cgnjeep
Observer
The photo was taken from an outlook off of the Trans-Canada highway right outside of Kamloops B.C.
That odd bit are hoodoos that are found everywhere around the area.
Tucson T4R
Expedition Leader
Lake Powell
Morning light on Lake Powell.
Morning light on Lake Powell.
Blackdawg
Dr. Frankenstein
I've not done a huge amount of night shots but it's been a pretty painless process, especially since I when digital.
"Night" shots of buildings are actually better taken at dusk, depending on the time of year you may need to do a double exposure to get the lights because they often don't come on until the best part of the ambient light has gone. Here's an example (on film)
The initial exposure was shot before dark, there was almost no lights on at this time. Then I waited for the street and building lights and took another exposure. Then I decided I wanted a lot of car headlight streaks but the cars were coming in waves (presumably because of traffic lights somewhere down the road) so I waited again for a "wave" and exposed the film again, I did this 4-5 times.
The and result is as you see, all on one sheet of film. In the digital age you would take them all as separate frames and combine in Photoshop. In fact using this approach is way better because you can organise the various exposures so there's no blow out in the highlights (ie a floodlit sign).
Usually a really long exposure has the affect of "equalising" the brightness range of the various subjects. Buy that I mean that a bright subject (street light) will blow out within seconds, but once it reaches 100% it can't go any further, meanwhile the darker subjects are getting more exposure. So as long as there's not too much flare I find just opening the shutter for a "while" and closing pretty much always works.
Digital is fantastic for this sort of work, it picks up light levels and colours you can't even see.
So basically HDR?
I guess I need to get photo shop then. I have Lightroom and it doesn't do HDR.
graynomad
Photographer, traveller
Be careful with HDR though, the results (almost) always look false. That said I've seen some nice work using it, it doesn't look "real" but it is still nice and it's really growing on me I admit.
Yes I'd get PS if you plan to get serious, I haven't used LR much but from what I can see it's not supposed to be a serious manipulation tool, more a DAM (Digital Asset Management) tool.
In the above example I would have taken say 20 exposures, I would pick maybe the 5 best and drop them into a single image as layers. Then I would manipulate the transparency of each layer until it looked right. Something like this
Not quite the same but still the result of a few exposures over a period of 1-2 hours. A few daylight shots as the light waned (to get the landscape in the background), a dusk shot (to get a sky about as I wanted), the I went and had dinner and came back after dark, then a few flash painting exposures (to light the building). If I was dead keen I would have done a further exposure to get really long star trails, maybe next time.
Then I pick the best of the 3 different exposures and merge them using layers as I mentioned above.
Yes I'd get PS if you plan to get serious, I haven't used LR much but from what I can see it's not supposed to be a serious manipulation tool, more a DAM (Digital Asset Management) tool.
In the above example I would have taken say 20 exposures, I would pick maybe the 5 best and drop them into a single image as layers. Then I would manipulate the transparency of each layer until it looked right. Something like this
Not quite the same but still the result of a few exposures over a period of 1-2 hours. A few daylight shots as the light waned (to get the landscape in the background), a dusk shot (to get a sky about as I wanted), the I went and had dinner and came back after dark, then a few flash painting exposures (to light the building). If I was dead keen I would have done a further exposure to get really long star trails, maybe next time.
Then I pick the best of the 3 different exposures and merge them using layers as I mentioned above.
Blackdawg
Dr. Frankenstein
Ahhhh. Gotcha. Very cool technique. Ill have to get PS and learn it and try it sometime.
Just for clarification purposes. What is the difference from what your doing and HDR?? I agree most HDR stuff is very obvious it's heavily edited. I like your way and it's results much better. Even though it take a long time to get. I appreciate that kinda of stuff.
As for LR. I actually enjoy it. It's very easy to import MANY raw files and sort them out quickly and do some nice edits. It is definitely no PS but it is still very handy. You should check it out. From what I have gathered people like using both. LR for organizing and whittling down to the good shots. Do so simple stuff. Then use PS to really get into the editing. Some say they even reimport into PS and mass export. But that's just what I have read.
That said. I shall contribute some photos since I'm talking a lot
This would have been a good one with a second exposure for the mountains
Forgive me on these..was before my dslr so done with my iPad..
Just for clarification purposes. What is the difference from what your doing and HDR?? I agree most HDR stuff is very obvious it's heavily edited. I like your way and it's results much better. Even though it take a long time to get. I appreciate that kinda of stuff.
As for LR. I actually enjoy it. It's very easy to import MANY raw files and sort them out quickly and do some nice edits. It is definitely no PS but it is still very handy. You should check it out. From what I have gathered people like using both. LR for organizing and whittling down to the good shots. Do so simple stuff. Then use PS to really get into the editing. Some say they even reimport into PS and mass export. But that's just what I have read.
That said. I shall contribute some photos since I'm talking a lot
This would have been a good one with a second exposure for the mountains
Forgive me on these..was before my dslr so done with my iPad..
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roverrocks
Expedition Leader
What's the story of this old freighter? Storm driven onto the beach?
photo_i
Explorer
roverrocks
Expedition Leader
That is very interesting. Sounds like a movie waiting to be made. Thanks for the link.
Blackdawg
Dr. Frankenstein
so i think i answered my own question..
HDR is more like same spot, same time, different exposures.
what you did was same spot, different times, different exposures, different layers.
I just got an HDR program and am going to try some HDR stuff. Then ill get PS and work into the layer stuff.
photo_i
Explorer
graynomad
Photographer, traveller
I do have it installed and have played a little bit. Trouble is I've been using a DIY program I started writing about 15 years ago
http://siiman.robgray.com
and I'm not sure how to import the data base and I can't type in the details of 20,000+ photos
Also my program does all sorts of things I think LR doesn't.That said I am interested in converting as my program is written in VB6 and that's no longer supported by Microsoft.