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Thread: Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

  1. #1

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    Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    The following pictures came from the same one raw file. The first one is just in a panorama form. I took it on this Wed morning, Coogee beach in Sydney.

    I went to the beach at 5.30am, it was very dark (it is winter here) and was a bit raining. I planned to wait for a while to see if the rain could stop in a moment. But I saw a white curve stuff over the dark sky (only saw the right side in front of me), I thought it was cloud. So I decided to take a photo of it. In the darkness, no way to focus on any objects even with my small torch on. So I just manually adjusted the focal distance between 1 meter to infinity
    (closer to infinity). Then I turned the aperture to f/2.8 to measure shutter speed under ISO 200, and then turned aperture back to f/11. It would need about 8 minutes. So I started exposure with my hat to protect my camera lens. When finished, it turned out to be a complete rainbow.

    Shooting information:
    ISO 200
    Shutter speed: 458 seconds
    Focal length 16mm
    Aperture f/11

    I prefer the panorama one. But don't know what other people think. Thank for your comments.

    Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    Capture a complete rainbow in the dark
    Last edited by Dave Humphries; 11th July 2009 at 12:11 AM. Reason: tried to fix missing first image unsuccessfully :(

  2. #2

    Re: Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    Yan,

    I can't see the top one (it's probably my computer at work though) but i'll comment on the bottom one. Just from a viewers perspective, beautiful shot. Amazing that you did this that early in the morning. I love the warm feeling it conveys, and the scale. It has a great perspective, doesn't seem compressed at all, or stacked, and I like that. Congratulations on the capture!!

  3. #3

    Re: Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    I cannot say I find the rainbow the main attraction. This is a very nice image full stop. Bags of atmosphere and a welcome variation on the land/jetty/sea/sky photographs that used to adorn every photography magazine known to man.

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    Re: Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    Well done Yan - it's a brave man who bets on a rainbow hanging around for 8 minutes!

    PS: I can't see the top image either

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    Re: Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    Wirefox, Shutterman and Colin,

    Thanks for your encouragement. Let me try to post the first photo again:

    Capture a complete rainbow in the dark
    Attached Images Attached Images

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    Re: Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    Hi Yan,

    Personally, I'd crop the right hand side so that the gap to the end post was the same as on the left - and try to increase the saturation of the rainbow (try wiping the saturation sponge over it).

  7. #7
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    Re: Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    Hello Yan,

    What you have there is a Moon-bow. Its a very nice photo.

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    Re: Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    Thought of the moment Yan - I've got a bit of spare time later on today - if your keen, send me the *.CR2 and I'll give it a "Photoshop 30 Second Makeover" (TM!) for you.

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    Re: Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    Quote Originally Posted by Rodders View Post
    Hello Yan,

    What you have there is a Moon-bow. Its a very nice photo.
    Rodders,

    I don't know there is a so called "Moon-bow", this solves my puzzle - as I was wondering
    why there was a rainbow on the east direction, where the sun was still under the horizon and about 45 min later, the sun came out from there too. Thanks for your comments.

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    Re: Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    Quote Originally Posted by Colin Southern View Post
    Thought of the moment Yan - I've got a bit of spare time later on today - if your keen, send me the *.CR2 and I'll give it a "Photoshop 30 Second Makeover" (TM!) for you.
    Colin,

    I'll send the raw file to you soon and will leave a PM to you when finishing the upload. Thanks!

  11. #11

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    Re: Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    Hi Yan,

    Sorry - I didn't get as much free time as I thought I'd have - so here's a quick job (sorry, it's a bit rough in places).

    Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

  12. #12

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    Re: Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    Colin,

    Thanks for this. It really looks great! I am wondering if you have done something to saturate the rainbow?

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    Re: Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    Quote Originally Posted by Yan Zhang View Post
    Colin,

    Thanks for this. It really looks great! I am wondering if you have done something to saturate the rainbow?
    Essentially, once the shot was correctly white-balanced, the sky becomes a neutral gray - so the saturation tool can then be used to saturate the rainbow

    Your original shot (above) has a wicked colour cast!

  14. #14
    Moderator Dave Humphries's Avatar
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    Re: Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    But it was dawn, it was supposed to be that colour

    Now you've made it all dreary like a wet weekend in <insert placename of your choice>

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    Re: Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Humphries View Post
    Now you've made it all dreary like a wet weekend in <insert placename of your choice>
    I'm sorry for producing such a dreary looking image

    *** goes for a walk with tail tucked between legs ***

  16. #16
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    Re: Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    I love it, the wide one really works for me. I like the wb adjusted one but see what dave means as it's not obvious it's still night really. Perhaps tweaking the wb and other things you could make it look more like a night shot without the orange colour cast.

    I'm thinking along the lines of what you get when you take a shot with no sodium glow whatsoever in pitch black night under a full moon which always seems to give images a surreal ghostly blue cast and eerie sky.

  17. #17

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    Re: Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

    Thanks for Dave and Davey's comments on these two versions.

    I asked my 2 kids and wife to tell me their preference between my original and Colin's revision, they seemed more like my original one. But I like Colin's rainbow appearance indeed I'll see if I can get something in between.

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