![]() Thankfully, the Pixelstick doesn’t do anything proprietary, fancy, or backward for a power supply. This is a hard prediction to make, I know, but there’s probably enough strength and, maybe more importantly, just enough flex in the frame to allow leeway for when that dreaded drop or other accident inevitably happens. The aluminum frame of the Pixelstick is very sturdy, and I don’t foresee anyone having general build issues with it down the road. But nothing that makes me think the Pixelstick isn’t worth every penny of the $350 asking price. Fortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case.Įverything about the Pixelstick feels well done and quite thought-out. Register on Photocrowd and enter our photo contests for a chance to win prizes.The first thing that I always evaluate when I tackle a product like this-especially one with no real competition-is build quality.īeing first to market, the first model produced by Bitbanger Labs, I hoped this wouldn’t be a “yeah it’s great but it broke in one week” sort of product. I then added photos that I’d previously taken of fire and flames and placed them in the foreground and around the lift to complete the inferno effect. In post-processing I combined and blended elements from the three RAW exposures using layer masks before using filters to alter the colour of the LED wire to replicate fire. While this was going on, I’d locked my Canon 6D & 17-40mm f4L lens on my tripod and remotely fired off three 30-second exposures. One of our crew was the model standing inside the lift, and another was spinning wire wool behind it creating the sparks, while I painted the scene around the figure with the led wire (which was originally blue in colour). That night we decided to experiment with long exposures and some new LED wire. We took a variety of light-painting equipment with us: flashguns, glowsticks, wire wool, LED lights etc. We’d arranged to meet at a local venue, an abandoned WW2 bomb storage facility in a disused quarry in Snowdonia. Landscapes are usually our forte, but during the winter months, with not much light available when we meet after work, we have to be creative. I took the picture on a midweek night out with a small photography crew that I help organise. Winner of the expert vote in Light painting I thank the Photocrowd members for voting and I am very happy to achieve my very first contest win. #Pixelstick fire and flames windowsI used the adjustment brush on the house windows to reduce highlights and exposure and then added contrast and brightness to the image. The RAW file was developed in Photoshop CS6 raw converter. I used a Canon EOS 7D with Samyang 10mm lens, f/2.8, ISO640 and 43sec. It was very windy too, so the trees are blurry. Technically it was quite challenging to boost the colours of the sky and reduce the house lights. I am really not happy about this picture’s quality but there seems to be some mystery feeling captured that makes it interesting. This photo is actually the last one I took at home before I drove away. Finally, a few days before Christmas there was a good show coming and I spent many hours trying to take pictures, but clouds covered most of the sky. Last year I had this dream of photographing my birthplace in Estonia under the glow of the Northern Lights. I have been following the Northern Lights for over a year now, and I have seen them in latitudes I did not think possible. Winner of the crowd vote in Winter landscapes Other than that, I have softened the brightness a touch to negate some of the whites created by overlapping colours as I swiveled the Pixelstick to create the curves and sweeps. The main post-processing was an approximately 20% width crop because my wide-angle lens was set a little too wide. ![]() #Pixelstick fire and flames fullIf you look at the colours you will see that the rainbow image completed nearly five full cycles before I shut it down. The LED brightness, image speed and number of cycles can all be controlled via the panel that is mounted on the Pixelstick. The methodology was pretty straightforward - open the shutter and walk in front of the camera while the Pixelstick slowly cycles through the colours of the rainbow. I have dabbled with light painting for over four years, and as soon as I became aware of this new tool I had to sign up to get one of the early releases. ![]() ![]() The picture came about simply as part of me experimenting with a newly received Pixelstick via their Kickstarter project. Winner of the crowd vote in Light painting Rainbow dance by Kevin Lajoie (top photo) There's some fantastic light-capturing skills on display here - read on to find out more. In the latest edition of Behind the photos we publish the stories that made the winning images in our Light painting and ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |