I recently explored an abandoned waterpark in the Mojave Desert at night. The park has been abandoned since 2004. I was drawn to the entrance, and I thought I could create some great shadows with this.
I’ll break down the process behind creating this image using a handheld light. Although I used a ProtoMachines LED2, you can use any decent LED flashlight to create this image.
Three steps to creating the image
1. Illuminate the entrance sign
Using a warm white light, I stood to the left of the structure to illuminate the entrance sign. Although I illuminated the entire structure, I focused on illuminating the sign a little more.
2. Light the columns
I then stood behind each of the back columns, taking a few steps back. I then shined my light on each of the two columns, keeping the angle the same while moving the light so that it would create well-defined shadows on the ground. I took care not to shine the light directly into the camera lens.
3. Shine on the turnstiles
Squatting down behind each of the turnstiles, I shined the light behind them, once again blocking them from shining directly into the camera lens. This time, I used a shorter duration than I did for the columns since I was closer to the ground and didn’t want to blow out the details by overexposing.
At one time, this waterpark featured waterslides where you could achieve speeds of up to 50 mph and slide down on your feet. Now, it’s more popular with taggers, skateboarders and urban explorers.
Fisheye
I used a Rokinon 12mm f/2.8 fisheye lens. The distortion from the fisheye can create a surreal effect and look different from most other people’s images. However, you do need to be careful that you do not shine the light in the image. After all, the lens has a 180° diagonal angle of view on a full-frame camera, so it’s very easy to think you are out of the frame!
Advantage of a handheld light
It would be challenging to create this sort of lighting with lights on stands. Part of the reason for this is because you would need to mimic the movements that I do while holding the light, gently “painting” the objects with light through movement.
It would also be time-consuming. You would need to use at least five lights to recreate this, all on stands. You would need at least four to backlight the structure, and another off to the side to illuminate the sign. And for the last light, it would be difficult to aim it for longer periods of time at the sign than the structure.
VISIT ME, VISIT ME!
MY WEBSITE: Head on over to the Ken Lee Photography website to purchase books or look at night photography and long exposure photos. My latest book, “Abandoned Southern California: The Slowing of Time” is available there and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Booktopia, Books A Million, IBS, and Aladin. If you enjoy the book, please leave a nice review.
Dew on your lens can ruin an evening of night photography. No one wants to get home to find that their photos are completely fogged up.
I photograph in mostly arid regions, so condensation on lens is typically not a consideration. Because of this, I can be caught off guard if I photograph near the coast or on the East Coast, as you can see below. Dew can set in quickly — these photos were only taken 10 minutes apart. Below, I’ll discuss three ways to keep dew off your lens.
When does lens fog occur?
Your lens can build up condensation if the glass is colder than the air around it and there’s some humidity in the air. There’s more to it than that, of course. These factors are tied to dew point and air movement, all of which also affect condensation.
Three ways to avoid dew on your lens
Keeping the lens hood on your lens is the easiest way to keep dew off your lens. Covering the front element helps protect it from the outside colder air for just a little longer. However, this only works up to a point, so we’re not going to count this as one of the three ways. I’ll begin with the cheaper, lower-tech methods and work my way forward.
1. Hand warmers
HotHands hand warmers. They’re not just for warming your hands.
Hand warmers work well at, well, keeping the lens warm. Wrap a couple of hand warmers around the lens or lens hood. A lot of people use some cloth to try and insulate them.
A West Virginia Mountaineers beer cozy wrapped around a lens to hold hand warmers in place. For many lens, you might need to enlarge the cozy by slicing it and applying Velcro strips to close it back up, taping it with gaffer’s tape, or tying rubber bands around it.
An alternative to only using rubber bands is to use a beer cozy. Now, this won’t fit all lenses, so you may have to modify the cozy or even cut it open. But this, coupled with a couple of hand warmers, works rather well due to the cozy’s insulation properties. Plus, as a bonus, it looks really fun.
LensMuff on a 28-105mm Pentax lens. Perhaps a more elegant if less beer-friendly solution to keeping dew off a lens compared to a beer cozy.
Even better is a LensMuff. This is specifically designed to wrap hand warmers around the lens and can accommodate very large lenses and is easy to put on quickly in the dark. It has pockets for up to three hand warmers, so there’s less likelihood of them slipping around. And you can use more than one Lensmuff and attach them together for larger lenses or telescopes.
The upside: This is cheap, lightweight, requires no power and is easy to do.
The downside: They are not always quite so reliable in very cold conditions. They also create waste.
