Lights On Tampa

[rwfarnell]

Led by Mayor Buckhorn, Tampa Electric and Peoples Gas, and the Lights On Tampa Committee, Lights On Tampa: Agua Luces is an initiative to permanently light nine landmark bridges in downtown Tampa. To-date, five of the nine bridges, have been light by lighting artist, Tracey Dear. The bridges are: Platt Street Bridge, Brorein Street Bridge, Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority overpass, Kennedy Boulevard Bridge, and the CSX Railroad Bridge. For more information on Tracey Dear and his approach to Agua Luces, click here. The lighting is a permanent addition to the downtown.

There are specific vistas along the Tampa Riverwalk (listed below) which are vantage points for viewing the five different bridges. Parts of the Riverwalk take you under the bridges for an up-close and personal experience with the lights.

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2.


3.


4.


5.

[Stinky]

All are great. Like #2 the best.

[Mike Buckley]

I also prefer the second one and would like it even more if there was more space at the bottom.

At the posted size, there appears to be a really nasty dust bunny on the left side. I know it's not that because it also is reflected in the water. I think it might be a flag. I would get rid of it when providing an image at the Internet size so people don't think it's dirt on your sensor.

[dje]

A very nice set of images Rob. Great colours and exposure.

Dave

[Donald]

Good work.

I wondered if numbers 3 and 4 need to a counter-clockwise rotation as there seems to be a bit of lean to the right on the bridges (but that tower building could be a problem in #4 if you did that). Or am I just seeing things?

[Mike Buckley]

The problem with trying to level bridges in a photo is that longer bridges are often built higher in the middle. So, if you capture only part of the bridge, leveling it will tilt everything else in the image. As an example, the bridge is not level in image #3 but the light poles are vertical. In image #4, which has the added complication of perspective distortion, the building that is just a little to the right of center is perfectly level even though the bridge isn't. In these situations, I always go with what looks best to my eye and ignore whatever is accurate or inaccurate.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Rob,

I also see the not level-ness of #3 and #4, but I don't judge by the bridge deck, not even the light poles, I go by the reflections - the water is level so the reflection must be directly in line with the light source - anything not so; is going to look wrong.

As I see them, you have #3 OK on the right most lamp, but due to rotation and perspective issues, it gets worse the further left you go.
#4 is correct about 3/4 of the way across (from left) just on the left hand edge of the dark building in front of the tower

The way I'd attempt to level these is to;
a) pick a light and its reflection from the centre of frame (after cropping) and rotate until that is vertically aligned
b) then look to use the perspective tool to get the ones towards the left and/or right similarly aligned

Our brain may accept some leaning verticals when a shot is obviously looking up, which explains why the tower in #4 doesn't look too bad, but with reduced visual references in night shots, it is often even more important to correct perspective errors, more so when reflections are involved, because they give the game away.

I believe you'll find it will then "look best"

Cheers,

[rwfarnell]

Thanks everyone for the help. I will take the advice and post more, after I've made the corrections.
Rob