reduction turned off on the Canon 5D, and stacking multiple exposures for 20-30 minute long star trails. What you’re seeing above in Jerry’s work is this same technique, but for over 10 hours in total duration. Jerry and I exchanged emails about his technique:

Yes, this is a digital composition spanning the entire night, sunset to sunrise. Bracketed images at sunset/sunrise processed as HDR, merged and then layered on a base image of star trails from twilight to twilight – about 10.25 hours shot in a sequence of 6 minute exposures. At least 114 images total went into the composition. I shot two compositions that night using Canon 5D for the twin mesa view and the Canon 5D Mark II for the single mesa composition. Had a great night camping out under the stars.

My follow up question for Jerry was “what do you use to power a Canon 5D for a 10 hour exposure?”

I use a DC adapter hooked into a 12V battery pack – the same setup I use for astrophotography with the Canon 20Da. The coupler is modified by Hutech to be DC only – no need for the intermediate AC adapter and power inverter.

For the Canon 5D Mark II, I had the proper DC coupler, but intended to use the original AC adapter provided by Canon for use with the 20Da or 5D. Unfortunately, I found in the field that the coupler was incompatible with the existing AC adapter receptacle – I would need to purchase the full AC adapter kit for the 5D Mark II (Canon strikes again!)

My solution – set my alarm for about 3 hour intervals – crawl out of the bivy-bag, quickly swap battery pack and restart the timer. Done properly, the gaps in the star trails are not any more noticable than the 1 second gaps the Canon timer cable imposes after each frame. For my next outing I will have the proper adapters.

I’d like to thank Jerry for sharing his technique and equipment notes. Check out the rest of the night photography galleries on his website, Dark Sky Dreams.

Film vs. Digital Night Photography: Interview with Troy Paiva of Lost America

Posted on by joe

Recently I had the opportunity to view some amazing long exposure film images by my friend and fellow night photography workshop instructor Troy Paiva. The film images are 45 minute exposures at f/11 using Kodak E100VS film in a 35mm camera. I noted that Troy made both film and digital exposures from a similar vantage point for a few of these images, and asked if I could show some comparisons — he graciously agreed. Below are 3 sets of images with my thoughts on the look and relative strengths of each format, followed by commentary from Troy. I look forward to hearing your comments on how the film and digital versions compare!

Set #1 — Business Coupe

Business Coupe 45 -- by Troy Paiva

Business Coupe 45 — by Troy Paiva

Business Coupe 2 -- by Troy Paiva

Business Coupe 2 — by Troy Paiva

Joe: The long lines of the car are really accentuated by the huge star trails in the film version. The slightly lower and closer camera position, and light falloff on the back of the car really create dimensionality. I love the texture on the side of the car, the brightly lit rear wheel, and headliner details in the film version. Looks like the front part of the car had some fill light?

The digital version has the fantastic color blending, which is really set off by the subtle purples and oranges in the sky. The short star trails work extremely well in this case because the Big Dipper is so identifiable. The hard angle used for the green light painting really brings out the shape and texture in the car, and the positioning of the windows against the line of the mountains adds wonderful complexity to the middle of the composition. The shadows in the digital version seem more open, and the digital version feels much cleaner overall. Tell me about your strategy for the lighting in the digital version. Also, what was the color temperature to get the sky that color? Both images are very successful, but I’m partial to the film version.

Troy: The film image is lit by a natural xenon Stinger Streamlight from off camera-right, the same basic angle that I did the green flashlight in the digital version.  I was looking to pull out the form in the front fender and how it transitions into the body of the car.  The white balance on the digital image is 7500º, quite hot, but I wanted that warm sunset-y purple sky to compliment the predominant greens of the lighting.

These were shot right after sunset on the day after the full moon, when the moon-rise happened about an hour after sunset.  The digital image was done first and has no moonlight in it and just a slight touch of daylight (seen lighting the distant vehicles), so I knew that to get any light here, I would have to add it myself.   I light painted the hell out of it, from several angles, so none of the car’s form would be lost in silhouette.  The film version was set up next and was also started before the moonrise.  Over the course of the 45 minute exposure, however, the moon rose, but the angle of moonlight is still extremely low, creating long shadows and interesting highlights.

I like the digital version better, personally.  I think the color and sharpness rule the day.  I also like the ’70s Dodge Dart popping into the frame on the right, it balances the composition.  This is a copy of a similar set up done by one of our students, Tim Little, during the workshop, the night before.  When I happened upon him shooting this, I knew I wanted to do my own take on it.

