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avotius — Nights
Published: 2005-06-10 04:01:41 +0000 UTC; Views: 1887; Favourites: 41; Downloads: 501
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Description
Your typical night in China. People sitting around eating and drinking all night long and enjoying other peoples company. Around here in Sichuan most people drink Chongqing beer and eat fatty pork fried with leeks and spicy peppers. Out in the country side there is little meat, most everything is fatty pork skin area, somewhat like bacon but less pungent. When I first came here I got tired of it very quickly, but after traveling to Aba where there are no vegetables at all, one can get used to the taste of it...Took this photo from the room I stayed in when I went on my trip to Gong Tan, an old town about to be drowned under the mighty rivers of China. Long exposure has always been something that I liked to fool around with but never really got into. I dont have a cable release for my 20D (they are overpriced...) so I stood there the entire time holding down the shutter button as it was taking the photo.
Canon 20D, Canon 17-40mm f/4 L Lens, 328 sec, f/22, ISO 100
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Comments: 26
Very neat, vivid photograph, has a nice story within the picture
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ok, i've been trying to figure this out... how do you get the insanely long exposure without overexposing your pictures?! i love the movement, and i'd like to capture some long-exposures, but they always turn out... white. i LOVE your photography!
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this one is sort of overexposed I guess, but anyway, the key to taking longer time exposures is to change your f stop to 11 or more, for this I was on 22, the max of this lens. This closes down the blades inside the lens which lets less light though and makes the exposure time longer. Give it a shot.
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hey, thanks! i'll have to try that! great shot, by the way! thanks for taking the time to answer, too!
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328 sec?? a lot of time
I would try less time, to get a photo more "dark", maybe to try the feeling of being night..
I always like your texts, It's a way for me to know others cultures
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This photo is like a whole night in a split second. Great effect.
All I ever hear over here in the US are bad things about China; it's nice to see the normal side of life where people enjoy eachother's company and such.
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This is an interesting shot. The way the people are blurred out (because of the long exposure, I think... I'm not too familiar with these things, because I don't take a lot of pictures) and you see the buildings and surroundings so clearly, captures my interest. I also love how the lights became such bursts of lights, like stars.
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Very nice picture indeed !
Although I find the exposure time hard to believe ...
Hint for long exposures and holding the shutter : fix your camera and use the timer function ...
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heh, its the real time
what do you mean fix my camera and timer function?
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Over 5 minutes exposure? (It is 328 seconds, no?) Those people were really immobilized ... I would think after 5 minutes moving around they would look totally blurry on the pic ...
What I usually do is put my camera somewhere without human support (a tripod, a table, can be just on the ground ... wherever), I program the exposure time or let the camera do it for me, use the self timer function so that the shutter is released 10 seconds or so after I pushed the shutter button, focus and push the button ... then I just wait. At the moment the shutter opens, the camera is all by itself and stable. No need for a cable ... I do this regularilly for taking inside pictures of ceilings ... I even don't watch what I'm doing to capture. I put the camera with it's backside on the ground, use the timer function and then get a long exposure.
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oh, I see what you mean, using the self timer is a common practice used by me when taking landscape photos, that or mirror lock up. Also no cameras timer goes up to 5 minutes, for some stupid reason I dont understand, you can only set them to 30 seconds. So as you would expect I used the B setting for this. And yes, I used a tripod, I have a benro carbon fiber tripod that I carry with me to all serious shootings. And yes, the people were sitting there eating dinner, and I guess people are having a hard time believing the exposure time of 5 minutes and 32 seconds, but thats just how it is.
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OK, but for the self timer you only need a few seconds, just enough as to make sure the camera is really stable after you pressed the shutter button. As for exposure timings ... my F90X_MF-26 can go up to 100 hours minus 1 second; my D70 up to 30 minutes.
Anyway, with exposure of 5 minutes it looks even more impressive ... congrats !
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you mean on your d70 you can set the timer for 30 minutes, push the shutter button and walk away? I have never seen a camera before that had an automated timer longer then 30 seconds....hm.....wonder if there is something ive missed somewhere on my 20D....
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All the canon cams have a max time of 30 sec. You've seen it all. For my 350D I use the cable remote, it has a "shutter-lock" function, so I just press down the shutter, then I slide it up and it stays there for as lond as I want. Can ofcourse use the mirror up as well with a tripod, no vibrations now. hmmm, I wonder If I can lock the aperture as well, then there will be ABSOLUTELY no movement what so ever....
- Kim
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You made my doubt about what I wrote, so I just tried it out ... did two shots, shutter priority program, shutter speed fixed on one and on three seconds, then used the self-timer (which is on 10 seconds or so) and pressed the shutter button. I indeed could just walk away. The D70 peeped for 10 seconds, the shutter went open for the pre-programmed time. Works flawless ...
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Hmm ... didn't read your message carefully enough ... I tested in seconds, not in minutes.
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That's really kinda pretty! Ahhhh china.. I soo wanna go there! Keep taking the awesome pics!
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Gods, what an awesome picture! You make my longing for going back to China nearly unbearable..
(sorry I cannot provide some "useful" critique to photography, but I do appreciate a great shot when I see one! 
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