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octopus7
  
location:
Melbourne, Australia
Gender: Male
 |  |  | The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
< on 6/19/2009 8:55 AM >
|  | | | G'day guys wondering if I could get some advice on how to do the cool looking silhouette shots down in large drains / sewers / rail tunnels etc. From what I can gather yet setup the camera with a wide aperture, shutter on "bulb" while someone walks up the tunnel, then walks back with a lit torch (back to the camera of course). So then what do I stand stationary for a few seconds to get my silhouette in or is their a better way. I haven't tried any yet as it's winter at the moment and the drains probably aren't the best place to be in at the moment (mind you we hardly have any rain in melbourne) thanks in advance!
Melbourne City Drain painters - We go in Drains!
"darkness is our canvas, light is our medium"
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SaraBellum
      
Berkshire Hunt
location:
Villa Villekulla
Gender: Female
Coming to a cinema near you this summer.
| |  | Re: The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
<Reply # 1 on 6/19/2009 9:07 AM >
| | | | I'm not sure the answer to your question. However, metawaffle (who is very much like Duane Dibbley) can probably give you helpful suggestions.
[01:47:56] <GreyDeath> Sara just stares her enemies into submission and eventually madness
"You can either be wise or a bad-ass gangsta, but not both. You must choose your path." ~~metawaffle |
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metawaffle
 
