g = GM/r2

[GB1]

A Kodachrome (200?) slide scan from awhile back. I did some freefall photography in a past life. The technical challenges were intense, but I did get some decent results sometimes. This one's not super sharp but maybe the rest of it makes up for it?

I believe this was at Chambersburg, PA.

G

[hminx]

"The technical challenges were intense," ..... really ? ....
Some sort of helmet cam ? I can't imagine staying stable with a hand held camera.

[armando_m]

Did you shoot in manual mode, manual focus ? =8-) you probably did ...

Nicely done GB !

[draymorton]

I'm not sure who would have the balls to critique this. (The comeback "let's see you try it" comes to mind.)

The three figures aren't all that sharp. So what? I like their positions in the frame and the choice of focal length. Really gives one the feeling of being up there with them.

I might try some sort of ND grad effect to reduce the brightness of the clouds. I think you can do this in LR and the Tiffen FX pack has an ND effect, I'm pretty sure.

On another note, am I the only one who was pissed that no one sent a GoPro up with Baumgartner?

[GB1]

Thanks guys, I like how this image shows the sky and the area below them.

Skydiving photography is very specialized, though many types of sport photography require special equipment (surfing photography requires camera protection and strong swimming, for ex). To do it, I did the following:


- Got another helmet dedicated to photo jumps only.
- Built a camera mount on it for my Nikon FA. This included space for motor winder (those were separate devices back then ).
- Created a sight to generally align the camera's FOV with where I was looking.
- Long cable release that ran from camera to back of neck (under the jumpsuit) down to left hand. Taped trigger to palm of hand to trigger shutter.


For camera settings, since the FA was not an auto focus camera I shot MF, but even camera jumpers who did have such cameras turned their AF off. They said the AF searching and slight shutter lag due to this was unacceptable, and that they would miss shots. I would use Aperture Priority, use about f 8.0 (depending on the film speed) and then calculate the hyperfocal distance, so to ensure that the infinity was in focus and that the most foreground as possible was sharp. My guessimate is that most of the time the shutter speed was about 1/250, depending on what side of the camera the sun was. I also taped the lens so that the focus wouldn't change in freefall. Note that in practice I always shot the same speed film and therefore used the same focal distance: about 10 feet if I remember correctly (with 24mm lens).

When shooting, my goal was to shoot the entire 36 exp roll in the ~ 60 seconds of freefall (shots under canopy didnt' have the same impact..). Best not to shoot continuously during the jump, but bursts during idea times. It would often take me 10-15 seconds to catch the group (rule was that photographers exit independently of the group so that they in no way disturbed their jump. I preferred to exit a split second before to catch the exit action, but often this wasn't possible, so had to dive out after them and play catch up)... I would then maneuver above (slightly to the outside) and around them.

The camera mounted to my head was heavy as hell and interfered with my 'flying' ability too, a lot of aerodynamic drag... the site blocked a little of my view (not too much), but the bigger concern was it being a potential snag point for the parachute lines in case of an uncontrolled deployment. Had to be ready to release the helmet strap - and camera - in case of such a situation.

I think I asked this in another thread awhile ago, but when I first got into it, bout every 4th image was ~ 2 f stops underexposed. Took me awhile to figure out why - can you guess the answer?

[SmartWombat]

I thought there were several GoPros up with Baumgartner.
Looks like a cluster of 3 below the door to his left as he exits.

And they say the streamlined chest pack included a GoPro Hero HD 2, same as I use ;)
http://www.redbullstratos.com/technology/chest-pack/

The HD cameras in each leg looked like GoPro HD as well.

[draymorton]

Oh cool, I didn't know that there were any actually on him. I knew about the ones on the capsule, of course.

I don't remember seeing any POV shots during the freefall (which I do remember seeing in the film footage from the Kittinger jump).

Thanks for the link.

[GB1]

Dray, didn't see your critique until after I replied ...

Critique away (I posted it), but since these type shots are difficult to reshoot it's best to offer post processing suggestions (like you did actually).

Just tried doing a graduated effect in PS (you can use the graduated fill and set the Opacity to a very low value - say bout 3), but it didn't quite come out right .. really hurt the contrast. Maybe I'll try Tiffen or even LR.

--

For fun, here's a once in a lifetime shot that you will almost never see elsewhere - a photo of my own parachute malfunction. The main chute didn't open due to something called slider lock (which in turn was due to an incorrect parachute modification)... it happened during a camera jump, and I inadvertently squeezed the camera trigger attached to my hand as I was looking up at it. I successfully released this mess and used the reserve ... didn't even know I had gotten pictures of it until I later when got my slides back

G