Because I rarely photograph in environments where there will be dew on my lens, this is the method I use. However, I’ll discuss a couple of other methods I’ve seen people use.
2. Dew heating strips
These look somewhat like the LensMuff. However, the difference is that instead of stuffing hand warmers into the wrap, the wrap creates heat via a power source, typically USB.
These used to be rather expensive. However, as of late, they have dropped to a very reasonable price. This example here, a USB lens warmer, is rather inexpensive. If dew heating strips such as this were this inexpensive years ago, I may have opted for this route instead of the LensMuff.
If I were to use a dew heating strip, I would most likely power it with a reasonably powerful USB power bank. I believe most USB lens warmers, certainly the one I linked to, are 5V, and so are most USB power banks. Velcro the power bank to the leg of your tripod, and you should be good for the evening.
The upside: You may regulate the heat, and they are a continuous source of reliable heat. You may also use it to warm up other things such as baby bottles, making it multi-functional.
The downside: There’s more to set up, it’s more expensive and it requires power to work.
3. Fans
I suppose you could continually wave a fan in your hand. That would show serious dedication. But here, I’m going to propose using an electric fan.
I’ve never actually seen anyone use a fan. However, if you look around on photography and telescope forums, you can always find an enterprising DIYer who uses something such as a small computer fan, clamping it to an arm so it blows air on the front element of the lens.
This, however, would likely require a heavier-duty power source and require effective positioning during every setup. You might also need to be careful of vibration. However, if you connect the arm to one of the tripod legs, I doubt there would be any issue.
Of course, the issue I would probably have is banging into the arm or the fan in the dark. Because of this, perhaps attaching it to the camera’s hot shoe might work.
Perhaps if you didn’t mind carrying extra equipment, you could purchase a rechargeable portable fan, such as this 8-inch clip-on USB fan. I say “extra equipment” because a fan this large would almost necessitate mounting it on another stand due to vibrations, it seems.
How do I check for the likelihood of dew?
If the night-time ambient temperature starts creeping close to the dew point, you are more likely to get moisture on the lens. Check a meteorological site for dew point. Or if you have been reading some of my articles, you might remember that one of my favorite apps and websites, Clear Outside, provides the low temperature and dew point for specific locations along with other very useful information.
This information is good to know in advance. After all, using heat (or the fan) would be considerably more effective when begun before dew sets in. You want to stop the lens from dropping to that evening’s dew point, after all.
What I dew (pardon the pun)
I’ve used hand warmers in all combinations. I found that the LensMuff and hand warmer combination has worked remarkably well so far during summer and fall evenings.
If I photographed in colder environments, I would look into one of the dew heaters and have a couple of USB power banks ready to go.
VISIT ME, VISIT ME!
MY WEBSITE: Head on over to the Ken Lee Photography website to purchase books or look at night photography and long exposure photos. My latest book, “Abandoned Southern California: The Slowing of Time” is available there and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Booktopia, Books A Million, IBS, and Aladin. If you enjoy the book, please leave a nice review.
Since 2008, and started by students, Pepperdine University in Malibu, California stages the Waves of Flags display for Patriot Day. Each flag represents one of the lives lost in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The sight of nearly 3,000 flags perched on their lawn is at turns inspiring yet heart wrenching.
Nearly 3000 flags fly in honor of those who lost their lives during 9/11.
Where were you during 9/11?
As with most, I vividly remember how I found out about 9/11 and the shock I felt as it unfolded. While driving in to work, I listened intently to what was ordinarily a goofy early morning comedy show on a rock station. They weren’t very goofy this morning. It was a whirlwind of panic, confusion, shock, and more as they reported on things that they heard, some true, some rumor.
Nearly 3000 flags fly in honor of those who lost their lives during 9/11 in this surreal sort of photo using a Lensbaby Sweet 35.
When I heard that an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center, I initially assumed it was something like a small Cessna, and that it had been an accident. But of course, as it unfolded, I realized this was not what had happened.
My friends and family in New York were gobsmacked. Panic, confusion, shock, defiance, fear. Their emotions swung wildly in the weeks that followed. Many of us also felt patriotism, anger, sadness, and/or xenophobia as well.
The attacks have left an indelible mark on our nation’s psyche. As with most Americans, I subconsciously divide our country’s timeline into before and after 9/11.
Photographing the flags
Nearly 3000 flags fly in honor of those who lost their lives during 9/11 in this surreal sort of photo using a Lensbaby Sweet 35.
