Yes Star Trails.

The great part about the 500 Rule is that it can also work in reverse for the shooter that is looking to capture star trails. For those of you that don’t shoot with full frame cameras it is necessary to take this “Crop Factor” into account when performing the calculation. I have provided standard crop factors for different camera models below. For example a full frame 35mm camera shooting at 16mm can capture the night sky for a maximum of 31 seconds prior to showing any results of “Star Trails” in the picture. Once the exposure time exceeds 31 seconds, trails or star movement will start to show up in the shot. The best way to clearly exhibit this relationship is to go outside and experiment, there are a million different acceptable combinations it’s just a matter of finding what works for you and your camera. My Free Star Photography Tutorial also provides info on this topic.

Photograph The Night Sky

Star photography seems like a daunting task, but trust me it's much easier than you think. When I first picked up a camera and decided to capture some shots of the night sky I could barely see a light at the end of the tunnel. Now, a few months and a few hundred shots later, that light is shining bright and I’m here to share with you the information and experiences I gained along the way. But wait, there is one problem, from your vantage point there may be a million and one factors keeping you from seeing the mesmerizing beauty of space or the Milky Way. Most of us live in locations where cloud cover, smog and light pollution are the number one enemy of the night sky photographer. That’s where I come in, armed with my tutorials, presets, and simple tricks you will have all the ammunition necessary to defeat the odds and capture the beauty of space and the galaxy that lies beyond. I do have a few small errands for everyone to run prior to departing on our trip, so grab a sturdy tripod, wide angle lens, a camera with manual mode functionality and your imagination, let’s head for the stars.

Adrian Limani

My name is Adrian Limani. I am 21 years old and a student of Computer Sciences & Technology. My nationality is Albanian and I am a self-taught photographer. I do different kind of photography but mostly I prefer fine art imagery based on photo manipulations of images that I photograph myself. Currently I live in Kosovo, Pristina. My passion is photography & design. Design was part of my life since I was in high school but I started photography when I was 17. My first photos were of nature and landscape category. Besides photography I like music, sport (basketball), movies… Slam Dunk Adrian Limani BasketBall Game Adrian Limani Moon Player Adrian Limani What inspires you to create such imaginary and almost surreal images? When I work, I’m always listening to music. Music is the primary thing that inspires me. Also movies,books and situations that I live through every day.

Rorschach Tests

Inspiration is a mysterious creature and it can come when you least expect it. Esther Lobo got an idea to create these re-envisioned Rorschach Tests when working on another photograph. In her words... Rorschach Food series is a private and personal project. The idea for these photos came to me while I was working on another image using ink. Then I started thinking of the Rorschach Tests and thought about doing something similar using food instead of ink.

The stains were made completely manually with my own hands and without post-processing tricks. I used soft plastic plates (Foamy). Then I dropped foods such as mustard, squid ink or soya over the plates. After bending the plates I obtained the symmetric stains. Finally I have placed the source of the stain over the symmetrical image, and so documented the psychological portrait of each food stuff.

Blog Anniversary Winners

July 11th marked my one year anniversary blogging for 500px. So I headed out to local shops and scouted two lovely kits to give away as a token of my gratitude. In the past year I have got to know many of you through comments, emails, Monday contests, and I really wanted to say thanks! Each kit includes a Diana+ camera with flash, film and neat bits such as your own journal, markers, Canadian candy, owl key covers, 500px cards etc. I really hope that you will like these kits and will continue to enjoy the 500px blog.

Lukas Stewart

Photography has been my biggest hobby since I was about 15. My father gave me one of his old point-and-shoot cameras one summer and the very first photo I snapped with it was of a slug on the deck of my uncle's house. I remember it had a beautifully shallow depth of field with the slug in perfect, crisp focus. I loved this tool that let me preserve a single scene that I found beautiful or fascinating and share it with people who would otherwise not have noticed it or been able to appreciate it. Soon got my first entry level DLSR and things took off from there. Please enjoy my work.

Magic of Oil and Ink

Let’s learn how to create a world of miniatures and wonder with Dina Belenko. Dina is fine arts photographer, who creates magical photos using her imagination, camera and a bottomless well of arts & crafts skills. In this tutorial we will learn how to combine oil and ink, edit background colour, and how to use flat objects to our advantage. At the end of the tutorial you will learn how to produce images similar to...

Introduction Various liquids are often used in still life and macro photography, for example: colorized water, paint, or foam. I would like to share my experience of using plain sunflower oil which, despite its commonness, can produce interesting and beautiful results. You will need Transparent container (preferably the one with straight walls, like an oblong vase or a small fish bowl) Syringe Sunflower/canola oil (at least 500 ml) Water and ink (you may take any kind of it) Chopsticks (to hang or move an object without spoiling your fingers in oil) Napkins (the more the better) Object or objects that will be the main subject of the picture (toys, miniatures, paper figures) Post-processing program of choice Light I used one soft light source from behind the object to make the oil look more transparent, and another soft light from a side (I used a soft box and window, you can also try using a white/silver reflector or shooting outdoors). Process Place the object (in my case it's the miniature Eiffel tower) at the bottom of the vase. Then carefully fill the vase with oil (try to hold the bottle so that the oil flows down the wall of the vase without spattering). Then fill the syringe with some ink (try one or different colours). When done carefully dip the needle into oil and let out a few ink drops — ink is heavier than oil, so the drops will slowly fall down as dark bubbles. You may let them float here and there, and can also experiment making a “spiral” with ink drops around the object. Try and find the best variant for you. Editing First of all, we need to get rid of the yellow color from the sunflower oil. In your RAW-converter (I use Adobe Lightroom) there should be an option to decrease the saturation of separate colors. Reduce saturation of yellow and increase its luminance. After this initial and very important edit you can proceed to editing ink bubbles conversion you may add or delete bubbles. Then adjust the color once again and voilà, the picture is ready! Variations You can play around with different objects and get very different images as final results. Careful to use objects that would not spoil or taint the sunflower oil (avoid anything dirty or that could bleed). You can use flat objects (like paper figures) and glue those to the back wall of the vase. The picture itself may lose its volume, but this way you will get an almost unlimited amount of plots for your pictures. I hope you will find this advice useful. Try it out! I wish you good shots! Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.