Arild Heitmann Photography
A Night To Remember
Press "L" for your own sake...
November 14th 2010...young Hotman heads deep into the woods for another nightly adventure...
I came down to a river running out of a small frozen lake. My headlamp was living it`s own life, turning on and off every other second.
I must have looked like a walking disco...
I managed to get out in the middle of the river to these wonderful rocks.
I knew immediately what i wanted. The rocks were frosted so brilliantly. I knew that if i could pull this off, i would have a shot that could be hard to top.
The aurora was dancing vividly across the sky in the exact right direction. Time for the "magic cloth"! I pulled out the yellow kitchencloth from my pack and after i had done some serious compositional thinking,
i held the cloth over the sky and opened the shutter. I was whistling "Find the River" while i watched the aurora put on her show for me. I was tempted to remove the cloth in fear of it disappearing. But i knew that if i completed this one, the reflections would look insane. After a little over 100 seconds i removed the cloth and let the sky expose for another 20 seconds.
When i looked at the display i was no longer whistling random R.E.M songs, i was doing the YMCA dance! It looked fucking amazing...even on the small 5d screen....
The only downside was that there was a single powerline running across the sky. It was more or less right in front of me, so i had calculated with that problem.
When i got home i started the processing. The rawfile looked great. Noise was almost unnoticeable. I could see that the nearest stones were slightly out of focus, but i couldnt avoid that shooting wide open at infinity focus. Then followed the obligatory and crucial whitebalance adjustment. Finetuning the horizon slightly. A little levels and then some dodging and burning.
That was done in a few minutes. Thats just part of the story. Prior to those adjustments i had to remove the powerline. Whats so hard about removing a single powerline, you say? well...actually a hell of a lot!
The line started just under the aurora on the left side, then cutting across the aurora and out up on the right side. The colournuances are so fragile in these auroras. Even the slightest colourchange screams at you. The guys making the advertisement for CS5 content aware fill should have tried this. I can guarantee that advertise would have been fun to watch.
I had to do a mix of healing brush and clonestamp. My arm was hurting after clicking around 2000 times doing microscopical adjustments until everything was completely gone. The worst processingjob i have ever done.
But it was worth it. I have a 22x16 print of this one mounted at home. It looks freaking awesome and screams at me everytime i pass it...smiling and on the inside i`m still doing the YMCA dance....
I present you my own personal favourite....in the history of ever (to quote little M....hah! theres your dedication)
Buy a print of this one? bildesentralen.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Arild-Heitm...
Hope you like it!
Have a fantastic week, folks!
-Arild-
For inspiration: www.flickr.com/photos/uberfischer/galleries/
A Night To Remember
Press "L" for your own sake...
November 14th 2010...young Hotman heads deep into the woods for another nightly adventure...
I came down to a river running out of a small frozen lake. My headlamp was living it`s own life, turning on and off every other second.
I must have looked like a walking disco...
I managed to get out in the middle of the river to these wonderful rocks.
I knew immediately what i wanted. The rocks were frosted so brilliantly. I knew that if i could pull this off, i would have a shot that could be hard to top.
The aurora was dancing vividly across the sky in the exact right direction. Time for the "magic cloth"! I pulled out the yellow kitchencloth from my pack and after i had done some serious compositional thinking,
i held the cloth over the sky and opened the shutter. I was whistling "Find the River" while i watched the aurora put on her show for me. I was tempted to remove the cloth in fear of it disappearing. But i knew that if i completed this one, the reflections would look insane. After a little over 100 seconds i removed the cloth and let the sky expose for another 20 seconds.
When i looked at the display i was no longer whistling random R.E.M songs, i was doing the YMCA dance! It looked fucking amazing...even on the small 5d screen....
The only downside was that there was a single powerline running across the sky. It was more or less right in front of me, so i had calculated with that problem.
When i got home i started the processing. The rawfile looked great. Noise was almost unnoticeable. I could see that the nearest stones were slightly out of focus, but i couldnt avoid that shooting wide open at infinity focus. Then followed the obligatory and crucial whitebalance adjustment. Finetuning the horizon slightly. A little levels and then some dodging and burning.
That was done in a few minutes. Thats just part of the story. Prior to those adjustments i had to remove the powerline. Whats so hard about removing a single powerline, you say? well...actually a hell of a lot!
The line started just under the aurora on the left side, then cutting across the aurora and out up on the right side. The colournuances are so fragile in these auroras. Even the slightest colourchange screams at you. The guys making the advertisement for CS5 content aware fill should have tried this. I can guarantee that advertise would have been fun to watch.
I had to do a mix of healing brush and clonestamp. My arm was hurting after clicking around 2000 times doing microscopical adjustments until everything was completely gone. The worst processingjob i have ever done.
But it was worth it. I have a 22x16 print of this one mounted at home. It looks freaking awesome and screams at me everytime i pass it...smiling and on the inside i`m still doing the YMCA dance....
I present you my own personal favourite....in the history of ever (to quote little M....hah! theres your dedication)
Buy a print of this one? bildesentralen.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Arild-Heitm...
Hope you like it!
Have a fantastic week, folks!
-Arild-
For inspiration: www.flickr.com/photos/uberfischer/galleries/