Posts from the ‘photo lessons artborghi’ Category
Freeze! My first Deep Space Objects
Starry night skies are present in Zurich despite the light pollution . Still, is light pollution low enough for shooting deep space objects? Which exposures / f values, ISO combinations are necessary to capture galaxies or star clusters?
With a fixed tripod, 30 sec exposures cause long star trails.
With a Skyguider Pro mount, 4 minute long exposures produce clear star pins: so many stars turn visible through photography!
With such long exposures, Deep Space Objects like M37, Spinwheel and Starfish star clusters got visible! Can you see them between Venus (bottom left) and Capella (the bright star on the right border)?
Here is a crop from above: the 3 clusters are vertically displaced across middle of the picture.
A continuous tracking of the Polar Star alignment is useful with 4 minute long exposures or longer. If the alignment get lost during the shooting, star trails will appear. I obtained continuous tracking by changing the optical scope for iPolar, an electronic scope which shows the alignment to the Polar Star on a laptop screen. The electronic scope does not need to detect the Polar Star. The detection of 3-4 stars is enough to localize the Zenith. A good alignment is very easily kept for 4 minutes and likely more.
Camera setup for stars: 240″, f/3.2, ISO 500
Around 20 pictures stacked with the free software DeepSkyStacker
Lenses: Nikon 70-200 mm or 35 mm
Cameras: Nikon D800 or D600
Mount: Skyguider Pro (iOPTRON) with iPolar
Urban astrophotography
To the Moon and beyond with Skyguider Pro (iOPTRON)! I was gifted with this star tracker (thanks Maria Francesca!) for long night exposures. Are Zurich nights dark enough for testing it? Click each picture to open full-size pictures.
My Skyguider Pro mount with 2 ball heads for two full frame cameras, my D800+50mm and a D600+35mm (thanks Oliver!). Ursa Major above. Picture shot with Huawei P30 Pro
The full big pink (???) Moon of April 2020 shot with D800 + Nikon 70-200 mm on Skyguider Pro.
The orange Arcturus shot with D800 + Nikon 70-200 mm on Skyguider Pro.
Ursa Major shot with D600 + Nikon 35 mm on Skyguider Pro.
The blue Vega shot with D800 + Nikon 70-200 mm on Skyguider Pro.
A 16 mm framed night sky over Zurich city. Can you spot the Ursa Major?
A 3/4 Moon of April 2020 shot with D800 + Nikon 70-200 mm on Skyguider Pro. Shades make craters visible.
An impressive payload for the Skyguider Pro: D800+70-200 and D600+16-35mm, around 7-8 Kg. Picture shot with Huawei P30 Pro
Camera setup for the Moon: 1/50, f/5.6, ISO L01
20 pictures stacked with the free software Autostakkert
Camera setup for stars: 25″, f/5.6, ISO 500
Around 80 pictures stacked with the free software DeepSkyStacker
Lenses: Nikon 70-200 mm, 35 mm
Cameras: Nikon D800 and D600
Mount: Skyguider Pro (iOPTRON)
Repetita juvant
From Latin, repetita juvant : “the choice to repeat some important piece of information to ensure reception by the audience.” In photography, the repetition of objects for creating patterns or concepts.
Expecting many tourists
Many arrived
Lagoon pattern
Wind?
The long beach of Piscinas
Pictures shot in Sardegna, Italy.
Traces of Industrialization in Canton Glarus: the upcoming ARTBorghi photo exhibition
In Canton Glarus (Switzerland), narrow valleys and mountain peaks are the natural background to dozens of high-tech and traditional industries. Flat, geometric surfaces of metal and concrete hiding the landscape from the sight are far from being alien to the place: instead, they decorate it for hundreds of years. Industrial buildings often comprise large transparent surfaces, either glass windows or see-through structures: this mirroresque game merges natural and man made landscapes, which become indistinguishable one from each other. Industrial tools and products, steel bars and concrete pipes pop up from grass fields and courtyards in every corner of the valleys, again witnesses of the productivity and labor of Glarnerland. These activities are constantly carried on inside new and old walls, such as in Eternit of Niederurnen and many others.
From 29.9 (6 pm) to 9.10.2016 (6 pm) I will take part of a collective photo exhibition in Zürich. My thema Berg und Tal depicts what is on the top (mountains) and on the bottom of the valleys in Canton Glarus. Come to Photobastei for the vernissage or finissage to meet the photographers! Click on the flyer for more info (in German) or just write me at artborghi@gmail.com
No time for a visit? Click here to browse Berg und Tal online
Trip to the Aeolian Islands: on Dumas’ footsteps, now available online!
The first ARTBorghi photography book (Lorenzo Borghi, photography – Rita de Brito, editing) is now available online! Whether you visited the Aeolian islands (Sicily, Italy) or you are going to, do not miss “Trip to the Aeolian Islands: on Dumas’ footsteps”.
