Well Steve was brave enough to put some photos up first, so it is about time someone else puts something up for a grilling. I thought I would follow his lead and post a night time shot of lights reflecting in water.
This photo was taken on a recent holiday to Sydney. I have to admit I have never taken any lights reflecting in water photos before, and don't really know the technique for doing it. (It was mainly a fluke :)
Metadata:
Canon 40D at 40mm (EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM).
Exposure: 15s, f/8.0, Iso 100
Tripod mounted.
So what worked, what didn't?
(One thing I can think of right away was my time of day perhaps. I've read that you should take landscape shots in the golden hour at the beginning and end of the day, but I've never managed to try that myself yet. I'm guessing if I picked a better time around twilight, I might have captured some colour in the sky perhaps, rather than straight black).
Cheers gents!
Arg.
ReplyDeleteThe bad:
I just noticed that this was the shot with the ferry moving on the left hand side as it was going out of frame. I don't have the other versions handy for critique, so this will have to stand on its own.
Hi Craig,
ReplyDeleteIt's about time someone else posted an image for me to have a crack at.
Nice shot of the Coat-Hanger. I really like the potential for colour in this image. The harbour is like a rainbow. I wouldn't worry about the black sky, after all it's a night image and it focuses attention on other colours in the image. As they say, less is more.
However what's really bugging me about this image is that the bridge is not straight. It looks like it's falling backwards and it might also have some slight counter clockwise rotation too. For me and with a literal shot of architecture like this, vertical lines have to be straight. Otherwise it just looks like some tourist snapped a quickie from the corner of their eye.
Also as I zoom in, it looks like the whole image is a little soft. With a 15 second shutter speed, you really need to lock down that camera so it doesn't move. What kind of tripod were you using? Was it a windy night? Did you kick it?
In a small print the ferry is hardly noticeable, but if you're thinking of printing big then perhaps waiting for it to move away would be better. Timing is everything.
Another variation to consider shooting would be to add a neutral density filter to stretch out the shutter speed another 3 stops or so. Two minutes might soften all that high contrast in the water and just leave some soft colours. Ten stops might even make that annoying boat moving through the image disappear too.
Also the colours in the water look a little muted. I'd perhaps boost a little extra saturation into those, especially the reds.
Brutal enough?
steve
Cheers Steve,
ReplyDeleteYou've raised some good points.
Regarding the leaning of the bridge. I couldn't decide if the bottoms of the pillars should be on the same line, or if the road should be straight. I think the pillars were not straight up and down but were tapered. This is when it would be really handy to edit the image, and repost it yourself to explain how you would tilt it. This was what Geoff was talking about in his previous post.
Feel free to edit my original post and upload an adjusted image. I mean we are here to try a few things out, so I don't mind if you add to my original post.
I was using a manfrotto tripod. It was a bit tricky because it was very windy and I was trying to shield the camera with my body to stop the breeze.
I had never even considered trying to stop it down even further. Considering you gave me the tip about the ND filter earlier, I'll definitely try that next time I do a night shot.
I agree, that the colours are a little muted. I haven't experimented much with adjusting those yet.
Cheers dude!
And feel free to twist the image and edit my original post ok.
I've got another one to put up in a sec.
Craig,
ReplyDeleteTrying to use a tripod when it's very windy is a little tricky. Next time try weighing it down with you bag or even holding on to it.
I was out last night trying to make some 4 minute exposures of Tokyo Bay but had a similar problem, keeping the tripod stable. I got the effect I was looking for in the water but the buildings weren't very sharp because I was trying to handhold the filter in front of the lens and kept bumping the camera. I need to get the proper sized step up adaptor.
Since the bridge isn't square on to the camera you can't straighten it by using the road as a reference. If you're not using a camera with a built in level you could try getting a hot-shoe spirit level. Indispensable for landscape/architecture photography, in my opinion.
All is not lost though. It can be fixed in post processing. For this image you'll need to do two adjustments. First fix the cameras rotation and then fix the cameras tilt angle. This is why some spirit levels come with two bubbles.
Since this shot is oblique, thus many horizontal lines converge on the vanishing point, I would go with vertical lines as a reference. The closer to the middle of the frame, the less distortion they will have too. You have some nice vertical lines in the vertical iron supports for the arch around the middle of the frame. I would use those for a reference.
An alternative idea with water shots is you could base level of the feel of the water. Water never lies. It's always level. In this shot, it looks like the water could drain away to the left.
The pillars at the ends of the bridge are tapered so they won't be straight but the one closest to the viewer looks angled to the left as it rises, one side more so than the other but both are angled. However the right hand side pillars look angled to the right. You'll need to use Lightroom's distortion adjustment tool to straighten this or buy a tilt-shift lens and shoot it again.
Looking at the image again, I see a speck of light above the bridge. I could be a star or an aircraft. Either way it's distracting and looks like noise or just. I'd just go ahead and clone that out too.
steve
Hi Craig, nice picture. I don't really notice the twisting, or falling away of the bridge that Steve mentioned, but I do find the dot in the sky distracting. There's also a big white line about road height on the left side of the image. Not sure what caused it, possibly the ferry?
ReplyDeleteI hadn't really thought about using the ND filter here, so will definitely have to try that the next time I take a night shot.
Geoff.
Cheers guys.
ReplyDeleteThe ferry is what caused the white lines about road height. I should have posted one without that, but I was keen to get something up here so I posted the wrong one. Still the other version would still have had the other items you gents mentioned so it wasn't that big a deal.
I didn't notice the dot in the upper left in the sky before but I do now you've both pointed it out :)
Also, thanks for your tip on looking at the vertical lines on the bridge to help sort out some leveling. I'll remember to keep an eye out for that next time.
Cheers!