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Author Topic: City at night  (Read 2658 times)

Justan

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City at night
« on: March 19, 2010, 05:24:05 pm »



Comments?

Dick Roadnight

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City at night
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2010, 06:16:24 pm »

Quote from: Justan
Comments?
I think that most wide angle/panoramic shots would be better if "cropped" down, and I think that the sky scrapers with an interesting foreground would have made a better picture.
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fredjeang

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City at night
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2010, 07:41:36 pm »

Hi Justan,

I think there is a nice proposal about the gradation exposure from right to left, but IMO, the left side could be worked more in post-prod in the highlights that are kind of burned.
Although at this scale is difficult to appreciate for how much but the city seems overexposed to me.
There is something with the blue in the boats shades from the center to the left...I'm not sure if it's not too pushed.
Complicated image with many good things and some delicates points but more post production and you got it IMO.
Waiting to see the other posts.

Regards,

Fred.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2010, 07:42:12 pm by fredjeang »
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Justan

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City at night
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2010, 10:31:30 pm »

Quote from: fredjeang
Hi Justan,

I think there is a nice proposal about the gradation exposure from right to left, but IMO, the left side could be worked more in post-prod in the highlights that are kind of burned.
Although at this scale is difficult to appreciate for how much but the city seems overexposed to me.
There is something with the blue in the boats shades from the center to the left...I'm not sure if it's not too pushed.
Complicated image with many good things and some delicates points but more post production and you got it IMO.
Waiting to see the other posts.

Regards,

Fred.


Thanks very much for your thoughtful feedback.

I can see why you say the city lights look over exposed. After your comment I looked again and there is a building right behind the marina that’s light colored and is very light against the surroundings. Other than that the work file and study prints aren’t over baked, at least imo.

I don’t know what to make of the blue shift. It’s in the raw files for the sweep. I played with curves for some time in PS but couldn’t massage it out without making the photo look as if it had been mugged. It amounts to yet another reason to get a book on working with ACR.

Here is a mere 3 frame stitch from another part of the series. The boats have the same cast, but it's gone from the sky



RSL

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City at night
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2010, 11:24:07 am »

Justan, "Mere?" The picture violates the "rule" that the foreground should be lighter than the background, but there's enough detail in the darkened boats to make the whole thing work, and work very well. Bravo!
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Justan

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City at night
« Reply #5 on: March 20, 2010, 01:27:01 pm »

Thanks Russ!

The goal of the sequence was to establish the viewpoint and quickly transition it to being silhouetted by the city lights – and the lights the city projects onto the sky. The prints are waaaaaaay smoother for the color/tone gradients than the jpg. I guess that is part of what happens when reducing many panels to one tiny one. Love the new ‘pod, btw - Manfrotto base, Gitzo head.

Give me some feedback, if you will. These snaps were each 30 seconds long. I'm thinking that the blue cast is a result of long exposure noise. What do you think? Any suggestions on how to correct for it? I could get back about 2 stops from the lens but wanted to keep some of the foreground sharp. They were shot at 100 iso with the camera’s long exposure NR on.

RSL

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City at night
« Reply #6 on: March 20, 2010, 03:26:02 pm »

Justan, Frankly, I haven't a clue... however: I gather from what you said that you're shooting jpg. If you are, what are you using for a white point setting? If you're using "automatic," the camera's going to make a different color adjustment for each exposure. Looking at the first picture I see a lot more blue in the left part of the sky than on the right, and I see light from incandescents that probably dominated the white point adjustment in that frame. Those lights probably are at about 3000 degrees Kelvin, and an automatic while point probably is going to treat them as if they were about 5500 to 6000 degrees Kelvin. I can't guess what the result of that's likely to be. I can't imagine that long exposure NR would produce that result, but I've been wrong before.

If I were up against this one, I'd experiment. I'd go back there -- or to some place where I could get roughly the same scene, and try exposures at various white point presets. I'd also shoot the series in raw and then make sure I've set all the frames to the same color temperature before I stitch them. I'd try the shots with and without long exposure NR. In other words, all I'm giving you is a wag -- it's not even a swag.

