The Skillion – Star Trail Night Photography

Yet another trip out shooting the stars last night. This is becoming very addictive. Moon was at 41.9% illumination (waxing) which means the period that runs between the New Moon and the Full Moon.

This is a combination of moon light and ambient light from the surround suburbs and peoples headlights. Single image capture.

Now I just got to think up my next location and what sort of shooting combination I want to do… maybe sunset into a star trail… you will have to wait and see.

CLICK THE IMAGE TO VIEW IT LARGER

The Haven – Terrigal, Central Coast, NSW

Snapped these few shots on the GX617 when out and about teaching. Chris and I made our way to the sandstone rock ledge at Terrigal in the late afternoon and shot towards the Haven. The sunset wasn’t going to be that special but the afternoon light was perfect.

The Skillion – Day Shots

Over the coming months I am working on increasing the number of day time images to my site to broaden my range. I certainly don’t have a small supply of shots with crazy colours, but day time images are few and far between. But finding and waiting for the right day time conditions is easier said than done though.

Now that we are moving into winter we will loose that heat haze in the sky that is a trade mark of summer and also the air looks cleaner now which is a bonus. Now all I have to do is wait for the right kind of cloud (I love the high cloud like in the above shot). I also try and not shoot at mid day as the light is very blue and everything is very high contrast.

This one is taken on my good old trusty Fuji G617 on Velvia 50 | Polariser @ f16

Avoca Beach, Central Coast, NSW

I just completed a two day private workshop where we detailed both the capture and post production side of landscape photography.

This shot was a three image exposure blend that we edited from the sunrise shoot component of the course. Wasn’t the greatest of sunrises but still we got some interesting looking images from messing about with shutter speeds.

Not sure if this one is pushed too far, but it was fun taking it beyond the level of a natural looking seascape.

All post production work was done in Photoshop CS4 using a range of layers and blend modes, different luminosity masks, clipping masks on each images, funky Channel Mixer trick, B&W layers, dodge and burning the list goes on. Phew !!

I love the green water and the colour of the rocks to the right of it. The other day I was teaching here and it was low tide and I had to rescue a beautiful green beached Moray Eel. I did think about picking it up to get it back into the water but though better of it and gave it a quick flick with my tripod. Wasn’t easy but I got him back where he belonged.

Skillion Splash

Snapped this one when out teaching yesterday. The sun finally popped out and turned a gray day into a bright on. (For a while anyway). Shot at the Skillion rock ledge in Terrigal.

Single image capture on 5D Mk II. RAW file processed in Lightroom and then tweaked in Photoshop.

Storm Brewing The Skillion – Photoshop Tutorial Masterclass Exposure Blending

Don’t you just love when the weather guy (Tim Bailey on channel 10 for us NSW people) tells you that tomorrow will be fine but end with a late thunder storm. With summer approaching and the temperature set to sore this year I am really going to dedicate my self to chasing these storm fronts and the wild weather and lightening it creates.

This shot is taken with my new 17-40mm f4 lens @ 17mm at the Skillion, Terrigal on the Central Coast, NSW.

(Why I bought the 17-40mm f4 over the 16-35mm f2.8 will be in my next blog post)

I have made the full post production of this shot as a Masterclass photoshop tutorial that goes into exposure blending and masking in different water layers and I also cover how I go about capturing these kind of images for blending.

This tutorial is recorded in my new format at 1280 x 720 HD.
Tutorial available for immediate download for $12.95 at this link.