Hello hello! This week i'll be taking the technique of long exposure from last week and using it again this week for astrophotography! What is this you may ask? STARS. Now from where i'm from there are too many houses and extra light around which creates "light pollution" so most of the pictures I've taken have extra light around them. I will being showing examples of what you can achieve if in the right setting too.
So to start, you'll need:
a tripod
manual settings
the night sky
a dark location (preferably somewhere with no extra light sources"
You're gonna have to play around with your shutter settings and what not depending on your surroundings so be wary of that.
So these are blah. Also they're unedited. But that's really the best you can do in the suburbs. Now if you were to travel to a national park or somewhere like that, here's what you get:
Source; Joe Parks
You can get amazing images from this awesome technique so start practicing!
Have you ever seen an image that someone has taken of lights that spell out words or make shapes? i.e.
The first picture is backwards to show you that when doing this technique, you will have to flip your picture unless you can achieve writing the opposite way, which is in fact incredibly challenging.
Moving forward, so what you will need is:
flashlight, laser pointer, etc,
tripod
camera with manual settings
darkness
space
SO, to get started, set your tripod up somewhere flat and steady. For your camera settings, it's going to differ from place to place and by how long you want to expose the image. Usually though, you should have:
A slow shutter speed (I would say anywhere from 4-30+),
High F-stop (15-20+).
High ISO.
To change these settings, check your manual because it's different with every camera.
Once you have all that ready, put your camera on the tripod and have your subject stand a few feet away from the camera. Press the shutter button and have them "write" or "draw" whatever they want with the light source. Since there's a slow shutter speed, the light will get recorded and you'll have a drawing! Here's a video with more explanation.
There are many other things you can do with slow shutter speed. This is called long exposure. You can use steel wool to create a waterfall of light. I recommend wearing a lot of layers because this is dangerous and hurts.
Also don't attempt this indoors or near anything that can catch on fire for obvious reasons.
Another cool thing I tried out was moving the camera around or zooming out when taking the picture with long exposure:
More examples of light writing & long exposure:
There's so many other cool things to do with this technique that I have yet to try, so do some research and try some other things out too!
So I would like to start you out with a little background on photography. Where it started, who was involved and how it evolved. In 1727 Johann Schulze found that silver nitrate darkened when exposed to light. With that the camera obscura was born in the 1800's. This camera was set up with a little hole on one end which light was exposed and whatever was on the other side of that hole was projected upside down and "printed" onto the silver nitrate. These images quickly faded.
Fast forwarding to the late 1800's, a new method of printing on silver-plated copper, coated with silver iodide and "developed" with warmed mercury. These were called "daguerreotypes". These were quickly taken over by a much easier process using glass and metal to print on. Called "Wet Plate Collodion Photography", it was done by mixing chemicals and printing the images directly to the surface. Then moving forward a few more years a new process was developed. These images were knows as "Ambrotypes"(glass) and "Tintypes" (metal). Most times, these were put in decorative frames/wallets because the edges were very sharp and would cut peoples hands.
As you can see, they are very similar. but each picture was done using a different method! SO moving forward, in 1861 the first color image was printed using three different black and white pictures and placing a different color filter on each one. In 1881 the first Kodak camera was created containing a twenty foot roll of photo paper. THEN in 1889 the Kodak camera was updated and came with film! This was the Kodak Brownie.
Kind of skipping ahead, in 1934 Fuji film was created. In 1938 they were making cameras, film and lenses.
In 1948, Polaroid established the first black and white instant film. In 1963 the came out with the first color instant film. 1975 Kodak changed the game by creating the first working digital camera! 1985 Minolta creates the world's first auto-focus SLR system and in 1990 Adobe releases Photoshop. Kodak DCS 100- 1991 In 2000 Japan created the first camera phone, the J phone. 2005 Canon releases the first SLR camera that was priced so consumers could buy it. The Canon EOS 5D was the beginning of many of the SLR/DSLR cameras we have today!
Welcome to my blog! You're here for information on photography and that's what I'm here to give you. My name is Alex Pursh. I am currently a freshman at IUP Punxsutawney. Through my high school years, I grew fond of photography, took classes, and also taught myself many techniques that I am planning on sharing with you! I will be posting weekly about different subjects including: photo history (types of cameras, types of printing methods, film, etc.), lighting, portraits, astro/nature photography, light writing and some Photoshop tips when necessary. Along with an abundance of information and instructions, I will be posting some of my pictures to give a visual so you can compare your pictures! (All pictures posted are mine unless cited otherwise). I know I'm not a professional, but photography is an art. With art, anyone can be good! Say you have a plain just regular digital camera. Has anyone ever said "oh you can't take good pictures, you need a DSLR"? NO! When I first started in tenth grade, all I had was a small point and shoot Canon digital camera. To be a "good" photographer and take "good" pictures, what you need is technique and an eye for beautiful images! It doesn't matter if your camera was fifty dollars or five hundred dollars, all you need is the knowledge of photography, and I'm here to help! I will leave my email for anyone that has any further questions! (:
