Beamshots with lots of ambient light, it can be done.

KingGlamis

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I often hear people post here that they can't take beamshots outside their house because there is too much ambient light, or light pollution. I'm sure there are some cases where this may be true, but a powerful flashlight should be brighter than any nighttime ambient light, IMO. My point is, you don't need complete darkness to take beamshots, and you don't always use your light in complete darkness (in fact, most of us use our lights much more in areas that are NOT complete darkness). As I'm a fan of real world beamshots, I'll post some examples.

First off, the control shot, or reference shot, of the front of my house looking towards the neighbor's house across the street. As you can see in the photo below, my front yard has tons of ambient light shining on it.

IMGP0007.jpg


I'll start the beamshots with my Aspheric Mag. Lots of hotspot but no spill. Normal for an Aspheric adjusted to spot. You can still see the ambient light on the lawn is brighter than the spill, or lack of spill.

IMGP0011.jpg


Next up is one of those cheap 1.5 million candlepower spotlights. Lots of spot (DUH) and a little spill.

IMGP0016.jpg


This one is the WF501-D. As you can see it is a flood master with decent throw. It doesn't really have a defined hotspot at this distance, just lots of overall light.

IMGP0018.jpg


Next up is the Fenix P3D RB100 on Turbo. A good mix of throw and flood, you can clearly see that it way overpowers the ambient light.

IMGP2639.jpg


This one is a Surefire G3 Nitrolon with the LF EO-9 380 lumen upgrade. An impressive hotspot with lots of flood too.

IMGP2637.jpg


And finally, my MX Power 3-Cree light. Clearly and incredible hotspot with very impressive spill. This light removes all doubt that you can't take a beamshot with lots of ambient light. Look again at the first shot, the control shot, and imagine you were looking for a lost dog over by the neighbor's house. Then imagine using one of the above lights, especially this one, to actually spot the dog. That's my point, even with tons of ambient light, you still have real-life uses for your flashlight, and can reflect them with real-life beamshots.

IMGP2636.jpg


My point, if you didn't get it by now, is don't be afraid to take shots outdoors with ambient light. Be creative with your beamshots (I know, I know, the ones above aren't that creative, but just making a point). Most of all, have fun taking beamshots. To me, there is little fun in pointing my lights at a white wall only a few feet away.
 

WadeF

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I think you still live in a darker place than many of us. I live in town, and I consider it fairly dark compared to some other areas around here, and it's nothing compared to living in a city, etc. Using roughly the same exposure as you, 4 seconds, f/3.2, at ISO 400, this is what it looks like around my place.

This is out front on the main road, I don't do beamshots out here because of traffic, neighbors, etc:



That was the darker section of the street, this is what it looks like up the street, same exposure:


Well, I took these at midnight, and all the sudden I saw a possum. :) He was holding still, but when the exposure tripped he was on the move, this exposure was 4 sec, f/5.2, ISO 400, which is much more sensative than I normally use for beamshots, I shined my P2D Q5 on TURBO at the possum, which is a blur by the most left sign. Some beam shot huh? No really, it's on, you can kinda tell in the grass in the foreground. Imagine a beam shot on anything but TURBO...



Well, the front of my place is no good, how about the back yard?


Around my place I'm limited as to what I can do. I can take so-so beam shots down the one side of my back yard, but only if the lights are pretty strong. Weak lights don't show up well. The fact is many people on CPF live in areas that are much brighter at night time than my small town.
 

KingGlamis

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Four seconds is a very long exposure. But yet I still see many places where beamshots could be taken. For example, your first pic, the dark green tree in the middle. Any decent light would give a good beamshot on that tree.

In your last pic the tree on the left and the fence could be easily illuminated by a good light. Please, go try it and show us! I think you will be surprised at how well your best lights illuminate these areas even with all the ambient light.
 

WadeF

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Oh, I agree. If you can find shadows you can light them up. The problem is, where I live, these shadows that you are pointing out are on my neighbors property and I really don't want to be shining high powered lights on their property, or at their house.