I had this idea. I would wake up early, drive to Pepperdine University in Malibu, and photograph the flags in the glorious morning light.
The fog had other ideas.
One of the trees in Pepperdine’s Alumni Park, where nearly 3000 flags fly in honor of lives lost during 9/11. Patriot Day in 2021 will be the the 20th anniversary.
Still, I figured I would try to make lemonade out of lemons. I needed to be flexible. I decided to photograph using some of my more unusual lenses, including the Lensbaby Sweet 35 and my Rokinon 12mm fisheye. And given the fog, I decided that it might look better in black and white.
A particularly moody, surreal look at some of the many flags flying in remembrance of Patriot Day, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California.
The end result is a considerably moodier, more surreal sort of feel.
A fisheye view of the flags at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
Waves of Flags Commemoration – video from Pepperdine University in Malibu. Patriot Day in 2021 will be the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack.
VISIT ME, VISIT ME!
MY WEBSITE: Head on over to the Ken Lee Photography website to purchase books or look at night photography and long exposure photos. My latest book, “Abandoned Southern California: The Slowing of Time” is available there and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Booktopia, Books A Million, IBS, and Aladin. If you enjoy the book, please leave a nice review.
This is a night photo of an old garage and vintage 1940s Cadillac Fleetwood (with an old Buick front end) on a beautiful Mojave evening, underneath the light of a full moon. The camera shutter was open for 396 seconds. During this time, I “light painted” the scene, illuminating it from numerous angles with a handheld ProtoMachines LED2 light painting device.
Here’s how I did it!
Night photo of an old Western service station lit up with a handheld light during the exposure. Read up on how the lighting was done!
Five steps to light painting the gas station
1.) Creating detail in front
I wanted a bit of texture in the ground in the front. Holding the ProtoMachines low to the ground I swept the ground from side to side on each side of the camera, standing about ten feet further back and ten feet to the side in each of the two locations.
2.) Light painting the exterior
The moon was shining from camera right. You can tell by the way the long shadows fall. I wanted to pick up more detail and illumination on the wooden front of the gas station. To do this, I stood to the right, as close to 90 degrees as possible to the front of the building. I moved the flashlight slowly up and down, “painting” the front with light. I kept the light moving to try to make sure all the illumination was nice and even.
3.) Light painting the interior of the garage
I walked around the right side of the garage. There was a large opening on that side. Again, standing as close to 90 degrees as possible to the back wall of the interior, I illuminated the back in the same manner as the front of the structure.
This time, I used the color green for good measure. Night photographer Mike Cooper loves illuminating his interiors in green. He was there this evening as well, so clearly I was inspired by him.
4.) Making the car glow from within
Just for fun, I thought I would make the Cadillac glow eerily from within. Why not? I stuck my hand inside and managed to capture the shadow of the steering wheel in the front windshield for good measure.
5.) More strange glowing
Before exiting the interior of the garage, I created some odd glowing by holding the light down low and reflecting it off some objects. You can see this interesting glow on the side of the car, below the car, on the panes of the front window, and elsewhere around the room. I bounced some of the light off the ceiling as well. Reflected light is an often overlooked aspect of “light painting”.
I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions or comments, I would love to read them.
Part of the fun in night photography is in the eatin’.
“Off the eaten path” will good eats in out of the way places. Landscape and night photographers often go to remote places off the beaten path. Although we bring our own food, sometimes, it feels really great to enjoy a well-cooked meal in a restaurant.
Admittedly, it’s not that challenging to find a decent place to eat in the Owens Valley. Even outside Bishop and Mammoth Lakes, there are plenty of great places. I’ll cover a few that I enjoy.
These are good stops when going to photograph landscapes or dark sky places along the Eastern Sierra, Ancient Bristlecone PIne Forest, Alabama Hills, Mono Lake, Tioga Pass, Bodie Ghost Town or Yosemite. I will go from south to north.
Seasons, Lone Pine
This is located right near Dow Villa along the highway. Good sandwiches, very friendly service.
Alabama Hills Cafe and Bakery, Lone Pine
Most of my night photography friends seem to like Alabama Hills Cafe and Bakery, so I’ll mention them here. However, I always seem to get meals that are okay, not amazing. But this is one of those places that serve big, hearty, gloppy American breakfasts, burgers, and baked goods, and they almost always have a line out the door.
Merry Go Round, Lone Pine
I’m going to stick my neck out here and say I like this place. Alright, it’s not amazing food. But it does taste good. It’s probably closer to Chinese-American food. You are not going to confuse it with really delicious restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles. However, it’s quite welcome, and I find myself going there often when in Lone Pine. However, my other night photography friends seem reluctant to eat here.
