Project 52 by Frank Miller

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Love it. Almost looks like a miniature city!

[FrankMi]

Thanks guys! This PC belonged to a friend of mine. The motherboard died unexpectedly and I helped him set up a new Win 7 PC and move his hard drive to the new machine.

The setup for this and the guitar image was the same. I used light from a North facing window and a pair of $10 LED desk lamps.



Although the camera was mounted on a Velbon slider, owing to the focusing range needed I had to manually change the camera's focusing ring instead of using the slider to get the 8 shots used for this image.

The inspiration for the story and image came from an old video of Jack Webb and Johnny Carson doing a spoof on Jack's Dragnet series which ran on radio from 1949 to 1957 and on TV from 1951 to 1959 and again from 1967 to 1970. The link to the Johnny Carson spoof is just under the image in the earlier post.

For more on the crime drama, Dragnet, and the Movie Spoof with Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragnet_(series)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragnet_(1987_film)

[FrankMi]

I would normally be posting my image of the week today but I haven't been able to get out and shoot something that I feel would be good enough for this activity. I'll be away for about a month starting in a few days so I am hoping to have some great shots to post when I return. My goal is to post an acceptable image for each week that I am away and hopefully catch up. Meanwhile, I'll be trying to employ the great tips and techniques you folks have provided. Thank you all so much for the help and encouragement!

[jeechu1970]

Hi Frank.........ur post processing is simply amazing.......i envy you.....as i am totaly unaware of any kind of processing but for picassa..........am inspired to learn the techniques..........thanks

[ScoutR]

Hi Frank, love all these new things you are trying. Hmmm did I say new - the shots don't look it, that guitar is amazing. I'm getting so many ideas of things I'd like to try watching these threads. I think I'll need another lifetime though. - not as speedy as I used to be.

Hope you have a good vacation, I'm looking forward to following up on your project when you get back

Wendy

[Goldcoastgolfer]

You know, maybe you should write a tutorial on stacking Frank - like Colin's one on Portraiture

[Donald]

A story-teller in words as well as in pictures!

Great imagination (again) Frank.

ps - Have fun on your trip away (hope it's for pleasure).

[FrankMi]

You know, maybe you should write a tutorial on stacking Frank - like Colin's one on Portraiture

Unlike Colin's years of experience, I'm just starting to understand the concepts. I'll gladly share what little I think I know and maybe down the road do a stacking tutorial. The basics are fairly simple. It's the nuances that I am still learning.

Thank you all for the encouragement!

[FrankMi]

Week 6: The Green Flash

I have been away for about a month on vacation, mostly in the Mediterranean. I did not want to take the bulk of my Nikon D3100 Kit so I opted to pick up a Canon SX40 HS as it is much more compact than the D3100 DSLR & lenses, doesn’t require lens swaps and has an 840mm (FFE) zoom where even the longest lens in my Nikon kit was limited to 450mm. Although it doesn’t shoot RAW, it provided a reasonable compromise for the conditions encountered on this trip. It is my hope to be able to catch up with my missing Project 52 entries with images from this trip.

One of my long term goals has been to see, and hopefully capture a sunrise/sunset ‘Green Flash’ for a Project 52 entry. Green flashes are optical phenomena that occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise, when a green spot is visible, usually for no more than a second or two, above the sun, or it may resemble a green ray shooting up from the sunset point.

Green flashes are most usually seen at an unobstructed horizon, such as over the ocean, but are possible over cloud tops and mountain tops as well.

Green flashes are enhanced by mirage, which increase the density gradient in the atmosphere and therefore, increase refraction. A green flash is more likely to be seen in clear air, when more of the light from the setting sun reaches the observer without being scattered. With slight magnification a green rim on the top of the solar disk may be seen on most clear-day sunsets, although the flash or ray effects require a stronger layering of the atmosphere and a mirage, which serves to magnify the green from a fraction of a second to a couple of seconds.

This sunrise image was taken from St. Cruz de Tenerife harbor in the Canary Islands and is SOOC with Cropping, Sharpening, 50% Soft Light and a subtle Contrast increase applied.

1/250 sec, F4.5, EC-2, ISO 100, 37.5mm:



Because the flash is so small, you may wish to open the image in the lightbox for a better view.

