Hey Doc

(Another long exposure photo)

(Long exposure - shores of Pacific Grove, CA)

(Mushroom risotto with pan seared scallops)

Carnaroli, Arborio and Vialone Nano are the three types of rice commonly used in preparing risotto. The degree of liquid absorption and their starch content in the rice determines the creamyness of the risotto. As Vialone Nano rates the most creamy and Carnaroli is the least of the three. I only found Arborio in the store near home so that was the one I chose to use for today's main ingredient. There are tons of information on cooking risotto on the Internet, I will spare the pages by pointing to the source.

Recipes I followed - Risotto with mushroom and scallops.
Cooking tips - Making perfect risotto.
Video - Cooking with Biba

In photography, multiple exposure can be done either in-camera or in the darkroom. Before the digital revolution in cameras, most of the film cameras I played with all have in-camera multiple exposure feature. This should be easy to do with the modern digital cameras but in thousands of digital cameras on the market, you get this feature only in few high-end DSLR cameras.

First thing of doing in-camera multiple exposure is to decide how many frames will be in this image. Because it has to do with the exposure compensation in each frame.

In film cameras:
For negative film
2 frames = use -1EV for each frame
4 frames = use -2EV for each frame
8 frames = use -3EV for each frame
For slide film
2 frames = use +1EV for each frame
4 frames = use +2EV for each frame
8 frames = use +3EV for each frame
In digital cameras:
I use Nikon D700 as example. In "shooting menu", select "multiple exposure", enter "number of shots", enable "auto gain" and shoot away.

In the darkroom, I mean Photoshop:
Expose each frame normally. Open all the images in Photoshop, "copy" and "paste" into one single PSD file. Each frame becomes a layer in that PSD file. The first frame will be the "background" layer, each consecutive frames will be labeled as "layer 1", "layer 2", and so on. Adjust each layer's opacity according to the table below:
background --- 100%
layer 1 --- 50%
layer 2 --- 33%
layer 3 --- 25%
layer 4 --- 20%
layer 5 --- 17%
layer 6 --- 14%
layer 7 --- 13%
layer 8 --- 11%
layer 9 --- 10%
layer 10 --- 9%

The above information was copied from a website which I have now forgot where I read it.

Have fun!

(Exposure: 30s, F2.8, +2EV, ISO200)

Sensor in digital camera is known to produce high noise level images in low light situation. The latest crop of high-end DSLR cameras made huge improvement in sensor technology that capable producing clean images at high ISO settings. In the older DSLR cameras, ISO800 is about the highest you can go. For point-and-shot digital cameras, they are even less. The Nikon D700 makes nice images up to ISO3200, usable at ISO6400. The test tonight was for its long exposure capability. Long exposure also contributes to noisy images in digital sensors.
The settings, total darkness in the front yard except the porch light from the neighbor across the street. I set the exposure compensation to +2EV, to make the images lighter. The meter measured for 30 seconds at the max aperture of 2.8.
I can not believe the image when I opened in Photoshop. You'll be the judge. I have some new ideas for my next photo project. (wowhahahaha...)


(Preview for my next topic)