Merry Go Round is a Chinese restaurant inside what looks like a cool old historic round building, and doesn’t appear like a stereotypical Chinese restaurant from the exterior. Very friendly staff and a good selection of food.The mapo tofu is good, although I was surprised that crunchy little strips of water chestnuts and Chinese black beans are included in the dish, something I don’t think I’ve seen before (and I’m Chinese, so I’ve eaten my share of Chinese food). Giant portion as well. I mean huge.
Also, one can order steaks and a few American items. After all, this used to be a steakhouse. And it offers a few items in their South of the Border section as well, including cheese enchiladas, as the cook from the steakhouse, who is of Mexican descent, apparently works in the kitchen as well as the Asian chef.
Still Life Cafe, Independence
Blink and you’ll miss it. Behind a charming if unassuming storefront is an amazing bistro run by super friendly chef Malika Adjaoud Patron. The locals say that him and his wife do this just for the love of cooking. Great ambience, festooned with photos and paintings too. This place gets pegged as a French bistro, but really, they just serve good food. That’s all you have to know. Whether it’s Merguez (North African sausage), spaghetti bolognese, boeuf bourguignon, flank steak, and delicious salads, this place is a total gem. Check their hours before going, as they can be a bit erratic.
Copper Top BBQ, Big Pine
Close to the Copper Top even though it feels like a million miles away…
I’m going to mention this place even though I wasn’t blown away by what I had simply because everyone else seems to love it. I had a tri-tip sandwich. Although the taste was good, it was strangely dry. If I ever eat here again, I will probably try a pulled pork sandwich instead. Regardless, this place boasts quite a reputation. After all, according to the LA Times and Yelp, it received the title of “America’s Best Restaurant.”
Erick Schat’s Bakery
I wasn’t going to mention a restaurant in Bishop only because it’s a decent-sized town. Here and in Mammoth Lakes, it’s not that hard to find a decent meal. But this place bears mentioning because their bread is insanely good. And they also make great sandwiches. Whether you stop off here to get their Original Sheepherder Bread fresh from their stone ovens to make sandwiches or whatever, any number of astounding baked goods, or to order a sandwich from the back, you will not be disappointed. I personally love their cheese bread. Many of us make a special point to stop here. There’s another Schat’s Bakery in Mammoth which is run by a former sister-in-law.
Ohanas395, June Lake
Now we’re on to the tacos. This is a truck that is located right by June Lake Brewery along the June Lake Loop, another gorgeous area along Eastern Sierra that is known for their lakes and trees. It’s particularly popular with photographers in autumn when the trees turn vivid colors.
I love their ahi tuna tacos. These are delicious by any standard. Excellent. The rest of their food looks and smells fantastic too. Super friendly people as well.
As a bonus, you can have a brew at the June Lake Brewing Company, and these guys will bring your food over. Just don’t ask June Lake Brewing Company what any of their beers are. I said hello and about their milk stout, and the guy replied, “You don’t know much about craft beer, do you?”
Tioga Gas Mart & Whoa Nellie Deli, Lee Vining
Fish tacos! At a Mobil gas station! And one of them even had mango salsa!
This is a good place to stop and enjoy some tacos and beers after photographing Bodie ghost town, Mono Lake, Yosemite, Saddlebag Lake, or other nearby areas.
Whoa Nellie Deli is a very popular stop for people going up or returning from Yosemite. Consequently, you’ll see lots of hikers, rock climbers, nature enthusiasts, and tourists hanging out and drinking beer in the very large outdoor area and relaxing. I do like the tacos at Ohanas395 more, but still, it’s good to know that you can grab a decent taco when heading up Tioga Pass or returning from a long photography expedition in Tuolumne Meadows. This place is just off Tioga Pass Road just outside Lee Vining.
Scattered about Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park are mysterious sliding or sailing stones, leaving snakelike trails behind them on the cracked dry lake bed, often for longer than 250 meters.
How these stones — some weighing hundreds of kilograms — slid was a mystery for many decades. Was it from hurricane-like winds? Magnetic forces? Pranks? UFOs? Geologists had been studying the sailing stones since the 1940s, with the first theory suggesting that they were moved by “dust devils.” And one of the many reasons the mystery endured was that the stones often did not move for decades until a specific set of natural circumstances occurrent this remote region.
This was the remote area that I had wanted to photograph for years.