Set #2 — 1972 Ford Galaxie 500

Freebie -- by Troy Paiva

Freebie — by Troy Paiva

The Bean -- by Troy Paiva

The Bean — by Troy Paiva

Joe: Unlike the first comparison, the compositions here are radically different. With a 45 minute exposure, you want a lot of sky. The film shot is more a “vehicle in context,” and the digital version is tight and textural. The digital version really sings for me in this set — the juxtaposition of the dense lines on the front grill against the moving plant is superb. The lighting on the grill and under the hood have a lot of texture and snap. Tell me about you lighting strategy for this image, and also the color palette choice — which is hugely important to making this image work so well.

Troy: When doing these extremely long film exposures I want a lot of star movement, so I tend to frame with a lot of sky to help make it the dominant subject.  The digital image is more about the car and creosote, and my lighting treatment on them, so I tightened up on those.

The film image has a little xenon flashlight on on the grille from camera-left.  The digital has lime-gelled LED light from the same location, but I also hit the underside of the hood and just got more light on the car in general.  I also used a green-gelled and snooted light on the headlights.  Is the green too similar to the lime?  Perhaps, but I really wanted the headlights to only be slightly different and not pop too much because I wanted the other areas like the hood and plant to not be lost while people are oogling the headlights.  It’s a fine line.  I also lit the driver-side fender with a natural LED flashlight to pull out some shadow details on that side of the car in an effort to give that deep shadow area some detail and give some pop to the creosote bush.Like you, I think the digital image is far more interesting and absorbing.  Truth be told, I wanted that much light on the film version too, but I simply didn’t hit it enough. Light painting on film is extremely difficult because you can’t preview the image to make sure you got what you need.  The digital version took 3 tries before I was happy enough with it to move on to something else.  Because of this, I keep my film light painting to a minimum.

Set #3 — Southbound Winnie

Southbound Winnie 45 -- by Troy Paiva

Southbound Winnie 45 — by Troy Paiva

Southbound Winnie 2 -- by Troy Paiva

Southbound Winnie 2 — by Troy Paiva

Joe: The film Winnebago image has the classic circular star trails achieved by pointing the camera towards Polaris (the North Star). Film is great for this classic compositional technique because you don’t have to worry about battery life or noise reduction. The color palette of the E100VS really works the deep dark cyans of the sky against the warm yellows of the desert sand. The film version has a lot of snap. The digital version has a quieter, more clean and subtle look in this set. The interior is lit with just enough light to add color and texture, and the headlight painting gives the front grill some personality. Can you talk about how much light was used on the interior. I’m also interested in any thoughts on compositional strategies with digital when composing in a northward direction?

Troy: I did the digital shot first here and saw that the North Star was lined up on the center of the vehicle, so I knew that it was a good candidate for a killer star spiral on a long film exposure.  I was really drawn to the blocky, chiseled symmetrical look of the RV here, so I composed to accentuate that.  I love that you can see the lights of Ridgecrest reflected in the windshield too.

In both cases, the interior  is lit with a red LED flashlight from both sides, basically doing my best to make sure the interior got filled with light.  The volume of light is much less on the film version.  Some of that is from the aperture of the film version being f11 (vs. f5.6 for the digital), but I just don’t think I put as much light in there.  It is, unfortunately, a very inexact science.  Both images also have snooted LED light on the headlights as well.  Note also that I burned down the chunk of white insulation in the lower left corner on the digital version, but left it on the film.  It was terribly distracting.

I’m partial to the digital version here too.  It’s just smoother and cleaner and the lighting pops more.  Yeah, I know, I’ve chosen the digital versions unanimously.  What can I say?  When I moved to digital in 2005 I said I’d never shoot film at night again and it took me 4 years to decide to tinker with it again.  I really wanted to see how I’d react to it.  While there’s nothing that can compare with these crazy-long star trails and that surreal softness to the shadows and overall quality of light, I just think the excessive contrast and grain, a byproduct of reciprocity failure in film exposures this length, renders the images less clear and tight.  Someday (soon) you’re going to be able to do 45 minute long digital exposures, retaining the best traits of both mediums.  I’m looking forward to that.

Pearsonville: Hub Cap Capital of the World

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Pearsonville: Hub Cap Capital of the World -- by Joe Reifer

Pearsonville: Hub Cap Capital of the World — by Joe Reifer

Technical Details: 10 minutes at f/11, ISO 160. Canon 5D Mark II with an adapted Olympus Zuiko 21mm f/3.5 lens.

In-camera noise reduction was turned on for this image as the temperature outside was still somewhat warm (mid 60′s). In-camera noise reduction is useful on exposures of this length, especially in warmer conditions. If you need to walk a few minutes between camera setups, that’s a perfect time to let noise reduction run. The 5D Mark II has a remarkable battery life. Even with 6 hours of night photography with in-camera noise reduction turned on for many of the shots, I almost never have to replace the battery. On the original 5D I would often go through 2-3 batteries in a night of shooting with noise reduction turned off.