Although I sometimes sneaks some beam shots on that tree in the far background of the last picture. I figure if anyone sees the top of their tree light up they won't know where it is coming from by the time I've taken my picture and gone back inside. :p

I'm just showing that your area doesn't really have a lot of ambient light and your topic title is a bit misleading. :) I may not even go as far as to say where I live there is a lot of ambient light, I'd say I have moderate ambient light, you have minor to little ambient light, and other people living in cities, etc, have major ambient light. 4 seconds is a long exposure, and will pick up on a lot of light when used with f/3.3 and ISO 400, as you did in your control shot. If we used the same exposure in a city, or more urban areas, it would look like a nuclear explosion, or daytime, etc. Also you were using high powered lights, spot lights, etc, and you don't have much ambient light to speak of. You had to use such a long exposure to pick up on it. :) So if someone wants to take beam shots with 100 lumen or less lights it will be even more challenging, in an area like mine, or brighter.

I think this all started because I mentioned I had to drive out to the lake to take DBS beam shots. The point of that was I don't have anywhere around my house, in town, where I have an 800 foot open stretch. That tree in the background is only about 300 feet away. To see what something like the DBS can do I needed a wide open area, and it had to be dark. I wanted to show how the DBS would perform if you were in total darkness, night adapted eyes, and seeing how far you could see things with it.

Some beam shots can be done around my place, others can't. Depends on what kind of beam shot.
 
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KingGlamis

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Well then let me give examples that I just took a few minutes ago. The control shot, below, clearly shows a bright street light and some palm trees in the background.

IMGP2642.jpg


And in this next pic, showing the beam of my MX Power, you can see that the palm trees are well lit, as are the two trucks in the pic. Again, I will say it, a bright light wins over ambient light.

IMGP2643.jpg
 

WadeF

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Hope your neighbors don't mind you blasting that thing over their house. :) Also I think our street lights are brighter, look at the street under our lights (my 2nd pic), the street is blown out. :)
 

KuoH

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While they might have artistic qualities as well, I think the most useful aspect of most beamshots is to compare the output of different lights with some degree of consistency. While your latest example shows that it is still possible to take some shots under less than ideal conditions, it is not easy to achieve consistency in such locations, and usually takes very understanding neighbors just to get some shots. You may find a thread or two in recent days giving examples of what happens when you light up disapproving neighbors.

KuoH
 

KingGlamis

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Hope your neighbors don't mind you blasting that thing over their house. :) Also I think our street lights are brighter, look at the street under our lights (my 2nd pic), the street is blown out. :)

My pic took about 2 seconds to do, and it was aimed at the trees, I'm sure the neighbors never even noticed. Your 4-second exposure is much different than my 2-second exposure. Mine looks more like what my eyes see. I guarantee your pics do not look like what your eyes see.
 

KingGlamis

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While they might have artistic qualities as well, I think the most useful aspect of most beamshots is to compare the output of different lights with some degree of consistency. While your latest example shows that it is still possible to take some shots under less than ideal conditions, it is not easy to achieve consistency in such locations, and usually takes very understanding neighbors just to get some shots. You may find a thread or two in recent days giving examples of what happens when you light up disapproving neighbors.

KuoH

My neighbors have never complained, and people still have the option of going where there are no neighbors, like the park, a business district, the forest, etc.
 

WadeF

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King, your images show your exposure at 4 seconds, not 2 seconds, unless your image's data from your camera is wrong. ?

Pentax Optio W10
Exposure Time 4"
F Number F3.3
ISO 400
Auto white balance
38mm

Also my pictures are exaggerated, but I was using the same exposure as your images state they were captured at, so it's to compare the difference in ambient light.
 

KuoH

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Except the point of your thread was,

"I often hear people post here that they can't take beamshots outside their house because there is too much ambient light"

Besides, just because your neighbors have never complained, doesn't mean others won't. Again, refer to the other threads discussing where they have taken action.

KuoH

... and people still have the option of going where there are no neighbors, like the park, a business district, the forest, etc.
 

KingGlamis

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King, your images show your exposure at 4 seconds, not 2 seconds, unless your image's data from your camera is wrong. ?

Pentax Optio W10
Exposure Time 4"
F Number F3.3
ISO 400
Auto white balance
38mm

Also my pictures are exaggerated, but I was using the same exposure as your images state they were captured at, so it's to compare the difference in ambient light.

So how about you take a pic of one of your lights shining on that back fence in one of your pics? I'll bet you can get a decent beamshot on that fence. I know I have several lights that would light up that fence like it was daytime. So lets see some beamshots on that fence.
 

