However, I didn’t have to stop because I ran out of promising ideas of photos or because I was unhappy with the results. Au contraire! It was, quite simply, due to lack of time.

So, daily shots with detailed blog posts may be a bit too much, but the next project is already cooking: Sunday F(r)ame, a weekly endeavor of the same style. I am considering providing even more detailed information on the shots than I’ve been doing for the daily frames, but that certainly depends on if anybody actually finds this sort of information useful, or if it’s just a waste of time.

I’d be interested in your opinion, so please do make use of that comment function. That’s what it’s here for.

This shot required a little more preparation and planning. The (empty) can was filled with water and went into the ice box until it was frozen solid. That would give it a nice, long lasting condensation shine during the shooting. The black surface is actually a smoke black glass door from an Ikea cabinet. Once that was in place and cleaned spotless, I used another can to set up and test the lighting. A total of three flashes were used: an SB-800 and SB-900 left and right behind the can as rim lights, and an SB-200 clamped to the tripod center camera for a little front fill and to illuminate the top of the can. The camera used was a D200 with 24-70/2.8 lens at 45mm; exposure was 1/60 at f/4.0. I triggered the flashes with an SU-800, using Nikon’s CLS with two groups: the rim lights with normal power, and the front fill with -1EV.

Once that was tuned in and ready, I picked up the frozen can and positioned it. Another test shot, and then spread very small amounts of alcohol around the can using a wad of cotton. Set that on fire and clicked away, letting CLS do its thing to balance flash power and the flames.

One word of advice: it is VERY easy to set your apartment on fire when you’re playing with stuff like that. Be sure to know EXACTLY what you’re doing, and keep proper safety equipment closely at hand. Better yet, if I needed to tell you this, just don’t do it. Really.

Once that shot was in the can, post in Lightroom was fairly straightforward. Pulled down shadows a bit more, added a -1EV gradient to the bottom reflection, and a bit of clarity. Easy as pie.

Shot with my D200 on a tripod, using the Sigma 10-20mm lens at 10mm. Two flashes were used; the first was an SB-800, zoomed to 24mm and mounted camera left on the rail using a justin clamp, with its internal diffusor to take a little edge off the light. The second flash, an SB-900 also zoomed way out, was put up on a windowsill far camera right (you can see its highlight on the blue bucket). Both were triggered using an SU-800. Everything else was computed automatically by the camera in program mode, including flash intensity via Nikon’s CLS system. The shutter release was a no-name wireless release I held in my left hand.

Post in Photoshop Lightroom: minor crop, a gradient on the floor and one on the left side, both with -0.5EV to darken these areas a bit. A little extra clarity and tonal corrections; no biggies.

New: There’s a screen capture of the editing process that went into this picture. Check it out below.

What’s not captured in this movie is the actual shooting. I used my D200 & 50mm/1.4 lens for this image, in program mode. Focusing was manual to avoid autofocus confusion as I was moving about and triggering the two separate exposures using a remote trigger. An SB-800 was located high camera left and aimed at the ceiling for smooth, large-area illumination and triggered by an SU-800 unit on camera.

The final image was constructed from two separate exposures, carefully blended in Photoshop using layer masks to achieve the desired effect. My Wacom Intuos3 tablet is a great tool for this kind of work. I then brought it into Lightroom for additional tonal adjustments and keywording.

I had first tried to use the in-camera multiple exposure mode, but decided that I’d want a little more creative freedom and manually blend the outcome, so I abandoned that and chose to manually merge two exposures instead. The screen capture was created using iShowU HD Pro.

Taken with my Casio EXILIM EX-FC100 during tonight’s run. Zoomed to 37mm (equiv.); the camera chose ISO 800, 1/6″ at f/3.6. In case you’re wondering why the shoe is solid while the rest of the runner is totally blurred, think about relative movement during the exposure …

Post in Lightroom: convert to grayscale, pulled down shadows a bit more, and +100 clarity for local contrast and a little extra grit. I first tried to see what it looks like in color, but there are limits to what you can expect from a tiny sensor in low light conditions. I really like the way it came out in B/W though – reminiscent of coarse grained ‘fast’ films back in the days…

By the way, while this particular image was well within the capabilities of my D200 (and D70s, probably), some of the rooms were dark enough that I pushed the ISO up to 6400, and the D700 delivered great results with very acceptable noise. That thing can literally see in the dark…

Shot with a Nikon D200, using the 70-200/2.8VR at 155mm; 1/15″ at f/2.8, ISO 400. No flash. Several tricks helped me get this shot: VR really helps minimize the effects of camera shake, but there’s always some left. This can be dealt with by good posture: hold the camera as close to its center of gravity, press the elbow of the supporting arm against your torso, and I lean against a wall or doorway. Plus, hold your breath while taking the shot.

Post in Lightroom consisted of a +0.44EV exposure boost, and a slightly tighter crop – very minimal.

By the way, it really is at times like this when I’m shooting with both the D200 and the D700 that it becomes extremely obvious how much better the D700 is in terms of noise at even moderate ISO ratings. Truly impressive.

Shot with my D700 + Sigma 10-20@18mm, 10″ at f/5.3, ISO 800. This image is actually almost straight out of the camera, developed with the default settings in Lightroom except for a slightly tighter 4×5 crop instead of the original 2:3 format.

There were a few close candidates, but ultimately I liked this shot best. I also tried even longer exposures (which I would have liked), but too many cars would halt at the intersection and “burn in” to parts of the image.

Taken with my Nikon D700 + Sigma 10-20 Lens at 20mm (yes, a DX lens on FX – the vignetting was deliberate). I’ve added a B&W ND4 filter to allow for a 122″ exposure at f/10, with the D700 set to ISO 100.

Postprocessing adjustments in Lightroom were negligible.