Venturing to a remote part of Death Valley
Death Valley National Park is an enormous, sprawling park with deserts, playas, mountains, ghost towns, sand dunes and more. It can take hours to drive to its main attractions. The Racetrack Playa is about two hours from the centrally-located Stovepipe Wells. However, the last hour or so is on a bumpy, rough road with sharp rocks. Many motorists have had flat tires as a result of these rocks.
I had joined up with a group of photographers, one of whom teaches for National Parks at Night. We decided to take two cars and also tell the rangers where we were heading. We arrived after dark, with the winter temperatures approaching freezing.
Brrrrrrrr!
One member in our party of five people forgot his pants and only had long underwear. Wearing a winter coat and gloves but short pants and long underwear … this was a comical look. Although very cold, he persevered, photographing much of the time until he got too cold to continue. He retreated to the warmth of his rental car.
Bathed in Moonlight
The way the full moon illuminated the parched white dry flat lake bed was magical, with the dark mountains looming in the distance, the dark blue night sky hanging overhead, and the ground below almost glowing. We walked out onto the dry lake bed for about fifteen or twenty minutes, and then spread apart to begin photographing.
Lighting for texture
I wanted to accentuate the surface cracks and the tracks that the sailing stones had left. To do that, I used a handheld ProtoMachines LED2 light painting device, which is designed for light painting, holding it very low to the ground to pick up the texture off the ground and create shadows and depth.
The ProtoMachines flashlight also can produce vivid colors. You can control the saturation, brightness and color quickly, and it is designed to provide hours of illumination on a single battery charge. It is very expensive, but it replaces a bag full of batteries and gels. This is important when hiking in the dark for long periods of time. It also enables you to create the light you want much more efficiently.
I had two technical difficulties, but nothing serious. For some reason, my full-frame sensor camera, the Nikon D610, reverted to crop sensor format. Consequently, my first several photos had the edges cropped off. At first, I thought I was doing a lousy job framing the photos.
Later, the Vello Shutterboss II wired intervalometer would not shut off despite repeated attempts. The camera kept firing automatically every time I turned it back on. I finally had to remove the battery to make it stop.
After that, it operated beautifully.
After that, I concentrated on my light painting. I wanted to pick up as much texture as possible, and look as magical as possible. I used a Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 ultra wide-angle lens to capture the magic.
“Wait for me!”
After a while, the other photographers signaled that they going back to the car to leave soon. So many times, I will keep photographing and photographing and photographing. Time stands still, and it’s just me and the stars moving and my camera clicking.
With lots of water and snacks and warm clothes, I could keep going. But it was time to go. I will forever remember this magical evening at Racetrack Playa, and hope to return someday.
Oh, and about that sliding stone mystery …
In 2011, cousins Richard Norris, a paleontologist, and James Norris, a research engineer, began attempting to solve the mystery, placing GPS devices on some of the stones. Later, they finally were rewarded, witnessing the stones moving.
The cousins determined that to create the sailing stones, first, it must rain create a shallow water layer on the parched dry lake bed. This needed to be followed quickly by the temperature falling low enough to freeze the water overnight before it evaporates.
Then the sun has to come out and thaw the ice so that it breaks into thin sheets. And finally, the wind has to blow strongly enough to break the ice into floes, the wind pushing the floating ice against the bloopers so that the ice acts as a sail and making the rocks slowly slide across the wet, muddy earth.
Getting there
Racetrack Playa is remote. It takes over an hour on a very rough dirt road to get from Ubehebe Crater (we always called it Heebie Jeebies Crater) to Racetrack Playa. The road generally doesn’t require a high-clearance vehicle, although I sure wouldn’t try this in a Prius. Most standard crossover vehicles and SUVs have enough clearance. After all, we did it in a Toyota Rav 4 — hardly an off-road beast.
The larger issue is sharp rocks. I know one person who got two flat tires on the way back. Therefore, ideally, you should have a Jeep or truck or other vehicle with large all-terrain tires. These tires are less likely to be punctured.
And you should be equipped for emergencies. I would recommend having at least one spare tire, tons of water, a radio to contact the outside world, a can of fix-a-flat or tire plug kit, a 12-volt air-compressor, a lug wrench and obviously a car jack. You can probably think of more essential items, depending on the weather.
If you decide to go, you should know that if you require a tow truck, it will cost you. The rangers said that tow trucks have to come from far away. They will charge you $1000 or more.
You may also rent a 4×4 vehicle. It’s expensive, but it may be well worth saving yourself some grief.