A good tripod is a joy forever. With the weather as crappy as it's been in Florida this winter I hadn't used a tripod for months... until yesterday when I went out to a little town nearby -- Center Hill, FL -- and shot this at a long-abandoned gas station. Manfrotto legs, Flashpoint ball head. D3, 24-70mm, ISO 200, f/22, Nik Sharpener Pro to clobber the f/22 diffusion softening.

[attachment=20979:Center_Hill.jpg]
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feppe

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City at night
« Reply #7 on: March 20, 2010, 03:30:47 pm »

Quote from: Justan
Give me some feedback, if you will. These snaps were each 30 seconds long. I'm thinking that the blue cast is a result of long exposure noise. What do you think? Any suggestions on how to correct for it? I could get back about 2 stops from the lens but wanted to keep some of the foreground sharp. They were shot at 100 iso with the camera’s long exposure NR on.

Doubt it has anything to do with long exposures as there's no reciprocity failure with digital, but I'll let the more technically inclined answer that.

You should be able to get rid of the blue cast by desaturating the blue channel and masking out those parts.

I like the shot. Not sure about the mostly negative space on the right, though. It gives tension to the photo, but there is a bit too much of it.

Justan

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City at night
« Reply #8 on: March 21, 2010, 11:30:50 am »

Quote from: RSL

> I gather from what you said that you're shooting jpg.

I long ago started shooting raw, but am and will be learning the advantages of it for a while to come....

>If you're using "automatic," the camera's going to make a different color adjustment for each exposure.

This was exactly correct! The color temp was shifting in each frame. i equalized them previously and that caused the problem. i went back and re-worked it with an eye for the results rather than the numbers, and the result is below.





This weekend has been a *very nice* opportunity to learn a bit about ACR and also how some things affect panos differently than single image shots. I also bought a book on ACR written in part by one of the member's here - Jeff Schewe. Looking foreword to getting it!

> I can't imagine that long exposure NR would produce that result, but I've been wrong before.

Correct again!

> A good tripod is a joy forever. With the weather as crappy as it's been in Florida this winter I hadn't used a tripod for months... until yesterday when I went out to a little town nearby -- Center Hill, FL -- and shot this at a long-abandoned gas station. Manfrotto legs, Flashpoint ball head. D3, 24-70mm, ISO 200, f/22,

[attachment=20979:Center_Hill.jpg]

The subtleties of colors is very cool! The new 'pod permits me to push the lens to the limit and as long as it's out of strong wind it's stable. I'm happy enough with it that i've abandoned the idea of a pano pod. Plus a friend has a seldom used and very heavy Manfrotto pod that stretches out to about 8' that i can borrow. The bad news is that i had to switch to an internal frame pack to carry my foto stuff due mostly to the extra weight of the pod. But it's worth it!

> Nik Sharpener Pro to clobber the f/22 diffusion softening.

I used Nik Define on this shot. There is definitely more Nik software is on my horizon.

Thanks, as always for your great feedback, Russ!

Justan

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City at night
« Reply #9 on: March 21, 2010, 11:38:14 am »

Quote from: feppe

> Doubt it has anything to do with long exposures as there's no reciprocity failure with digital, but I'll let the more technically inclined answer that.

You nailed it! I was thinking that it was blown bits but instead it was shifting color temperature.

> You should be able to get rid of the blue cast by desaturating the blue channel and masking out those parts.

I tried that at one point but it didn’t work as I wanted. Fortunately the solution was in adjusting the color temp of the individual frames. Never tried this before. It did wonders!

> I like the shot. Not sure about the mostly negative space on the right, though. It gives tension to the photo, but there is a bit too much of it.

Thank you! I've gone back and forth on that both for the image being too wide and for it being too dark. On the redo I lightened it ever so slightly and also cropped the bottom a bit, to eliminate most of a strong light source and to let the viewer enjoy the soft glow it produced instead.

You can see on the right center someone was watching TV in their tub. I may blot that out in the final copy.

Thanks for your feedback here and in my other pano thread!
« Last Edit: March 21, 2010, 12:44:25 pm by Justan »
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