KuoH

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Looking at the original series, there were also several variations in the exposure time and ISO between the images, which would make objective comparisons of different lights somewhat unreliable.

KuoH

King, your images show your exposure at 4 seconds, not 2 seconds, unless your image's data from your camera is wrong. ?
 

KingGlamis

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Looking at the original series, there were also several variations in the exposure time and ISO between the images, which would make objective comparisons of different lights somewhat unreliable.

KuoH

While it is a cheap camera, all pics in this thread were taken on the same setting.
 

KuoH

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Yes, I noticed that the camera you used lacks a full manual control mode. While it might be fun to take those beamshots, they're pretty much only useful for artistic purposes and not any real comparisons between lights.

Now I'm not saying that you can't take beamshots in brightly lit areas with a cheap camera, just that I wouldn't post them here for others to use without giving fair warning. I would consider it a disservice if one of the images with different exposure settings favored a lesser light and misled a reader to purchase something they did not intent to.

KuoH

While it is a cheap camera, all pics in this thread were taken on the same setting.
 

WadeF

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So how about you take a pic of one of your lights shining on that back fence in one of your pics? I'll bet you can get a decent beamshot on that fence. I know I have several lights that would light up that fence like it was daytime. So lets see some beamshots on that fence.

That's my neighbors fence and I do not wish to shine my lights on their fence. :)

Also the exposured varied between your different shots. The control shot was 4 seconds, f/3.3 at ISO 400, the shot of the Rebel 100 was at ISO 64 and you can see the sky isn't as bright as it is in some of the other shots.

I can manage beam shots in parts of my yard, but it's only useful for comparing certain lights.
 

KingGlamis

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Some of you people take this stuff way too seriously. I don't post beamshots to convince someone to buy a certain light, or to pretend to be scientific. I post beamshots for fun. And you should too. It's a hobby. Hobbies are supposed to be fun.

It's the people that criticize beamshots like mine that prevent a lot of other members here from taking beamshots "just for fun." They know if they post beamshots that are not up to the standards of the White Wall Brigade that they will get criticized. So they don't even bother. Sad really. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with so much negativity around here.
 

WadeF

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Sorry if I came across as too serious. It was a fun topic, and I was simply trying to point out that in your picture there really wasn't much ambient light compared to what some of us have to deal with. I offered examples of my area using the same exposure you did, as I went by the exposure information recorded by your camera that is included in the Exif data in your pictures that you posted. It also stated "Exposure Mode = Auto exposure" which means even if you thought it was a 2 second exposure, the camera may have quickly changed to a 4 second exposure when the image was taken. :)

I have no problem if people want to post random beam shots, if for no other purpose than to be artistic, or just for fun. However, most people come here for information, and most people post beams shots to offer a comparison between lights, often using multiple lights as a reference, all taken with the same exposure, etc.

Flooding CPF with random images of random beam shots doesn't really help anyone who is coming here looking for information. Maybe a topic could be dedicated to just random beam shot pictures, if there isn't one already.
 

KingGlamis

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Sorry if I came across as too serious. It was a fun topic, and I was simply trying to point out that in your picture there really wasn't much ambient light compared to what some of us have to deal with. I offered examples of my area using the same exposure you did, as I went by the exposure information recorded by your camera that is included in the Exif data in your pictures that you posted. It also stated "Exposure Mode = Auto exposure" which means even if you thought it was a 2 second exposure, the camera may have quickly changed to a 4 second exposure when the image was taken. :)

I have no problem if people want to post random beam shots, if for no other purpose than to be artistic, or just for fun. However, most people come here for information, and most people post beams shots to offer a comparison between lights, often using multiple lights as a reference, all taken with the same exposure, etc.

Flooding CPF with random images of random beam shots doesn't really help anyone who is coming here looking for information. Maybe a topic could be dedicated to just random beam shot pictures, if there isn't one already.

My whole point is to get people to post more beamshots. Period. People looking for information should read the threads that claim to be informational tests of various lights. I say flooding CPF with random beamshots gives people with a rational mind a good mix of photos to make up their own mind on what light to buy. For example, if 20 people post beamshots of the same light, but all under different conditions, the reader/viewer can decide which photos mean the most to them. But if all we have are white wall shots, which 99% of them you can't tell if the beam is 6 inches wide or 6 feet wide, to me those shots are almost useless.

"Lighten" up people. Let's get back to having fun with flashlights.
 
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