NYC Waterfront

[Jeremy Payne]

I've been thinking about long exposure shots on the NYC waterfront a lot lately ... and now that I have a new ND filter that fits my 70-200 I started shooting some stuff last evening.

This is the idea ... shot with a 3 stop ND filter with the D700 and 70-200vr + 1.7x TC II ... this was more of a "proof" than "production" ... I didn't use mirror lock-up or weight the tripod.  It could definitely be sharper.

[jasonrandolph]

I think sharpness is fine, and I like your idea.  I would, however, zoom out a bit to add more atmosphere and include the rest of the foreground shadow.  maybe include some other details from the surroundings in the shot.  This one feels to me like a quick snap, which, judging by your comments, this may very well be.  The composition as-is feels incomplete.

[Jeremy Payne]

I think sharpness is fine, and I like your idea.  I would, however, zoom out a bit to add more atmosphere and include the rest of the foreground shadow.  maybe include some other details from the surroundings in the shot.  This one feels to me like a quick snap, which, judging by your comments, this may very well be.  The composition as-is feels incomplete.

The sharpness is "ok", but nowhere near optimal.  The combination of the TC and no mirror lockup hurts ... but passes for a test.  I printed this one at 8x10 and it looks decent, but I want the end result here to be 15 x 15's and 16 x 20's with possibly one or two really big ones.  Based on where many of these object are relative to shore - at least on the west side where I was - is such that I'll probably rent the 200-400 or 300 f/4 for this.  For the big ones, I may rent a 500mm and shoot some stitched images.

I think the comment about the foreground shadow is a good one , but the concept here is to see these tack sharp static objects rise from the "mist" ... isolating the object from any context other than the "mist".  In this one, I desaturated the water completely.  I'm thinking I'll stick with that, but you never know ...

I will be shooting a lot of these, so stay tuned ...