King of Puns
location:
Brisbane!
Gender: Male
Purveyor of Fine Lampshades
| | | Re: The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
<Reply # 2 on 6/19/2009 9:39 AM >
| | | | Duane Dibbleh!
You're right, there are any number of different ways of doing these things, and it does tend to be harder than it looks. Thankfully in the age of digital cameras, you can see immediately whether it's worked out the way you want.
Now, if you want a silhouette, you need to be stationary the entire time, while the tunnel is lit behind you. If you move, and the drain behind you is illuminated, you'll be erased 
To start with, you could try this: stand in front of the camera, and have a friend stand at a distance behind you, so that you are between them and the camera. Set your camera to fifteen or thirty seconds, and turn your self-timer on. Open the shutter, stand very still, and have your friend shine a torch in your general direction to light things up, and maybe wave it around. Check results, adjust camera settings if necessary, and repeat.
If you find you just can't stand still for that long, use a flash pop instead of a torch 
I'm sure others will post their ideas on where to start, too. Really, though, it's easy enough to try - just don't get discouraged when it doesn't work out right away.
http://www.longexposure.net |
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octopus7
location:
Melbourne, Australia
Gender: Male
| | | Re: The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
<Reply # 3 on 6/19/2009 12:10 PM >
| | | | thanks for that, the only problem is my SLR camera is a 35mm film camera (minolta dymax 3i) and the digital I have is only a Sony Cybershot DSC-P100 and I have never tried any long exposure stuff with it. Looks like I will have to experiment and wait for the results when I get the film developed.
Melbourne City Drain painters - We go in Drains!
"darkness is our canvas, light is our medium"
http://www.flickr.com/groups/mcdp |
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metawaffle
King of Puns
location:
Brisbane!
Gender: Male
Purveyor of Fine Lampshades
| | | Re: The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
<Reply # 4 on 6/19/2009 12:21 PM >
| | | | Posted by octopus7
thanks for that, the only problem is my SLR camera is a 35mm film camera (minolta dymax 3i) and the digital I have is only a Sony Cybershot DSC-P100 and I have never tried any long exposure stuff with it. Looks like I will have to experiment and wait for the results when I get the film developed.
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Ah, well that's a bit trickier then
http://www.longexposure.net |
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terapr0
location:
Sauga City
Gender: Male
www . tohellandback . net
| | | Re: The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
<Reply # 5 on 6/20/2009 11:28 PM >
| | | | Im kinda confused about the type of silhouette your talking about....
something like this?
if so, its pretty simple really....set your shutter to 15-30 seconds, use a 10second self timer, trip the shutter, walk like 15ft in front of the camera, light up the tunnel ahead with a big torch and bobs your uncle.
The key is having enough light....as someone elaready pointed out, a flash unit can be quite effective, or a nice xenon torch will also do....if you dont have enough light you wont get the effect your looking for...
hope this helps
www.tohellandback.net |
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hatsumi
| | | Re: The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
<Reply # 6 on 6/21/2009 2:47 AM >
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or are you after the 'ghosting' effect of having a see through image of yourself within the picuture ?
drainasaurus maximus |
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octopus7
location:
Melbourne, Australia
Gender: Male
| | | Re: The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
<Reply # 7 on 6/23/2009 10:35 AM >
| | | | Posted by terapr0
Im kinda confused about the type of silhouette your talking about....
something like this?
http://i9.photobuc...sized-LDM_1587.jpg
if so, its pretty simple really....set your shutter to 15-30 seconds, use a 10second self timer, trip the shutter, walk like 15ft in front of the camera, light up the tunnel ahead with a big torch and bobs your uncle.
The key is having enough light....as someone elaready pointed out, a flash unit can be quite effective, or a nice xenon torch will also do....if you dont have enough light you wont get the effect your looking for...
hope this helps
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Yep that is the effect I want!!!
Did you use a seperate flash gun in the side pipe? cause it looks great. I am hoping to do some shots like this in some of the Maze's (Hawthorn drain in Melbourne) red brick tunnels once winter is over. I have only been in the Anzac drain and my camera had a flat battery which I failed to discover until I tried to take a shot! thanks again guys!
Melbourne City Drain painters - We go in Drains!
"darkness is our canvas, light is our medium"
http://www.flickr.com/groups/mcdp |
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KingKong
location:
Pittsburgh PA / Rochester NY
Gender: Male
Insert artistic / badass sounding phrase here.
| | | Re: The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
<Reply # 8 on 6/23/2009 10:05 PM >
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Sunlight, obviously.
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Ram23
location:
Cincinnati, OH and/or Queens, NY
Gender: Male
| | | | Re: The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
<Reply # 9 on 6/30/2009 7:35 PM >
| | | | 
This style is pretty simple. 5 second exposure, one of the two subjects is holding a powerful flash light aimed away from the camera. I have no experience in drains, and only a bit in pitch black tunnels like these, so I stick to simple shots like this one.
Cincinnati UE Photos: http://zfein.com/photography |
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hilite
Gender: Male
don't destroy my sweater....
| | | Re: The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
<Reply # 10 on 6/30/2009 11:24 PM >
| | | | You can always just take a photo near the outfall, if you don't wanna bother with flashlights/ flashes.
The key area that will affect the pic in this case is how you set your exposure.
From a solo trip, using a wireless remote.
exposure 0.3sec
longer exposure, to create a blown out background
Of a friend
exposure 1/50
faster shutter speed captures more "outside" detail
The easiest way to tinker with these settings is to just experiment with different shutter speeds while keeping a constant aperture using your camera's Manual mode.
And when you finally disappear, We'll just say you were never here. |
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AnAppleSnail
location:
Charlotte, NC
Gender: Male
ALL the flashlights!
| | | | Re: The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
<Reply # 11 on 7/1/2009 3:37 AM >
| | | | 
Chloe got the memo to stay still, Drooldog did not. Sometimes motion adds to the silhouette - I fear this wasn't one of those times.
1/3 sec at F/2.8, ISO 80. Basically you're taking a picture with junk between the camera and where the light's coming from.
[last edit 7/1/2009 3:43 AM by AnAppleSnail - edited 1 times]
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octopus7
location:
Melbourne, Australia
Gender: Male
| | | Re: The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
<Reply # 12 on 7/10/2009 11:13 PM >
| | | | Well I finally had an attempt at this style of photo and am happy with the results. A 15sec exposure and I was holding a xenon torch.
and also had an attempt using three different lights as well as a sparkler around the missus.
Melbourne City Drain painters - We go in Drains!
"darkness is our canvas, light is our medium"
http://www.flickr.com/groups/mcdp |
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IIVQ
location:
La Sud-Est du cité majeur du North-Holland (Bijlmer), .NL
Gender: Male
Back in Urbex!
| |  |  | | Re: The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
<Reply # 13 on 7/14/2009 11:29 AM >
| | | | Good work!
Another interesting technique I tried once is to use a second camera for flash.
What happened is that the guy on the left used the flash of his camera to illuminate him and his friend.
In the next picture this failed, but it turned out to be interesting too.
Here they were supposed to walk away with a strong flashlight, but they turned around too soon, and the moist walls beautifully reflected the light. The result was better than the picture I had hoped for would be.
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octopus7
location:
Melbourne, Australia
Gender: Male
| | | Re: The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
<Reply # 14 on 7/15/2009 11:38 AM >
| | | | Very cool, using another camera's flash sounds like it might be worth a try. Were those photos taken in an old train tunnel?
Melbourne City Drain painters - We go in Drains!
"darkness is our canvas, light is our medium"
http://www.flickr.com/groups/mcdp |
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DJ Craig
Moderator
location:
Johnson City, TN
Gender: Male
Break the Silence
| | | | Re: The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
<Reply # 15 on 7/16/2009 1:02 AM >
| | | |
lol, I could see getting Drooldog to stay still being a little more difficult than Aurelie. 
The best way to get that picture, Octopus, is to come to America and drain with AppleSnail.
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..." -Dr. Suess |
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Man Underground
location:
Oz
Gender: Male
freedom of choice ~ choose well
| | Re: The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
<Reply # 16 on 7/26/2009 1:51 AM >
| | | | This is my first attempt at a silhouette, that's me in the 'Anzac' tunnel Melb Australia.
I know not what I do, but when I do it |
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octopus7
location:
Melbourne, Australia
Gender: Male
| | | Re: The famous drain / tunnel silhouette photo
<Reply # 17 on 7/26/2009 5:17 AM >
| | | | That is a lot better than my early attempt at a silhouette in the Mini-tenth. I love the gloss wet look of the bricks in the tunnel, even though they were bone dry when we were down there.
Melbourne City Drain painters - We go in Drains!
"darkness is our canvas, light is our medium"
http://www.flickr.com/groups/mcdp |
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