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YISkyDive

Photographing night landing

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To anyone that may have done this:

I might plan on photographing a night landing using a DSLR with an 8mm lens.

I'd like to get the stars in the sky (and the moon if possible) and then use a flash to "flash" the pilot as they fly over the camera and land.

Given a clear sky and full moon does anyone know how long the shutter needs to be open to achieve the effect - and would the 8MM lens not even catch the stars because if its insane effect lol?

Finally but most importantly: Safety. Assuming the canopy pilot is wings level and on target (which of course is a big if at night and they may or may not be) is this even a remotely good idea? I know the shot could look sick but I don’t want any one getting hurt because of night blindness. Would 2 flashes set at angles be better than a single bottom to top firing flash?

I have never shot landings at night, and if I do this, I would like to be educated so I could talk it over with the experienced candidates. There are only two pilots that I am considering this for each with 2500 + skydives.


Thanks

David


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To get clear stars in photos I've found I either need to go for a Bulb length exposure of over a minute or two on a fairly high ISO and really fast glass wide open to be able to capture stars but then on that length of exposure you get star trails in the photos. The way to get around the motion trails is to use a star drive that rotates with the stars to allow longer exposure of 10-15 minutes with out motion showing but you also can't have background objects in frame for that to work. The other issue is with the moon it will wash out a lot of the stars in the sky if its anything but a sliver of it in the night sky. Once you start shooting that wide open and with the focus set far enough way to be able to keep the stars and background in focus you run into issues where an intermediate item is out of focus. You are basically looking for a way to create an unlimited depth of field in the photo since I assume you want the swooper, the stars and anything else in the frame like grass, tress, buildings, etc all in focus?

If I didn't live in such a light polluted area I'd be doing night photos all the time but I need to go so long to punch though the light pollution that I get a ton of aircraft appearing in my photos. [:/]

I won't touch the flash topic put if you are doing remote flashes how are you planning on firing them? Are you going to go with first or second shutter syncing if you are going with hotshoe mounted flash?

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

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a quick idea for getting the photo you want in the end would be to take a photo of the background first at the necessary settings and then taking the action shot and using photoshop

in my limited experience i have not been able to get good night action shots with stars visible

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Yes, that's what I was thinking about. Take several pics. It's cheating and it's not. Even Scott Kelby suggests this way of doing night shots. Especially when you're going to add the moon. Take another lens with a big focal length, zoom it all the way in and capture the moon. You might wonder, why you should take a close up from the moon. In real life our brain tells us, that it looks big, especially when we have objects next to it like ground, trees, etc... If you use a wide angle , it's gonna be very very tiny on the final picture;).
I would even suggest you do the same thing with the stars. Take a close up of several different stars and add them later (strg+c and then just hold down on strg+v, move your mouse while doing so and cluster your pic!).
It's a whole lot of editing and many people might say, that's not real photography. On the other hand, it's art, isn't it? Plus it reflects more of what you've seen in that night than a single picture with a bright skydiver plus a black background without moons, stars or vice versa.
So let us know about the results!
I'm a British nanny, and I'm dangerous!

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If you're going to use an 8mm, the moon is going to look like a star anyway... maybe a slightly larger star.

I've been doing a lot of shooting with my 8mm lately, and it can get frustrating. If you're not within 5 feet of your intended target, it's hard to get a workable photograph, in my experience.

I'd love for you to prove me wrong though, sounds like a cool idea.
It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

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>Would 2 flashes set at angles be better than a single bottom to top firing flash?

A suggestion:

Hard mount the camera. Wait until about 15min after sunset. Use two flashes from the side (or better yet with reflectors) to minimize the flash "look." (Hard shadows, flat illumination angle.) That sort of exposure will look like it's night - everything in the background will be _very_ dark, but the pilot will still be able to see to land (since it will still be relatively bright out.)

Get 4-5 people and have them all fly through the target area, taking pictures of each.

Then take some pictures an hour later without moving the camera. Combine the images afterwards.

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How much work do you want to do?

As to the photo/art issue. As long as you clearly claim a digitally enhanced image or photo illustration most professionals understand.

Multiple images is the way to go. Your jumper image could be lit using fixed lights instead of flash. Even if you do use flash - if you have access to enough - you could build PVC pipe frames and strech a white bedsheet over it. Then the light (constant or flash) is diffused and soft so it looks more natural. Have the jumpers fly past the sheet and take your photos.

By the way, the new Nikon flash is pretty hot. You can use them off camera in groups and you can use the on-camera flash to communicate with the off camera ones and actually change settings without physically touching them.

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The solution is to set the camera to higher ISO low aperture and very slow shutter speed (like 1sec) with the second curtain sync on the flash.
The difficultie is you'll need to press the shutter release a second earlier while the canopy is approaching you. The jumper should be by the camera on the very end of the shutter cycle, and that's when the flash suppose to fire.
It probably requires multiple attempts and a very good canopy pilot who always approaches the same way. ...a little luck can help too.
I have lot of experince doing this type of photography. Here's a few example:
http://laszloimage.com/July_2008_NEW/pages/July_17th_08_MG_0585.htm

http://laszloimage.com/July_2008_NEW/pages/July_17th_08_MG_0588.htm

http://laszloimage.com/July_2008_NEW/pages/July_17th_08_MG_0596.htm

The idea was to capture the light of the building and the moon in the back with trail of the landing parachutes. I'm sure it would work with stars too as long as you don't have too much "pollutive" light.
Also the Moon is significantlly brighter than the stras, so you probaly want to do this when the Moon isn't the brightest.
Overall this type of photorgraphy is a very complicated task, but achiveable.
-Laszlo-

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Hosw ironic we started talking about a related topic today in the photo class I teach.

high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR)

Shoot NEF format (or the Cannon equiv) and use the setting in PhotoShop.

Tiy have to use a tripod and the camera can't move at all. PhotoShop stitches together the images and produces a evenly exposed image.

Google the method and check it out - it is worth the time.

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