Fisheye on the Koolau

I was fortunate enough to park my ride up the mountain and take a walk (I'm usually too busy with other customers to do this). Located on the Koolau mountain range on the Island of Oahu. I shuttle workers on the mountains mainly for utility work.

Looking straight down, powerlines above me headed for Kaneohe.

Amazing. I love them. I just started using an ultra wide angle today. Boy is that tough to get the exposure right. Very nice. You've got a great job.

Last one is amazing. The photos are stunning, very good job. I love them. What fisheye did you use for these?

very nice. I like the last one the most

That is intense!

Thanks all...

I used my Sigma 8mm f/3.5. Ultra wide angle shooting into sky and shadows are very tricky for exposure. My landscape technique is to take multiple exposures at different settings on Manual mode. Then select the best exposed and focused pic. I usually layer the sky and bright areas with a soft light gradient layer in Photoshop at different levels for each bright area, the sky being the greater. Then correct the layered result with color, sharpening, brightness, etc. in Lightroom. It's easier to PP if I use a GND during the shoot, but it won't mount on a fisheye due to the glass bulging out of the lens cylinder.

So are you using a tripod? This wide angle stuff is all new to me, and I have no idea where to really start.

canonloader wrote in post #5882046
So are you using a tripod? This wide angle stuff is all new to me, and I have no idea where to really start.

I usually carry a tripod, but I did not have one for these shots because of the limited space in the helicopter.

For better results:

Meter the scene in Manual mode at f/16 and the adjusted shutter speed for the clouds (usually the brightest), mount camera on tripod. I usually focus 1/3 of the way out. Use a remote shutter release or timer (if you don't have one). Take a shot, check histogram and preview photo. Then adjust the shutter speed to change the exposures for the same scene by decreasing shutter speed (slower) one click at a time. Don't be afraid to take lots of photos of the same scene, it's free. Carry extra CF cards. If you blow out the clouds too much it will not be recoverable. You may also use mirror lock-up, but I always forget to use it.

When you PP the scene at home, add the gradient soft light layer on the clouds/sky to darken it some so it evens out the light with the ground. Hope this helps. You can always practice outside of your home to get set up so when its "show time" you won't take forever and have your wife and kids complain.

I'll give that a try. I do pretty good with a long telephoto lens, easy to fix in CS3. But I found today that wide angles have to many light and dark blobs that can take up a quarter of the frame. With tele, it's almost all or almost none of light or dark, easy to compensate for. I can see this is going to take a whole new PP workflow.

WOW!

Pea green with envy here, but how cool that you have access to this! What a great vantage point for the fish eye!

Thank you for sharing!

love the last one, it looks like you have your own "world", like planet i mean..lol

I'm not generally a fan of the full cirular fisheye pictures, but will admit that I do like these. Nice job.

Wow! not every day you can get that Heeia to Makapuu view, I think you can even make out Pauoa flats in the last 2...

Very cool Linkzi! I love fisheye photos!

I love these shots. Well done!