r/pics • u/shatteredankle • Aug 13 '21

Long Exposure I took of myself climbing in The Needles of South Dakota with LEDs tied to my body.

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828 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

26

u/shatteredankle Aug 13 '21

This is a composite shot. The Milky Way was shot at f/1.4, ISO 1600, and 15 sec. The climbing was shot at f/11, ISO 320, and 368 sec.

The climb itself is just over 100 feet tall.

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u/whitoreo Aug 13 '21

1.4. whoa

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u/shatteredankle Aug 13 '21

It's a Rokinon 24mm 1.4.

It's a great lens for astrophotography.

1

u/chaoism Aug 13 '21

Question from a newb:

Lets say during the shoot, some wild bat/bird decides to fly across the screen. What shows in the picture?

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u/shatteredankle Aug 13 '21

Nothing would show up in the photo because in order to show up, in a long exposure at night, you have to either be still enough for the camera to collect a lot of light or be a light source yourself in which case, you can move about and still show up in the image.

That's why my body doesn't actually show up in the image.

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u/whitoreo Aug 14 '21

That's why my body doesn't actually show up in the image.

I doubt you actually walked in front of the lens while you were taking these photos.

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u/whitoreo Aug 14 '21

I need this.

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u/shatteredankle Aug 14 '21

Luckily for you, you can buy it

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u/Jakubada Aug 13 '21

where can i read up what all of that means? i only understand that you shot the milky way before and added if afterwards so the night sky wont get blurred,right?

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u/christjan08 Aug 13 '21

Yeah so he took two different photos and merged them together later on. The aperture value f/1.4 or f/11 is the amount of light traveling through the lens into the sensor. This also affects focus as well.

A smaller number (1.4) let's through the most light and has a really small focal area, whereas the bigger number let's through less light, but can hold a longer area in focus.

ISO is sensor sensitivity, ish. The higher the ISO, the more it'll boost the image. During daytime you usually shoot between ISO 100-1600. At night time I'll typically start off at 6400 and then adjust from there. Sometimes I'll go up to 12800 or 10000 depending on how long my exposure is. The higher the ISO, the more grain you'll introduce though song you'll lose a lot of quality if you don't expose correctly. I generally try and keep the ISO as low as I can.

Hope this helps!

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u/Jakubada Aug 13 '21

this is way more than i expected! thank you! :)

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u/whitoreo Aug 14 '21

This is all good info and very detailed. Here is how I think of it.

f value = Aperture size (low number = bigger hole, high number = smaller hole (f1.4 is HUGE, f11 is tiny))

ISO = sensitivity to light (with a trade off of: more sensitive = more noise) Rule of thumb: keep your ISO as low as possible.

Exposure time = time the shutter is kept open.

Best advice: get out there and practice! Nothing beats experience. Film is cheap.

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u/_Allaccordingtoplan Aug 13 '21

If you want to learn a bit more about manual photography, the following link is like a cheat sheet

https://m.imgur.com/gallery/n0KYGcq

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u/shatteredankle Aug 13 '21

/u/christjan08 gave you a good answer.

The one thing that I'll add, is that with a longer exposure time, the stars start streaking through the sky rather quickly. This depends on the focal length, but with a 24mm on a full frame, I stick with a maximum exposure length of 15 seconds. Anything longer than that, the stars start looking blurry.

Obviously, it takes me longer than 15 seconds to do a climb like this, so I shot the stars from the same position with the intention of replacing the blurry stars from the climbing exposure. Here's the 368 second exposure without the stars composited in.

lonelyspeck.com is a great resource if you are interested in learning more about astrophotography specifically.

And if you have any other questions, feel free to ask away.

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u/karmalizing Aug 13 '21

You know, I kind of like the raw 368 second one exposure better overall. Great pic.

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u/shatteredankle Aug 13 '21

It certainly gives a better sense of time passing which I like. I've got a few where I've left in the streaking stars.

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u/Jakubada Aug 13 '21

im already full with information :D thanks for the thorough answer

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u/username675826295 Aug 13 '21

Does it turn into a shaft or something near the top? Why does your LED trail disappear there?

Or maybe you just went to the other side?

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u/shatteredankle Aug 13 '21

Yeah. You climb through the tower and then up the backside.

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u/Deathlysin Aug 13 '21

Sexy picture i love it

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u/shatteredankle Aug 13 '21

I agree. It is quite sexy.

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u/charleechuck Aug 13 '21

Like a portal opening to another world

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u/Rottensoybeans Aug 13 '21

Did he really just teleport halfway up, what a madlad.

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u/shatteredankle Aug 13 '21

The climb goes through the hole and climbs up the backside.

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u/Parsley-Quarterly303 Aug 13 '21

That's freaking amazing! How hard of a climb is it?

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u/shatteredankle Aug 13 '21

It's pretty easy, but quite unique. It's a 5.8

Here's the mountainproject page

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u/SG_87 Aug 13 '21

Looks dope af.

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u/stephenk_lightart Aug 13 '21

Amazing light painting

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u/srslyMadMax Aug 13 '21

But why are the Stars dots then ?

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u/Rhurabarber Aug 13 '21

This is a composite shot.

Two pictures from the same spot, spliced together. The stars shot was only for 15 seconds, they don't move much in that time.

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u/danielbenjaminphoto Aug 13 '21

Love shooting there! Such an underrated gem!

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u/metzj23 Aug 13 '21

Hell of a jump to the top