Keep it pristine for others
Stay on the road. Off-roading is prohibited. And whatever you do, do not drive on the playa. Ever. Enjoy the magic and the mystery and keep it beautiful for others. Do not move or remove any of the rocks. When the playa is wet, avoid walking in muddy areas and leaving ugly footprints.
VISIT ME, VISIT ME!
MY WEBSITE: Head on over to the Ken Lee Photography website to purchase books or look at night photography and long exposure photos. My latest book, “Abandoned Southern California: The Slowing of Time” is available there and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Booktopia, Books A Million, IBS, and Aladin. If you enjoy the book, please leave a nice review.
Up in the mountains of Nevada is a ghost town. It was a former old Western mining town, and its fortunes rose and fell with the demand for precious metals.
We arrived at the town, ready for some night photography. One of the largest buildings has two stories, both with high ceilings. When I carefully went up the long stairs to the second story. I found this piano there. I am a musician and play keyboards and guitar. Therefore, whenever I encounter an abandoned piano, I wonder what songs were played, who sung or danced to it, and what symphonies were unfinished. And of course, I always photograph the piano.
Haunting melodies
My two friends were still downstairs. For fun, I began playing a few random high keys. These eerie out-of-tune notes echoed downstairs, drawing an immediate reaction: “Whooooaaaaaaaa!” It was eerie enough that we even created a short video of how the notes sounded downstairs a little later!
Determining how to light the piano
I walked around the piano for a while, shining my flashlight at various angles. Looking around, I noticed the plaster from the wall had given way, exposing the old studs. The handwriting on the old plaster was interesting as well. Since much of the wall was gone, I could walk to the room in back and illuminate from behind.
However, that room had a couple of rows of connected wooden chairs. This posed a bit of an issue since I would have to work around it. I would need to crawl around underneath them to get similar angles. It would be challenging. But I decided it was worth it.
Three steps to illuminating the piano
1. Backlighting the piano
I crawled underneath the connected wooden chairs, extending my handheld ProtoMachines LED2 light painting device to approximate the angle. It was challenging because the chairs were blocking much of the angle. Nevertheless, I managed to get it close.
I then backed up and swept the light from left to right, so that this would create more shadows that would emanate forth on the floor from both the piano and the studs. As a bonus, I briefly illuminated the flowers on the top of the piano.
2. Illuminating the piano from the left side
I walked back into the room and walked to the left of the piano. Making sure I would not inadvertently shine the light into the camera, I grazed the front of the piano to create detail.
3. Illuminating the piano from the right side
I walked to the right side of the piano. Here too, I used an angle relatively close to 90 degrees from the camera. This enabled me to graze the piano to create detail and shadow as well.
Why illuminate from the sides?
Have you ever used the built-in flash of your camera or phone camera to illuminate people or things? What did it look like to you? Probably not very flattering.
Light coming straight on to the subject is often harsh and not very flattering. Many photographers choose to use off-camera flash or bounce the light off a wall or ceiling.
Light painting is no different. You are still using light. However, you simply are applying it more slowly and cumulatively during a long exposure image. This is one of the advantages of light painting. You may illuminate something from multiple angles in one photo, and with different colors and levels or brightness if you wish. But you can do this without having to set up multiple lights on stands or other complex setups and triggering.
VISIT ME, VISIT ME!
MY WEBSITE: Head on over to the Ken Lee Photography website to purchase books or look at night photography and long exposure photos. My latest book, “Abandoned Southern California: The Slowing of Time” is available there and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Booktopia, Books A Million, IBS, and Aladin. If you enjoy the book, please leave a nice review.
What is a good lens for Milky Way photos that won’t break the bank?
This is a common question that frequently pops up in social media discussions everywhere. People ask about recommendations for ultra wide angle lenses for night photography, astrophotography, or photographing the starry night. And with “Milky Way season” upon us, I thought I would mention a high quality option that I use.
My “workhorse” night photography lens is currently the Pentax 15-30mm 2/8 lens. This is the same lens as the Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 (Tamron makes it for Pentax). It’s a high quality lens. However, it is also almost $1300 in price. Not everyone can pay that much for lens.
However, there’s another lens that I use right without hesitation that works extremely well!
Irix 15mm f/2.4
My often-used Irix 15mm f/2.4 ultra wide lens, still going strong after quite a bit of use.
I was one of the first people in the United States to purchase an Irix 15mm f/2.4. In fact, I purchased it in 2016, so early that Irix didn’t have distribution in this country! I had to purchase it through eBay. But I was glad I did.
