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Photo of the Day (December 2007)
- Thread starter valdore
- Start date
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Wow Carl. Thank you for the extremely kind words! When a picture I take can bring a smile to anyone's face it makes worth nearly losing my two big toes to frost bite to get these shots worth it!
Having the D300 helps a bit....but you can definitely get similar results with a D40 or D50 (my old body). I think, straight out of the camera, the D300 looks better for sure, but with a little bit of minor post processing, the D40 and the D50 can get equally good results. I upgraded to the D300 for better low light shooting, better auto focusing system, the beautiful LCD on the back, higher fps shooting, and the 100 percent viewfinder. These things help you get a good shot, but dont get you a good shot alone.
There are a few things that contributed this getting this photo. One...Boston Commons is a pretty beautiful place in and of itself.
Two, the time these were taken. If you look back, i posted a few other night shots, but the sky was pitch black. This is because those were taken around 8~9pm....well after sunset. If you start shooting right at sunset, and keep snapping away a good 45 minutes to an hour later, you can get really cool colors in the sky (same thing with sun rises, but just an hour to 45 minutes before). Even though it will appear dark to the natural eye, a long exposure will catch that tad bit of color that actually exists from the sun. Third, is the mixed lighting. The look is very surreal because there are light sources everywhere in this photo and they are all rendering different colors and they are all various strengths. There are a few street lights rending white/blue, the holiday lights and lights on the bridge are rending yellow, there are some florescent lights rendering green. And there is a chimney stack building unseen in the background that was puffing out smoke which is where that red-ish streaking cloud came from.I walk through the commons a lot and when I saw all the lights, i knew it'd make a great picture. I wanted some snow shots, so i just waited a bit, got a nice big storm, and from there it was waiting for a saturday where I could actually get out at the proper time as I get out of work a good hour and half after sunset.
So, i'm glad you enjoyed it, and hopefully soon enough we will be seeing your own shots!
Just got my XTi, and we just put up our tree. What better way to celebrate both, than to take a picture of the tree!
click for bigger.
click for bigger.
One of the reasons this shot works, IMO, is shooting while there's still some light in the sky... instead of waiting till the sky's gone black.
I love shooting during the hour after the sun has set. Tripod, long exposure, and that deep rich colour in the sky (no need for filters, HDR, etc... if you get the timing right). A lighter sky seems to reduce the dynamic range too, so that artificial light complement the scene... and don't just come out as burnt-out highlights.
Within that hour of twilight, there'll be a 'window' of just a few minutes, when ambient light and artificial lighting will be 'in balance'. If you press the shutter then, the picture won't need any kind of post-production.
Viewing the missing falls...
People gather at a lookout spot to view the overwhelming spectacle of Willamette Falls virtually disappearing as the river downstream rose almost to the level of the top of the falls... scanned from print.
Canon A2
Canon 28-105 f/3.5-4.5 USM
Kodak t-max 400
People gather at a lookout spot to view the overwhelming spectacle of Willamette Falls virtually disappearing as the river downstream rose almost to the level of the top of the falls... scanned from print.
Canon A2
Canon 28-105 f/3.5-4.5 USM
Kodak t-max 400
I took this with a D40 - I'm very confident of its abilities.
5 sec
f /3.8
ISO 400
Nikon D40
I remember taking this when I was practicing some long night exposures. I could've sworn this was a 5 minute exposure, but the EXIF says otherwise. I guess the still clouds also say otherwise.
You pegged it. The clouds clearly say that it was not 5 minutes, plus when you're talking about digital a 5 minute exposure on even the finest cameras will result in excessive noise...something I don't see in your photo all too well. Check out this link to learn more about what 5 minutes can do.
5 seconds on digital is a whole lot different than 5 minutes on film. What you did manage to do in 5 seconds was get some great cloud definition. That truly makes the photo. The bright light in the center--not so much.
The d40 as you said it is a very capable camera and as far as I'm concerned it is better than the D40s.
Good work.
A five minute exposure with that street light right in the middle would have done bad things to the rest of the picture. As it is, though, you have just enough light to pick up important bits of all the fun stuff in the shot. Nice work.
Took this in school one day... Just a random bag laying on a table, but I did like the background:
Taken with my Nikon D70s... Think I had my 70-300mm on there... Too lazy to check EXIF right now.
Taken with my Nikon D70s... Think I had my 70-300mm on there... Too lazy to check EXIF right now.
"The Hotel President: Glad it wasn't torn down"
Three tripod mounted RAWs // HDR
Shutter: varied
Aperture: f/7.0
Focal Length: 17mm
ISO 100
Three tripod mounted RAWs // HDR
Shutter: varied
Aperture: f/7.0
Focal Length: 17mm
ISO 100
"The Hotel President: Glad it wasn't torn down"
Three tripod mounted RAWs // HDR
Shutter: varied
Aperture: f/7.0
Focal Length: 17mm
ISO 100
This is one of my favorites of yours. I like the street level, closer view as compared to the bigger, more distant landscapes, although they are also very dramatic and pleasing images. It's just surreal enough to make one look closely at it to see if it's "real" or cgi. I love the old classic hotels, and you did this one justice.
Here's my contribution.
Instead of having that don't copy thing on the image, just post lower resolution. IMO Nice photo, but I can't see past the text....