Advice wanted

Doc Ruby

Let's say that one hypothetically wanted to do some urban exploration, tunnels, old buildings, ghost estates and the like, and one had a Canon t2i rebel, what sort of lenses would you recommend? Also any advice about taking shots in low light dim or outright dark conditions without a tripod would be welcome.

amdgilmore

You'll definitely need a wide-angle lens for cramped indoor spaces. The tokina 11-16 f2.8 is popular for crop sensors and about as good as you'll get for low-light situations. It's relatively expensive though. About €500.

Like it or not, you will need a tripod. You'll be dealing with situations where you could have extreme contrasts of light and shadow (sunlight coming through cracks in walls/windows etc). Most digital sensors can't effectively capture that sort of dynamic range in a single exposure. The best way of capturing those scenes is to bracket your exposures and selectively blend them in photoshop. Get a tripod that's small and portable.

And, just on the subject of exposure blending, do it manually and don't be tempted to use HDR software. Doing it manually takes a lot longer but it's worth it if you want a realistic final result.

5uspect

Definitely a tripod, or maybe a Manfrotto magic arm. Some off camera flash and wireless triggers.

Stellaluna

Definitely need the tripod. I'd highly recommend bringing at least one good torch for light painting (and seeing where you're going).

Lotsafish

If you want to stay cheap then the nifty fifty (50mm) (€80 or so) will give you the light you need, problem is if you're shooting with cramped space you're not going to get the shots you want... its a tough balance to get without breaking the bank

Doc Ruby

I'm pretty much resigned to parting with the guts of a grand one way or the other, I'll have to get a new tripod so as mine is a hefty oul yoke and I need to keep the weight down. Completely worth it though.

So the shopping list so far is: a tripod (are monopods any use at all?), a tokina 11-16 f2.8, an off camera flash with remote control, and probably a couple of portable lamps of some kind. There are some very powerful LED flashlights available these days, would they be any good if combined with something like a flash diffuser?

amdgilmore

Doc Ruby wrote: »

are monopods any use at all?

Not for what you're doing. If you're in a dark environment then even at f2.8 you could be looking at exposures of 1/15 of a second to 2 seconds or more (especially if you don't want to use high ISO - anything above 1600 tends to look pretty bad on the txi cameras). A monopod won't be a whole lot of use at the long end of the spectrum. And you can forget about it entirely if you're bracketing exposures.

dinneenp

There's somebody this forum who does exactly what you want to. Hunt around and you'll find him and whom better to ask.

Doc Ruby

dinneenp wrote: »

There's somebody this forum who does exactly what you want to. Hunt around and you'll find him and whom better to ask.

That's not the Abandoned Ireland fella by any chance? Love his work.

Stellaluna

Doc Ruby wrote: »

That's not the Abandoned Ireland fella by any chance? Love his work.

No, he's not very active on boards at the moment.

Jonnykitedude

dinneenp wrote: »

There's somebody this forum who does exactly what you want to. Hunt around and you'll find him and whom better to ask.

Myself and Pullandbang do lots of this type of stuff.

The main lenses I would use are canon 17-40mm L and 15mm 2.8, I know P&B pretty much only uses his 16-35mm 2.8L and on occasion his 8mm fisheye.

From time to time we try messing about with flash work but it never works out or we just grow impatient!!

At the moment I bring a big heavy manfrotto along with gorillapod and P&B brings something similar.

You'll need some decent flash lights, the LED lenser seem to be the dogs!
Normally what we do is compose a shot and use flash light to focus, turn auto focus off, image stabilizer and all that jazz off too and have it on timer, some shots can be up to 30secs its that dark! We also use the flash light to light up areas.

Some pics here http://pix.ie/jonnyfitz/albums and here http://pix.ie/pullandbang

Doc Ruby

Nice, and nice photos too! Okay so I need to add a fisheye to the list and not bother with the flash... I was thinking about packing a couple of these, maybe one of these, and using thin plastic of various colours to diffuse and colour them.

Any other words of advice for an aspiring UrbExer?

Stellaluna

There's heaps of advice out there with regard to kit and safety for exploring. To a certain extent the kit you might need and safety considerations will depend on where you're going. Best thing is to get out there and explore somewhere you're comfortable with and work from there - you'll get a better feel for what equipment you need/want as you visit more places. Consider going with a friend or another explorer - it's usually more fun and safer than going alone. Don't take or break anything!

Doc Ruby

Thanks Stellaluna! I have plenty of kit already and am fairly comfortable in isolated places and situations, also I'm an experienced scuba diver, outdoorsman, caver and climber, as well as having a few other handy skillsets, but I'm thinking of adding a few bits and pieces which aren't really applicable to the wilderness. I'll go nowhere without telling someone where I'm going and when I'm due back, don't worry, and leave no trace is a byword.

Anyway, the challenge and reward here is getting those good shots and sharing the secret places hidden all around us with the world, and thanks to everyone for their excellent advice on the difficult art of photography in tricky conditions so far!

Stellaluna

You'll be grand so! Looking forward to seeing some photos

pullandbang

Oh, and join the urbex forum.....;)