How two photographers captured the identical millisecond in time: Digital Images Evaluation
On March 3rd, throughout a big East Coast winter storm, I headed to the ocean to seize some wave motion. My travels finally took me to Nice Island Commons in New Citadel, NH the place Whaleback Lighthouse is prominently featured 0.8 miles offshore. I hoped to seize large waves crashing across the lighthouse, and Mom Nature didn’t disappoint.
Nice Island Widespread is a large open park the place folks come to picnic in the course of the summer season and to look at the ocean in the course of the winter. After arriving, I arrange my tripod and my Canon 5D Mark IV with Sigma 150-600mm lens on a tripod and positioned myself simply to the correct of a tree with a view to assist scale back the pummeling Northerly winds. As lots of you already know, it’s a problem protecting 600mm secure in excessive winds, even on a tripod.
I set the digicam up after which waited till I noticed a wave beginning to hit the lighthouse. I then saved firing till the splash ended, not figuring out forward of time the motion of the wave. Most photographs by no means panned out, however about three of them over the course of about 45 minutes have been fairly respectable.
As soon as again at residence, I culled via the pictures and select one to edit and add to Instagram, changing an earlier add that was accomplished in haste whereas nonetheless within the parking zone.
When a neighborhood TV station shared the photograph to their Fb web page (with permission) it began to obtain a considerable amount of shares, feedback, and likes; nonetheless, there was one remark that talked about that I had stolen the picture from one other New England photographer, Eric Gendon. After letting the commenter know that it was certainly my picture and that I possess the unique RAW file, I headed over to the opposite photographers web page and was blown away.
We had what seemed like the very same picture, taken on the precise millisecond in time, from what seemed like the identical precise location and perspective.
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Except for selections made in Lightroom, the pictures at first look look just about similar other than water in entrance and a few of the white caps being in several place. Even then, the white caps have been similar in measurement and form—and I do know these issues are simply moved utilizing the clone stamp in Photoshop—so I used to be involved that possibly MY picture was stolen and altered a bit.
Initially, I solely had entry to his shared, low-resolution, picture so I wasn’t in a position to make out a few of the very high-quality particulars that finally helped to persuade me that we each had originals. After overlaying and aligning the pictures in Photoshop I used to be blown away that the lighthouse and waves have been carbon copies, nearly to the pixel. As talked about already, there have been many variations within the foreground water and the white caps on the horizon, and it was these variations that held me again from claiming he stole my picture.
It wasn’t till one other native photographer began evaluating my photograph to the next decision model of Eric’s picture that he observed that the iron gating across the prime of the lighthouse had barely completely different spacing between the vertical bars in comparison with my picture. This might point out that the opposite photographer was doubtless standing just a bit bit left of the place I used to be standing.
Because the 60D makes use of an APS-C sensor he would have additionally doubtless been again a bit of additional to compensate for the 1.6x “zoom” / crop of the sensor or utilizing a shorter focal size to compensate. This might additionally clarify the white caps being in several positions.
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Nevertheless, the truth that the lighthouse doesn’t actually present any rotational modifications—and the crashing wave is a precise match—makes this all of the extra outstanding that these have been captured randomly from two completely different photographers.
The subsequent morning, Eric woke as much as a flood of messages from me in addition to different photographers, and instantly contacted me to share his EXIF information, and to agree that it was astounding that we each captured the very same picture of water movement on the precise millisecond in time. What makes this much more wonderful is that this wasn’t a deliberate occasion (aka. sporting occasion, shuttle launch, and many others.).
I additionally didn’t know Eric—we every selected this location randomly, and we each shot with completely different cameras (60D and 5D Mark IV) with completely different measurement sensors.
The 60D has a burst mode of 5.3fps, the 5DMKIV is 7fps; we each used a 600mm focal size; our exposures and depth-of-field have been nearly the identical as effectively (F8 aperture, ISO 400, 1/1600th shutter vs. F8, ISO 320, 1/1000th shutter); and, finally, we each chosen the identical photograph from that day to advertise. Come to search out out we have been solely 28 meters away from one another. He was hunkered down beneath a picnic enclosure to assist block a few of the wind and I used to be up towards a tree to assist scale back the wind.
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I did a Google search to see how typically this occurs and will solely discover one article from 2011 the place two photographers filming a surf competitors on Huntington Seashore ended up catching a just about similar picture of a surfer and its wave motion.
When you shoot water in burst mode you know the way completely different every publicity is even when the distinction in time is simply 1/7th of a second between photographs. And I’ve been main night-sky pictures workshops for 5 years and have had effectively over 200 photographers who are sometimes aiming on the similar topic, taking pictures with related cameras and lenses, and capturing on the similar second in time, even doing steady taking pictures for time lapse, and till now I’ve by no means seen two pictures that have been so shut as to be digital clones of one another.
Whereas it is a uncommon incidence, I imagine that with cameras getting quicker and photographers taking extra time to arrange for his or her photographs, I’ve to think about that these conditions will occur extra regularly. It occurs day-after-day with stationary or sluggish movement objects (buildings, solar/moon rise) however nearly by no means with water motion.
One commenter on my FB submit talked about how this error brings to mild the significance that post-processing performs in making your pictures your personal. Right here we had two primarily similar pictures—one edited to protect a extra pure really feel, whereas the opposite picture was edited to boost the drama and emotion of the scene.
Photographer Data
Ron Risman
Web site: http://www.timelapseworkshops.com
Instagram: Timeographer
Fb: risman
Eric Gendron
Web site: http://www.ericgendronphotography.com/
Instagram: ericgendronphotography
Fb: ericgendronphotography
Ron Risman is a New England-based photographer, cinematographer, and time-lapse specialist with over 30 years of expertise behind the digicam. You will discover extra of his work on his website, Instagram, and Facebook page.