This one is me and my creepy imagination gone wild that night 40 miles from a paved road. I drove 2:40 minutes of dirt roads to the middle of nowhere to find this simple, but very photogenic Indian ruin tucked away in the cliff bands.
I used a big wood lantern with glass windows on a staff to light this one up. I used small crumbled bits of Duraflame log for clean enclosed burning. I used a few 1x1 pieces of Duraflame to light up a scene like this. An ISO of about 1000 with my 6D at F10 got me about a 6th of second exposure.
I wanted to take advantage of the explosion of sandstone outwards from the tiny ruin to capture Mood. I used multiple layers of exposures to hand blend a "glow" vs light painting. Artistic Licence in full force here...
These have all been truly remarkable images, Kane. The deep shadows in this image provide great counterbalance and bring out the shape and texture in the sandstone.
When you said duraflame, all I could think of was Michael Fatali's major screw up at delicate arch. I guess since it was enclosed in a glass container you wouldn't have the same issue. Very nice image, love the low light in this one Kane!
Hi Jack, you bring up the dreaded Fatali incident. Yikes. I'm very aware of his poor decision and spent a lot of time researching fire ethics to avoid such a disastrous fallout. After talking to a few people concerning the use of fire, I came away believing my set up was more safe than using a nearby fire ring to roast hotdogs. I know your not comparing my lantern usage to Fatali building a fire on the sandstone underneath Delicate Arch, which we all know resides in the highly protected Arches National Park. But know the above ruin is located on public lands where fire rings are common in fact, there's a fire ring along with about 60 gunshot shells located about 50 yards from this ruin. I also discovered that less light is way better than more light when shooting slower night shutter speeds which means the flame I was dealing with was small, small enough where I could still hold the lantern by its handle which resides about 12" above the flame without burning my hand. I think it's an important topic and certainly worth discussing.
Masterfully done, Kane. The image is remarkable to begin with, and your description of methods further deepens my appreciation for it. Just fantastic! Was the lantern in the same position for each of the exposures (maybe slightly in front of you on the ground), or did you reposition it to change the angle of shadows? Thanks for sharing this!
Interesting way you used to get warm light. It looks more uniform that what is sometimes seen by using a flashlight. Granted this is a low light night shot, but I wonder if moving the white point slider in levels in a bit would help with the flatness I sense when looking at the image. Looks like you had a real productive trip and look forward to more of your night images.
Discussion
7 repliesThis one is me and my creepy imagination gone wild that night 40 miles from a paved road. I drove 2:40 minutes of dirt roads to the middle of nowhere to find this simple, but very photogenic Indian ruin tucked away in the cliff bands.
I used a big wood lantern with glass windows on a staff to light this one up. I used small crumbled bits of Duraflame log for clean enclosed burning. I used a few 1x1 pieces of Duraflame to light up a scene like this. An ISO of about 1000 with my 6D at F10 got me about a 6th of second exposure.
I wanted to take advantage of the explosion of sandstone outwards from the tiny ruin to capture Mood. I used multiple layers of exposures to hand blend a "glow" vs light painting. Artistic Licence in full force here...
I never would have guessed. To me the photo looks like a subject lit by a fire. Very nice….
Fire does sound like fun but would an orange gel and diffuser placed on a flashlight produce the same results?