I have the Blackstone version of this lens (more on this later), which is a sturdy manual focus lens that almost seems made for night photographers, although I believe it would be a good lens for long exposure photography, landscape, architecture, or real estate as well.
Seven reasons why I love this lens
1. Sharpness even at wide apertures
Even at its widest aperture at f/2.4, it’s surprisingly sharp. Wide open, of course, there is some vignetting in the corners, which is easily addressed. There is slight softness in the corners, less than most ultra wide angle wide-aperture lens.. And the time you stop down to f/2.8, everything seems tack sharp.
Ojo Oro Arch, a remote arch deep within the Mojave Desert, a Milky Way photo taken with the Irix 15mm f/2.4 lens.
2. Detent at true infinity
Move the focal ring and you will feel a detent at true infinity. For photographing the Milky Way or the starry sky, this is invaluable. Just fix the focal ring at detent, and you are ready to go.
But there’s more. If a foreground is not quite in focus at infinity, you can simply re-focus the lens for the foreground object and then “focus stack” the two photos later in post-processing so that everything is in focus. And this brings me to the next point….
3. Scarcely any focus breathing
There is very little “focus breathing” when re-focusing as described above, having elements grow larger if one is refocusing. The entire time I have been focus stacking with this lens, I have never encountered an issue. It blends beautifully.
4. Rectilinear distortion
For a wide angle lens, the Irix exhibits very little barrel or pincushion distortion. It’s a rectilinear lens, so images with straight features, such as walls of buildings, continue to appear with straight lines instead of being curved.
5. Accepts filters easily
Most ultra wide angle lenses have bulbous front elements. Not so the Irix. This allows it to accept screw-on filters in the front. Furthermore, it also accepts gel filters in the back. This would make it useful for long exposure photography without the need to use externally-mounted and more expensive filter systems such as Nisi, Lee or Cokin.
6. Inexpensive
TheIrix Blackstone, which a sturdy all-metal model which I have, sells for about $549. The Firefly, which is basically the plastic version of the Blackstone, sells for under $400. You can purchase three Firefly lenses for the price of one Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 and still have enough money left over to purchase a speedlight….or dinner for four at your favorite Mexican restaurant. Mmmmmm……tacos…..
7. Focus lock
How many times have you, as a night photographer, mistakenly knocked the lens out of focus? Raise your hands. We’ve all done it, haven’t we? I often affix gaffer’s tape to the focus ring of my other lenses. I don’t need to with the Irix. The focus ring is appropriately stiff, and it also has a focus lock. I don’t bother using this if I am focusing on infinity since it has a detent there and is unlikely to be knocked out of focus.
More
The Irix 15mm f/2.4 Blackstone ultra wide lens also comes with a nice case, a soft case which is still firm enough to offer ample protection.
There are few ultra-wide lenses, if any, that can approach the optical quality of the Irix for this price, or even several hundred dollars more, for that matter. The one lens I can think of off the top of my head that one could also consider in the same price range would be the Rokinon ultra wide angle lenses.
The Irix also has UV Fluorescent Engraved Markings. I was excited about this upon purchase. In practice, however, they don’t seem to be all that visible at night. And I probably wouldn’t use it that much anyway, preferring to manually focus on sight. Still, the fact that the engineers even thought to incorporate this indicates how much they seemed to be designing this lens for night photography.
As I mentioned, this lens would be outstanding in many applications, including landscape, architecture, real estate, and long exposure photography. But isn’t it good that a night photographer is looking out for your needs all the same?
Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, California. Irix 15mm f/2.4 lens.
Final words
While I haven’t done a specific side-by-side comparison with the 15-30mm f/2.8 lens that I have, I have alongside or instead of that lens without hesitation for years. And I’ve never felt like I’ve ever perceived a drop-off in image equality or sharpness at any point. It keeps up with that or the venerable 14-24mm f/2.8 F-mount without breaking a sweat. And given that the Firefly version is under $400, less than a third of the price of those other lenses, that’s stunning.
Recently, in conjunction with the October 2020 Adobe MAX Creativity Conference, Adobe released the eagerly awaited version of Photoshop version 22.0, which comes with quite a few new features, many of which are powered by AI.
Sky Replacement
One of the most anticipated features in Photoshop is their AI-powered Sky Replacement. While I don’t generally replace skies, I do take low-ISO night or “blue hour” twilight photos of the foreground, then take successive “stacked” photos of the night sky, and then blend them together. This can be time-consuming, so I am always interested in ways to quicken the process.
