Tacoma in Hyperspace ...

[Rob O]

It's been nearly 4 years since I did a proper one of these, so on the way back from shooting in the desert over the weekend (see last two photos in my flickr photostream) I set up the tripod and camera in the back seat of the Tacoma and snapped a few.

This is a single 15-second exposure, although I did run it through RAW conversion twice to regain some detail in the NAV screen and maintain interior light levels without effecting the view through the windscreen. Digital blending and normal post all done in CS3; no digital trickery.



The "original" version, a 20-second exposure taken in my S4 Avant (circa 2005) ...

 

[Ursidae69]

This is cool. I need to do one for my website. 15 seconds, cool.

 

[7wt]

That's brochure quality. Fantastic work.

 

[Overland Hadley]

Nice work!

 

[Rob O]

Since there have been a number of questions on flickr and another message board I frequent, I wrote up some more details and figured I'd post ‘em here too.

First, here is the unprocessed original of the image in my stream. Just RAW conversion (no tweaks) and resize for web then save as jpeg; no editing.

EXIF: f/11, 15sec, ISO 200, 12mm



And here is another one I quite liked. I debated which one to process and post. Ultimately I like the interior light better in the other one, despite liking the action through windscreen better on this one. It's ironic too, because this one was a 20sec exposure (I'd pulled off to bump the Tv since it was getting dark fast and I was worried 15sec wasn't enough. If I was smart, I'd tether the camera to my laptop (which I had) and use it to see what's in Live View and trigger it ... then I could make changes to camera settings on the fly without having to pull over). In fact, this one might be more pleasing in most every other way except being too dark interior-wise and being slightly off kilter (must have bumped it when changing the shutter speed). Suppose I could have blended the two for a "best of both worlds" image.
Note I'm doing almost 80mph in this one and it's still pretty damn sharp!

EXIF: f/11, 20sec, ISO 200, 12mm



Someone asked about my hands being so sharp/steady despite the long exposure time, an apparent curve and my speed (70+ mph). All I can say is, after doing about 400 of these when I shot the 2005 version (see below), I learned how to maintain position during exposure (and when to trigger the shutter based on what was ahead). Still, I often got caught out in a lane change or curve or something ... like here.

EXIF: f/11, 20sec, ISO 200, 12mm



Finally, here's a test shot from when I set up before heading home. Note the couch in the distance (2 shots back in my flickr stream); this is also where I shot that HDR of my truck (posted here and the last shot in my flickr stream).

EXIF: f/11, 15sec, ISO 100, 12mm

 

[HoosierTacoma08]

Very cool! Thanks for posting! :sombrero:

 

[nwoods]

I want to take a class from you some day. Like a weekend expedition trip, but we all bring our laptops and have a camp fire post-processing session

 

[Rob O]

I want to take a class from you some day. Like a weekend expedition trip, but we all bring our laptops and have a camp fire post-processing session

LOL! Sounds like fun.