[Donald]

I was just writing in another thread a couple of days ago about my red-green colour vision shift (what is called colour blindness) causing me to sometimes have difficulty in distinguishing some red, green and brown shades. So, on that basis, can I just say Frank, that I'm sure your 'green flash' is very nice.

But it's still nice to have you back. I hope you enjoyed the break and I look froward to seeing more of the images made.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Welcome back Frank And mission accomplished - I've never seen that before.

Everyone - definitely open it in Lightbox to get a really good look at what Frank is talking about.

[FrankMi]

Welcome back Frank And mission accomplished - I've never seen that before.

Thank you Malcolm, it was a very lucky capture.

[FrankMi]

Week 7: Jerusalem Panorama

The goal for this image was to create a detailed panorama that would take in the entirety of the old city of Jerusalem and surrounding areas.

This is a three-panel panorama of Jerusalem taken from the Mount of Olives. The original consisted of 14 images creating a single panorama that was subsequently split into Left, Center, and Right panels with a combined size of about 9,000 X 12,000 pixels. This was then reduced to 1,600 pixels wide for posting at CiC. In the full size image, you can see and count the individuals walking about the city but reduced by this much, only a fraction of that detail remains.

Taken with a Canon SX40 HS, the 14 individual images were shot at 1/640 sec, f4.5, ISO 100 at 21.8mm.



This image was updated to include the panel separation recommended by Dave in post # 80.

[Donald]

The goal for this image was to create a detailed panorama that would take in the entirety of the old city of Jerusalem and surrounding areas.

What an amazing piece of work.

I accept that a copy on here is never going to be able to do justice to the original, but at least we can get a sense of scale of the thing. You seem to have handled what looks like pretty harsh light, very well.

[Geoff F]

As Donald said, it is difficult to see in close detail on a small screen but those images seem very clear and well exposed.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Well, even from a screen it looks pretty grand to me. Very good captures Frank.

[FrankMi]

Thank you, Donald, Geoff, and Malcolm for the kind words. If you look closely at the left side of the third panel you can see the gold cupolas of the Russian Orthodox Church - the subject of the next Project 52 entry.

[FrankMi]

Week 8: Church of St. Mary Magdalene

The goal for this image was to get this church, particularly the cupolas, to look exactly as they appear in real life.

This Russian Orthodox ("White Russians") church is located on the side of the Mount of Olives and was built by Alexander III of Russia. While the church was dedicated to Alexander's mother Maria, it was called the Church of St. Mary Magdalene after her name-saint. One of the best-known women in the New Testament, it was Mary Magdalene from whose body Jesus exorcised the seven demons in Mark 16:9. Mary was present at the Crucifixion and was the first person to see Jesus after the Resurrection.

The Church of St. Mary Magdalene is probably the most conspicuous house of worship in Jerusalem and owes its prominence to the presence of seven gilded, onion-shaped domes jutting out from a monumental Muscovite-style body that stands proudly against the sky.



This image was updated based on Dave's suggestion in post # 80.

Unfortunately, I could not get any closer so we can only see the upper levels of the church in this image.

[Donald]

Frank - You have nailed that. That is a true breath-catcher. It's not just the technical bits in terms of the production of what you captured. It's the location you've chosen; the composition; the perspective created by the focal length that you shot at. It's the church surrounded by the trees, but still set in the context of the other buildings behind it. I love the tones (loght) you've gto on those trees going up the left hand side.

That is a very impressive image. You've obviously been on a roll on this holiday/vacation.

[Dave Humphries]

Amazing shooting and PP Frank, love both Week 7 and Week 8 images.

Two things; (one each)
In the Week 7 post, I think the images would be better presented if separated by a line gap between them, so it doesn't look like the sky of #2 is the sea in shot #1, etc.

On the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, the brightly lit roof at lower edge of frame leads my eye out of shot, although I appreciate that's how it is, perhaps toning the sun down a bit might avoid it.

Gold like that is very hard to capture, you have mastered the SX40 well to achieve this result, especially as only an 8 bit jpg original was available.

Your skills are definitely some I'd like to (try) catch up with.

Cheers,