Luminar 4 AI Sky Replacement vs. Adobe Sky Replacement
I’ve used Luminar 4’s AI Sky Replacement to do “drop in” my own sky before. I was curious as to how it would compare with Photoshop Sky Replacement.
Luminar 4 can only use JPG or TIFF files. There is no such limitation with Adobe. When used in Photoshop, Luminar 4 will create another layer. Photoshop offers the choice of creating another layer or a duplicate layer, including all the masks and the layer of the sky that come with it.
Another difference is that Photoshop version 22 has so far been absurdly slow for almost every function on my 2017 iMac with 40 GB of RAM. Photoshop 2020 was also very slow. Luminar 4, and for that matter, Photoshop 2019, run very quickly. Not everyone experiences this, but it’s worth mentioning.
First example – night photo
I began with a photo that I took of an unprocessed 3 minute low-ISO photo of a radio telescope taken at night. Luminar 4 struggled with identifying the night sky. How would Adobe fare?
Adobe recognized the night sky as being a sky, but struggled to determine what was sky and what was not. And as previously mentioned, I had the choice of creating a duplicate layer, which would allow me to tweak the layer further in a non-destructive manner. In this example, I chose one of Adobe’s skies, as numerous skies come with the program.
Above, you can see that Luminar’s Sky Replacement feature is ghosted. It could not recognize the night sky at all.
Second example – blue hour photo
I chose a “blue hour” photo of a lake in the Eastern Sierras, taken not long after the sun had set. I decided that this time, I would “drop in” one of my skies, a “stacked” Milky Way photo taken with the same setup later that evening.
Adobe performed quite admirably here, dropping in the sky, although I did have to adjust the size slightly to get it to match. This was easily done.
Next was Luminar 4. Luminar recognized the sky but struggled with both the blending of the sky itself as well as the horizon. Luminar struggles with darker skies. If I had increased the brightness of the Eastern Sierras photos by a stop or two, it would have been fine.
Third example – day photo with lots of trees
All examples of both programs use day photos for sky replacement. And for good reason. Both their AI recognize it very well. But how would they recognize something complicated such as trees with lots of fine leaves?
I used a bright day photo of the forest in Mount Pinos in the mountains north of Los Angeles as the base photo. I decided to use the same Milky Way photo as the previous attempt. This would look incredibly fake. However, I felt the darkness would create greater contrast. We could then examine the blend by zooming in close to see what was happening with the leaves of the trees.
Adobe’s Sky Replacement didn’t struggle to determine where the sky was here. First appearances looked good.
Next was Luminar 4. This also performed admirably. Although a little darker than the Adobe version, this could have been easily adjusted by using a slider. First appearances also looked good!
I’m ready for my close-up!
For Instagram or Facebook, either sky replacement would look good. But what if we zoomed in? What if we printed this at 100%? For this, I zoomed in to 200% so you could see the masking in detail.
Looking closely at the details of the leaves and branches in the Photoshop version above, we can see that it’s generally quite good, but that some of the branches and leaves are missing.
Examining Luminar 4’s version above, we can see that the leaves and branches are noticeably more intact. The mask, even zoomed in at 200%, is quite good.
Which one is better?
I don’t know that there is a clear, definitive winner here. We all love “bottom line” answers, and I would give you one if I had one.
For day photos, Luminar 4 created a better mask. It requires JPGs, although in practice, I doubt this will matter with almost anyone.
However, for night photos, Luminar 4 struggled immensely. Photoshop was able to create a mask even with the very dark night photo of the radio telescope, no easy feat. And with the ability to duplicate layers, one could work on the mask some more to get it to blend better.
I for one am happy to have both. And with LuminarAI and subsequent versions of Photoshop looming on the horizon, I’d say that things are looking good. Whatever your position on sky replacement, we all can agree that if AI can make our repetitive or time-consuming tasks faster, then we all win.
I thought I would share this just for fun. I finished this after I created the examples above, experimenting with both Photoshop and Luminar 4. This is a photo of the radio telescope facing north. This is a version of the first photo combined with “stacked’ photos of the starry night sky to reduce noise reduction. I masked this using a combination of Starry Landscape Stacker and Photoshop CC 2019.
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MY WEBSITE: Head on over to the Ken Lee Photography website to purchase books or look at night photography and long exposure photos. My latest book, “Abandoned Southern California: The Slowing of Time” is available there and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Booktopia, Books A Million, IBS, and Aladin. If you enjoy the book, please leave a nice review.
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