Following the French writer Dumas, who sailed to the Aeolian archipelago in 1835, this book illustrates the islands of Vulcano, Lipari, Salina, Panarea and Stromboli.
Off-the-beaten-path locations, itinerary suggestions, dramatic scenarios and a map to get familiar with the places you might visit soon!
This first edition is a square-format, high-quality paper, professional art-photography book of 70 pages. Each book is numbered. Text in English and Italian.
Now available online on Blurb or by direct contact (and premium deal!) on ARTBorghi.com – click on the post image for a preview online!
Lisbon Story: enjoy its details in UHD
Shooting panorama requires sharp lenses and high resolution. A 36 Mpx camera with a 50 mm lens can make the trick. The pictures below are 100% crops of the first picture, the full panorama . Enjoy Lisbon from the terrace of Santa Justa.
Click to open in a new window and click again to zoom in the 9 MB panorama to enjoy its 17,000 px width.
São Jorge Castle (middle-top crop)
Rossio Square (bottom-left crop)
Figueira Square (middle-left crop)
Pictures shot with Nikon D800 + 50 mm f/5.6
How to merge full-res pictures for producing up to 50-picture-wide stitched-panorama
Click each panorama to open it in a new tab and click it again to view it 100% – each picture is 768 px h x several thousands w px
Above, a 50 picture stitched panorama: click it to open in a new tab and click it again to see it at 100%. This huge view spans from the Kleiner Myhten peak in caton Schwyz (left, 1811 m.s.l.) to mount Pilatus behind Lucerne (right, 2,128 m.s.l.). The mountains of at least 5 cantons are visible: can you spot the antenna on the Titlis peak?
Above, a 21 picture stitched panorama shot with the Nikon 70-200 mm pointing south at the Alpine border between Canton Graubünden and Italy
Above, a 12 picture stitched panorama shot direction lake Lucerne
Finally, a 6 picture stitched panorama shot with the Nikon 50 mm from Rigi Kulm towards Rigi Scheidegg.
With less than 16GB memory, merging a panorama made out of more than 10 pictures can be a problem with Hugin. Especially with pictures of 36 MP resolution like with Nikon D800. A solution comes from downsizing the pictures either to a) 5000 x 3333 px, for panorama stitches made out of max 20 pictures or b) 1600 x 1067 px, for panoramas up to 50 pictures. Here above you have panoramic views from Mount Rigi, “The Queen of mountains”, a 1,798 meter high peak in Switzerland.
Spring photo project, March 2015: floral landscapes
This is a research on creating landscape photography on plant subjects. Spring is blooming and high is the temptation of shooting single, static, wonderful objects like flowers and buds. However, where is the photographer interpretation in reproducing single objects? The creation of floral landscapes pushes the photographer to look for shape repetition, pattern development, light focusing, background uniformity, series building and contrast search. Below the results.
Colorful sticks
Winter fruits
New and old
New on old
Needles and spikes
Leaves or flowers ?
Pictures shot with Nikon D800 in live view mode plus Nikon 50 mm f/1.4 G at its soft spot (f/5.6). Click each picture to enjoy full details.
ARTBorghi Solar eclipse 20.3.2015 : a 2 hour-long time-lapse shot from Zürich Botanical Garden
Click each picture to enlarge.
With an infrared filter mounted on my Nikon 50 mm f/1.4G on D800, here is a time lapse in a single merged picture (one shot every 15 seconds, selected). Notice the tree branches on the upper right corner.
The tropical greenhouses of Zürich Botanical Garden shot during the initial phase of the solar eclipse on 20.3.2015. Picture merging shot with D800 mounting the Nikon 16-35 mm f/4 (background) plus the 70-200 mm f/2.8 (sun) – camera settings: 1/8000 secs, f/22, ISO 25
Time lapse movie of the solar eclipse of 20.3.2015 in Zürich. Pictures shot with D800 + 50 mm f/1.4G + infrared filter
An infrared-photography science trail in Zürich botanical gardens, among shouting and whispering plants
Not every plant reflects the same amounts of infrared light. Leaf shape, sun exposure, size and photosynthetic activities make the difference in light reflection. Plants use infrared light to communicate: are some plants shouting and others whispering?
Enjoy this infrared tour in the tropical and desert greenhouses of Zürich botanical gardens: white means presence of infrared, black means none.
Cactaceae and yuccas strongly reflect infrared.
Infrared transparencies of hanging plants
Shadows from leaves and roots: with infrared photography black and white borders are highly contrasted
Epiphyte plants: hanging ferns and soft mosses
Infrared sunset at the tropical houses of Zürich Botanical Garden. Learn more about plant communication and infrared photography at the Uni Zürich Science Trail I will lead on the 26th of February: registration required!
Click on each picture to magnify and enjoy leaf structures. Pictures shot with Nikon D800 + 50 mm f/1.4 + infrared filter.
