Joe Reifer

Burned orange 1966 Lincoln with flame job — by Joe Reifer

Technical details: Three exposures of 7 minutes were stacked for 21 minute long star trails (7 minutes at f/9.5, ISO 200). There is a 1 second interval between exposures — any longer would show gaps in the star trails. The Canon 5D Mark II is clean at 7 minutes without the need for noise reduction, as long as the ambient temperature is not too warm.

On the first image I did not light paint. The 2nd and 3rd exposures had different light painting. After the first three images were complete, I reviewed the light painting on the back of the camera. The interior and side of the car looked great in image #3, but there was a hot spot above the front grill. I did a fourth exposure of 3 minutes at f/8 to re-do the light painting on the front of the car. Below are all 4 images in Lightroom.

Here are the steps involved in post-processing the final image:

I hope this behind the scenes look at creating a light painted image with long star trails is helpful.

Daylight savings time started last night for most of us in the U.S. — did you remember to change the clock on your digital camera? I went to change the time on my point & shoot, and realized that I never changed it the last time. So all of my photos from last fall until yesterday are an hour ahead.

Whether the time is off on your photos due to changing time zones when traveling, or just having the camera settings wrong, there is an easy fix in Lightroom:

1. In the Library Module, click on Metadata. Use the drop-down menus to pull up the Date and Camera options. The last time change was on November 1, 2009 — I selected November through present in the Date column, and then selected the camera that wasn’t set right. This gives me a set of images shot with a specific camera over a specific time range based on the EXIF data in the Lightroom database.

2. Select all of the photos, go to the Metadata menu at the very top of the screen, and choose Edit Capture Time:

3. The Edit Capture Time dialogue box appears. Choose Shift by set number of hours, and then -1 (minus one, because I forgot to “fall behind” last November). Lightroom shows you the Corrected Time before you commit the settings by clicking Change All.

That’s it — all of my point  & shoot files now have the correct time. I hope you find this Lightroom tip useful!

Wolf Ridge, downstairs, San Francisco view — by Joe Reifer

I’ve just posted a gallery of night images from Wolf Ridge in Marin.

If you’re interested in taking a trip up to Wolf Ridge, check out Andy Frazer’s photography guide for this great location.

A Few Notes on Organizing Your Photos with Lightroom, and Exporting for the Web

Finding the images from Wolf Ridge in my Lightroom archive was easy — all of the shoots from Wolf Ridge have file and folder names with the same structure: wolfridge_YYYYMMDD_01.CR2. In the Grid View in Lightroom I selected Text — File Name — Starts With — wolf. Next I clicked on Attribute and selected a rating of 2 stars or better. I made a rough edit for the gallery by hitting the B key to add images for the gallery to a Quick Collection. After making the final selections, I proceeded to post-processing.

I was able to do post-processing for almost all of the images without bringing them into Photoshop. The image above was the only exception because I needed to do more complex tonal corrections for the sky and fog that required masking. When outputting for the web from Lightroom, I use a combination of capture sharpening in the Develop module (the Sharpening settings under Detail), and Output Sharpening under File — Export (typically set to Screen — Low).

A good starting place for capture sharpening with the 5D and 5D II is about 18% at .6 Radius, with Detail at 80 and Masking at 35. By zooming in to 100% view you can check the Detail and Masking settings by holding down the Option (Alt) key and dragging the sliders. The Masking control is really useful for night photography — just drag the slider until you only see star trails in the sky. This masks the areas of the sky with no detail — protecting you from enhancing any noise that may be present in the sky.

A really useful tool that can be added to the Export screen is the LR2 Mogrify Plugin. Mogrify allows you to add watermarks and borders, but the best part is Mogrify allows you to control the size of your exported JPG files. Use the Resize to Fit setting on the Export page to choose your pixel dimensions, and then set Compress to Fit in Mogrify to the maximum JPG size that works well for your website or blog. Mogrify is donationware — the free version has limits on batch processing.

I hope you enjoy the new gallery, and that these Lightroom tips are useful!

