Matt Hill, Author at Induro Blog

© Matt Hill Pinhole with 4x5" wide angle Santa Barbara camera at Bannerman Island - 2 hour exposure during full moon

Normally, we focus on the best work of pros, which usually consists of tack-sharp images captured with the aid of Induro tripods and heads. Today, we will deviate to celebrate a form of photography that paved the way to modern professional photography.

April 28, 2013 is the next Worldwide Pinhole Day and we’d like to remind you having a good set of legs is a great idea for looooong exposures. Sure, it’s easy to rest your infinite-focus pinhole camera on the ground because it’s stable, but it’s not always the most interesting point of view, and it sure isn’t as flexible as a PHQ head (wink). Great composition can really take your lo-fi pinhole images from cool to awesome.

Long exposures at night are fun. Building up and exposure with multiple light sources is easy. Here is a quick tutorial from a recent shoot.

I had the great pleasure of going out to shoot with my friend Gabriel Biderman and Joe Scalamoni at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Tarrytown, NY with photographer and tour director Jim Logan last night. Yes, this is the very same Sleepy Hollow of legend that Washington Irving published in 1820. You can even visit his modest grave in the same cemetery.

After taking a tour around the 90 acre cemetery with Jim, we started shooting during magic hour near the large monuments:

And then moved into the older part of the cemetery where soft, marble headstones and sculpture were showing signs of wear. Great subjects! Let’s get started.

First off, I locked in my D700 on the PHQ1 + CT214 legs. Next, we put a speedlite on 1/16 manual power on a 15′ telescoping painter’s extension pole with a PocketWizard Plus II Transceiver set to receive. Standing in front of the statue and holding the flash as high as possible above, we made one exposure to test the flash power.

Next, based on previous exposures, we chose a 5-minute exposure to bring out sky detail and star trails.

The background is a bit dark, so after exposing our main subject, We used the speedlite and multiple pops exposed some of the trees and gravestones in the rear. Um, whoops. If your radio trigger and speedlite have blinking lights, walk behind the tripods

It was not enough, so we jacked the speedlite to full power and tried again.

Nailed. Since the background got exposure, you know this statue lives among headstones. Otherwise, it could be anywhere. One final touch – I took the final image out of Lightroom and into Nik’s Silver Efex Pro and added some special sauce, including a control point to bring down brightness on the tree in the background that got a little too hot. NOTE: For consistency, always use a flash meter!

Voila. Build your own soon! And be sure to bring your tripod

Many thanks to Jim Logan from the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Historic Fund for allowing us to roam and shoot. If you are local or visiting, give him a shout – tours@sleepyhollowcemetery.org. He and Rob Yasinsac will be having a photo tour this Saturday, 9/4 – Introduction to Night Photography.

Gabriel Biderman will be having one titled, “Night Visions ~ Seeing the Unseen Beauty of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery” on 9/18 – 5pm-midnight.

The massive cemetery is full of some amazing interments – check out this list – including Andrew Carnegie, Elizabeth Arden, George Jones (co-founder of The New York Times), William Rockefeller and many, many more. Take a tour, and bring your tripod!

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery on Facebook

Gabriel Biderman Fine Art Photography

by Matt Hill (Twitter)

Please fill in the fields below: (required fields in bold)
Email

First Name
Last Name
ZIP Code
Country

My Interests

Induro Blog

The Finest Tripods Money Can Buy

Author Archives: Matt Hill

Celebrate Worldwide Pinhole Day with a good set of legs and a flexible head

Building an Long Exposure at Night in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery