[r-man]

As many of you know, I'm a fan of esoteric limestone bouldering. My partner in crime is considering a new camera, with which to document our exploits in places most of you would shudder to contemplate. During a discussion of our objective, we realised we couldn't remember seeing many decent UK lime bouldering shots. Let's ignore the fact that just maybe, lime isn't the most aesthetically pleasing medium, and instead imagine this is a challenge which can be overcome.

I was wondering if the good folk of ukbouldering could think of (and link to) any examples of limestone bouldering photography (UK especially) that they thought worked well. Also interested to see your photos, and hear what equipment/techniques you used...

[slackline]

Some of Ketih Sharples pics of various Peak haunts are quite good.

[Adam Lincoln]

Have always found a fisheye to get some good results. But some might disagree! (Nikon fit, 10.5, 2.

[dave]

There's no special requirements foe limestone compared to any other rocktype to be honest.

[Johnny Brown]

I think lighting is probably the problem, being that they tend to be tucked in shady dales. Plus the setting tends to be woodland rather than open in aspect, making for cluttered backgrounds that add little, but detract interest. And the floor usually looks a mess. Not to mention the rock. And the fact that the habitues tend to be left-brained, number motivated types who don't understand creative photography beyond sharpness and exposure.

My top tips - try fast long/ standard lenses to isolate the subject and drop the surroundings. Details work well. At least nine out of ten are also likely to benefit from some creative off-camera strobework.

[cofe]

I just break out a few D3s, and occasionally a D3x to spice things up. If that doesn't work I just deal with it.

[dave]

Valuable limestone photo tips there from Mr Peak Limestone himself, JB.

[r-man]

Cheers for ideas, folks.

Low lighting is definitely going to be the issue to deal with, especially when capturing dynamic moves. Remote flashes seem like a good thing to try - have already experimented (using someone else's 40D) with lanterns and reflectors and got some really nice Odin cave shots, with very warm colours and lots of drama. Helps that the cave was all big holds and sculpted features though, rather than the usual cluttered lime texture.

Nice shots Adam. Am impressed at how little distortion you have. Looks like some vignetting though, especially on the Tyler shot. Is there a way to reduce that? Would better lighting help?

Slackline - Keith has only one lime bouldering shot on there.

Cofe - D3's sound nice. If you have a surplus, you know what to do...

[Adam Lincoln]

Cheers for ideas, folks.

Nice shots Adam. Am impressed at how little distortion you have. Looks like some vignetting though, especially on the Tyler shot. Is there a way to reduce that? Would better lighting help?

I have added a little for effect.

[slackline]

Aye, but its a good one and there are some thoughts/details on how it was taken...

CragX is limestone and limestone lit by flash often looks pretty horrid. Experimenting, I shot Ted in the light from my head-torch, a Petzl Ultra. The beam on the Ultra is bright and narrow. Fall-off is rapid therefore, hence I metered in spot mode but dialled in a slight compensation. I pushed the ISO to 1250 - way higher than I’d normally use - in order to get a half decent shutter speed to freeze the action. A low camera angle accentuated the height of CragX whilst the CragX ladder provided a bit of back-ground interest.

Stock up on the head-torches maybe?

[dave]

Aye, but its a good one

I'll be honest, i dont rate that as a great example of off camers lighting, and certainly not one of keith's best. It's got a lot of the aspects i'd usually aim to avoid in that situation: hotspot of light, overly white light, flat-on angle gives you no clues to the shape and obliterates texture, and leaves the climbers face in deep shaddow. This probably illustrates the limitations of using led headtorches more than owt else.

On a more positive note, no lightstand in shot.

[Johnny Brown]

Hmm, not a huge fan of that shot either.

The rock structure at Crag X is actually pretty attractive as lime goes, and worth making use of - I tend to shoot pretty wide there, although (as with Raven Tor) the short fast tele approach works well to accentuate the curves in the rock too. 

The challenge with lime is that the rock tends to look similar form one prob to the next, so it can be hard to make the problem recognisable. I think its worth concentrating on key moves/ shapes being made to throw folk a bone and avoid them having to squint at the holds/ caption.

[Paul B]

Aye, but its a good one

I'll be honest, i dont rate that as a great example of off camers lighting, and certainly not one of keith's best. It's got a lot of the aspects i'd usually aim to avoid in that situation: hotspot of light, overly white light, flat-on angle gives you no clues to the shape and obliterates texture, and leaves the climbers face in deep shaddow. This probably illustrates the limitations of using led headtorches more than owt else.

On a more positive note, no lightstand in shot.

why if you wanted that effect couldn't you just use a flash and a snoot/grid of some type? Seems odd to go down the head torch route.
I'm quite psyched to try and get some lime shots using some of my strobist stuff, I think things like powerband with its obvious curve might lend itself to some playing (if you see me at the tor with far too much gear please don't take the piss too much).

[Tris]

(if you see me at the tor with far too much gear please don't take the piss too much).

[account_inactive]

(if you see me at the tor with far too much gear please don't take the piss too much).

I thought Jim had lost his cameras?

[Yossarian]

Aye, but its a good one

I'll be honest, i dont rate that as a great example of off camers lighting, and certainly not one of keith's best. It's got a lot of the aspects i'd usually aim to avoid in that situation: hotspot of light, overly white light, flat-on angle gives you no clues to the shape and obliterates texture, and leaves the climbers face in deep shaddow. This probably illustrates the limitations of using led headtorches more than owt else.

On a more positive note, no lightstand in shot.

why if you wanted that effect couldn't you just use a flash and a snoot/grid of some type? Seems odd to go down the head torch route.
I'm quite psyched to try and get some lime shots using some of my strobist stuff, I think things like powerband with its obvious curve might lend itself to some playing (if you see me at the tor with far too much gear please don't take the piss too much).

That shot is fucking awful.  To anyone other than a climber (with an interest in that particular event) it is laughably bad.  There are times when you're better off leaving the bloody thing in your bag (or fanny pack) and just watching the action.  If he'd put the guy in a skeleton suit then maybe just MAYBE he'd have pulled it off, but like that, no...

[Johnny Brown]

Is this the future? Will we be sat in pubs with robots making inane interjections whilst we all blank them? Progress is all well and good but sometimes I think its gone too far.

[Jim]

Is this the future? Will we be sat in pubs with robots making inane interjections whilst we all blank them? Progress is all well and good but sometimes I think its gone too far.

sounds awesome.
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