A tree, trailer, fencing, and various geometric forms studied for 15 minutes — by Joe Reifer

Technical Details
Canon 5D Mark II with an Olympus Zuiko 21mm f/3.5 lens — the lens is very small, light, sharp, and has a manual focus scale.
Long exposure noise reduction was turned off in the camera, greatly increasing productivity and battery life.

The test exposure to check the composition and histogram was 15 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 1600.
Let’s do the math: moving to f/8 is 1 stop, to f/11 is 2 stops, to ISO 800 is 3 stops, to ISO 400 is 4 stops, to ISO 200 is 5 stops.
We compensate for closing down the aperture and reducing the ISO by changing the exposure length 5 stops: 30 seconds is 1 stop, 1 minute is 2 stops, 2 minutes is 3 stops, 4 minutes is 4 stops, 8 minutes is 5 stops.
The result: 8 minutes at f/11, ISO 200.
Because the main subject is white and metallic, I protected the highlights by slightly reducing the exposure to: 7.5 minutes at f/11, ISO 160.

To achieve the 15 minute star trails in the image above, I set the Canon TC-80N3 Timer Remote to make 2 exposures in a row of 7.5 minutes at f/11, ISO 160.
I adjusted the RAW files for tone and color in Lightroom.
With both files selected in Lightroom, go to the top menu and select: Photo — Edit In — Open As Layers In Photoshop.
Next just set the top Layer to Lighten Blending Mode as pictured below to add the star trails together. Lighten Blending Mode adds anything on the top layer that’s brighter to the bottom layer – when you flip to Lighten Mode, voilà – you’ve added the star trails together.

Remember: The secret to making this technique work is keeping the interval between exposures to 1 second or less. Otherwise you’ll have unsightly gaps in your star trails. I hope this useful technique saves you time and battery drain. Give it a try the next time you’re shooting at night.

Various trucks, cans, detritus — by Joe Reifer

45 minute exposure at f/11 with Kodak E100VS slide film.
Mamiya 7II with 43mm lens (21mm equivalent for 35mm cameras).

The technique necessary to make a 45 minute exposure with a digital SLR would be either to:

1. Shoot for 45 minutes with noise reduction on, and then wait an additional 45 minutes for in-camera noise reduction to run
2. Shoot multiple shorter exposures and stack them in Photoshop (e.g., 9 exposures of 5 minutes each)

My shooting strategy for the last few years has been to use a medium format film camera for long exposures of 45-60 minutes, while shooting with a digital SLR for the more typical 5-10 minute exposures. Not only does shooting with 2 setups help with productivity, but the medium format film work provides an excellent guide to post-processing the RAW files from the digital SLR. During the 80′s, 90′s, and into the aughts, medium format film defined the look of color night photography. Slide film reads as night. Emulating the look of slide film when post-processing in Lightroom and Photoshop helps the digital images read as night, too.

Calculating film exposures for images lit by the full moon is pretty easy. Start by taking a few test shots with your digital SLR — I typically use 10 seconds at f/4, ISO 1600 as a digital test exposure. If the histogram looks good, this exposure equates to 5 minutes at f/8, ISO 200 — or 10 minutes at f/8, ISO 100. When using Kodak E100VS, you’ll need to almost double the digital exposure time to help cope with reciprocity failure — about 18 minutes at f/8 during the full moon. When shooting at f/11, add another stop and a half — 45 minutes at f/11. Depending on the amount of shadow detail you’re trying to capture and the position of the moon in the sky, 60 minutes at f/11 may be more appropriate. With exposures this long, you have quite a bit of flexibility — the difference between a 60 minute and 45 minute exposure is only a 1/2 stop.

Remember these simple rules when dialing in the exposures with your favorite film:

1. When using slide film (E-6), overexposure risks blown highlights (just like digital) — when in doubt, underexpose for night photography
2. When using negative film (C-41), underexposure risks a thin negative with blocked up shadows — when in doubt, overexpose slightly for night photography

And remember — you don’t need a fancy camera to shoot long exposure night photographs. Even a $25 Holga does the job quite nicely. Give it a try next full moon!