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Thread: Lights Camera Action ...

  1. #1
    dje's Avatar
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    Lights Camera Action ...

    Our fair city is currently celebrating spring with it's annual festival which includes a light show every night for a few weeks. I have never tried photographing this sort of thing but decided to give it a go last night. I used the following approach

    manual focus (on one of the buildings)
    large aperture (f/3.5) and increased ISO (400) to get as fast a shutter speed as possible (still slow though - around 1/2 sec) - the idea being to avoid too much blurring of the moving light beams
    tripod
    shot after shot after shot to try and get the best moments of the rapidly changing lights

    I was reasonably happy with these two shots but I'll leave it up to you to decide - comments welcome.

    Dave

    Lights Camera Action ...

    Lights Camera Action ...

  2. #2
    Moderator Donald's Avatar
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    Re: Lights Camera Action ...

    Quote Originally Posted by dje View Post
    I was reasonably happy with these two shots but I'll leave it up to you to decide - comments welcome
    I think you should be very happy indeed. These are super (they've got to be viewed at the larger size in the lightbox).

    They convey a great buzz of excitement and energy. Well done, Dave.

  3. #3
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    Re: Lights Camera Action ...

    Spectacular show and captures Dave.

    Consider selling them to the local tourist office! I am sure they will love them.

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    Re: Lights Camera Action ...

    Quote Originally Posted by MilT0s View Post
    Spectacular show and captures Dave.
    Consider selling them to the local tourist office! I am sure they will love them.
    Agreed. Spectacular is the word.

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    Re: Lights Camera Action ...

    Great shots.

    Karm

  6. #6
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    Re: Lights Camera Action ...

    I concur - fantastic shots! I particularly like the bottom one because of the effect of lighting on the water from the boat and the buildings on the right. Did you use a different aperture for this shot?

  7. #7
    dje's Avatar
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    Re: Lights Camera Action ...

    Thanks everybody for your comments. James the same aperture and shutter speed settings were used for both shots (f/3.5,0.5 sec).

    Here's one more I processed this morning.

    Lights Camera Action ...

  8. #8
    dubaiphil's Avatar
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    Re: Lights Camera Action ...

    Very very good, Dave

  9. #9
    dje's Avatar
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    Re: Lights Camera Action ...

    Thanks Phil

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    Re: Lights Camera Action ...

    Such an interesting, surreal effect! For me, the clouds are a little distracting. I wonder if the images would be even more dramatic if you took the entire sky to black.

  11. #11
    dje's Avatar
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    Re: Lights Camera Action ...

    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Buckley View Post
    Such an interesting, surreal effect! For me, the clouds are a little distracting. I wonder if the images would be even more dramatic if you took the entire sky to black.
    Interesting point Mike. I would have preferred a nice clear sky and I did play with the black level slider on the Levels adjustment to darken the sky and make the clouds much less visible. In the end I left it as shot but I might have another look at that.

    Thanks for commenting.

    Dave

  12. #12

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    Re: Lights Camera Action ...

    Superb pics Dave, hope to visit Brisbane sometime - have to keep an eye on the events there

  13. #13
    dje's Avatar
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    Re: Lights Camera Action ...

    Quote Originally Posted by enaiman View Post
    Superb pics Dave, hope to visit Brisbane sometime - have to keep an eye on the events there
    Thanks Eugen. Yes it's all happening here !!
    Last edited by dje; 11th September 2012 at 09:15 AM.

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