gunnarheilmann
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Contest Finalist in Explore Asia Photo Contest
Peer Award
Outstanding Creativity
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
The Photo was taken just behind the hotel i was staying at the Li river bend at Xingpingzehn. There is a small Hotel called Nirvana Organic Farm Inn directly across from the main village. This mounatin is actually part mountain range you see on the 20 Yuan(RMB) bill.Time
It was just about 2 hours after sunset aprox. 9pm. You can still see some light from the sun set.Lighting
The lighting in the foreground was created with a plasic tube with a flashlight in it. Secondly i used a really big torch to slightly put some light onto the mountains in the background. Its a rally big one. The entire exposure took 139 seconds thats why you see the stars actually greating some short light trails.Equipment
I used a Canon 5D Mark IV with the 16-35mm F2.8 from Canon on a Manfrotto Befree Carbon, for the background i used a LED Lenser X21.r.2 and for the foreground and the Lightswirl a used a LED Lenser P5.r.Inspiration
When i arrived at the Hotel and saw that beautiful location i thought i have to do some kind of lightpainting. I did not wanted to make it to complex and to massive so i created a small simple swirl to compliment the mountains.Editing
There is is not much post processing. Whats done is done in Lightroom and is reduced to some white ballance correction, bit of tones and de-noise and crop.In my camera bag
Always in my bag i have the Camera, usually with two lenses a 16-35mm F2.8 from Canon (my fafourite lens) and a 14mm F2.8 from Samyang with a tiny tripod for the quick unexpected Woa moments in life. I also pretty much always carry a mid size torch that i can use to light up anything even without preperation.Feedback
There are lot of different ways to do lightpainting. I try to keep it simple, especially in such beautiful landscape a simple shape to go along with is sometimes better than creating complicated shapes and too many different colors. Less can be more, but essentially it is a matter of taste and that lies in the eye of the beholder as we all know. What always helps getting into lightpainting is bring firends and dont do it alone. Get help from your friends and give them flash lights to help light up a mountain or trees or the grass. Then creativity is all you need to get there. I usually start with a F.5.6 or so and go in Bulb mode, then i start lighting the background and see what the "max." exposure time for the moment is. After that i play with some light tools to see what goes with the scenery. Then i do it on one go: so first i did the light swirl, turn of that flashlight and then i was running around to light up the little trees around and took the big torch out to light the big mountain in the background.