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Thread: Night Shots of Waikiki - B&W

  1. #1

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    Night Shots of Waikiki - B&W

    Still working on night shots - this time I took my new 50mm 1.8 for a walk in Waikiki. I am still learning both the shooting and processing end of things so any and all C&C welcome on these.

    First the one I have the most doubts/questions about - this one was take at F8 8sec ISO100:

    Night Shots of Waikiki - B&W

    This one came out of the camera very blue and dark although the auto feature in ACR only indicated that the exposure was too low by .05 but it also upped the brightness to over 100! I went with the +.05 but lowered the brightness considerably from that point in processing. It is also very noisy compared to the next image and I'm not sure if that is because there is less overall light in the image? (Colin, I know, I know, but I am still trying to work this noise thing out...)

    I reprocessed this image twice and fiddled with it some more as it seemed like I was losing detail in the water on the right side the first time I processed the image and I really fussed over the light vs. dark image presentation. Overall I'm not to thrilled with this one and am looking for thoughts on how to approach the scene better next time and any PP thoughts that you might have.

    Next is the one that I think is better - shot at a surprising to me F4.5 also 8sec ISO100:

    Night Shots of Waikiki - B&W

    Did I get away with something here at 4.5 or does it work because of the distance from the subject and the fact that the buildings represent a fairly flat focal plane? Other than I don't have a lot of questions on this one and look forward to hearing what you think of it.

    Both images were taken from a similar vantage point but looking in opposite directions in case anyone is curious. I chose to present these image in B&W as the bright colors, combined with the light, in the scene seemed overwhelming.

    Thank you in advance!
    Last edited by ShaneS; 2nd April 2013 at 05:51 AM.

  2. #2
    Shadowman's Avatar
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    Re: Night Shots of Waikiki - B&W

    Very nice images. Your shutter speed made up for the aperture setting and allowed more light to reach the sensor, your ISO setting allowed for more detail in the lights. Notice the difference in blur in the beachcombers between the two images, you could have made them mostly invisible with a longer shutter speed; if they were moving that is.

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    mahfoudhhi's Avatar
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    Re: Night Shots of Waikiki - B&W

    Dear John:
    what do you mean by longer shutter speed? higher or lower shutter speed?
    thank you in advance.

  4. #4

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    Re: Night Shots of Waikiki - B&W

    I think both are quite nice, Shane, and I apparently like the first one better than you do. I would like to see more detail in the trees, though with a shutter speed of 8 seconds, that would be impossible if there was even a hint of wind.

    I also don't see any noise, at least not at this size. A rule of thumb that I like to go by is that if I can't see the noise when viewing the full-size file at about 30%, I don't even attend to it. If someday I want to print a really large print that will display the noise, I'll attend to it then.

    The more I think about both images, I actually like the second one less than the first one. I dislike the people that are so extremely blurred; I would prefer that they are either less blurred (not necessarily with their motion stopped) or that they had disappeared entirely from the image due to a slower shutter speed. I also think I would like it more if it were cropped to eliminate about half of the foreground beach.

  5. #5

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    Re: Night Shots of Waikiki - B&W

    Quote Originally Posted by mahfoudhhi View Post
    Dear John:
    what do you mean by longer shutter speed? higher or lower shutter speed?
    He means a lower (slower) shutter speed. To be perfectly clear, a shutter set at 1/8 second is a longer speed than 1/40 second in that the shutter stays open longer.

  6. #6
    mahfoudhhi's Avatar
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    Re: Night Shots of Waikiki - B&W

    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Buckley View Post
    He means a lower (slower) shutter speed. To be perfectly clear, a shutter set at 1/8 second is a longer speed than 1/40 second in that the shutter stays open longer.
    Thank yo very much Mike.

  7. #7

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    Re: Night Shots of Waikiki - B&W

    Thank you Mike & John. John your aperture shutter speed explanation makes sense now although I must admit to thinking that I blew the image when I saw the aperture initially

    Mike, a friend at work concurs with you that the first image is nicer - so I guess this falls into the category of what do I know? This could be a case of expectations of the image not being met on my part and then not giving myself enough distance to be objective. So I will sit with this one for a bit as I certainly see your point about the people in the second image and gave some thought to cloning out the more ghostlike figures.

    A windless evening on Waikiki beach is very rare as is one with no people moving about which makes the issues you mention (people & tree detail with long exposures) a bit of a challenge...

  8. #8

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    Re: Night Shots of Waikiki - B&W

    Quote Originally Posted by ShaneS View Post
    Mike, a friend at work concurs with you that the first image is nicer - so I guess this falls into the category of what do I know?
    It's much more likely that it falls into the category of what do you like? When it comes to enjoying a photograph, food, music or anything, it's not necessary to know why we prefer something over something else. It's only necessary to acknowledge that we do. When it comes to making a photograph, cooking food, writing music or creating anything, that's when it will be helpful to know why we like it, because knowing that will help us in our attempt to make similarly enjoyable creations.

    This could be a case of expectations of the image not being met on my part and then not giving myself enough distance to be objective. So I will sit with this one for a bit as I certainly see your point about the people in the second image and gave some thought to cloning out the more ghostlike figures.
    Good observation. Don't be surprised or deterred if your taste changes over time. That's one of the many enjoyable parts of the process.

    A windless evening on Waikiki beach is very rare as is one with no people moving about which makes the issues you mention (people & tree detail with long exposures) a bit of a challenge...
    Think of ways to make the motion a compelling part of the photo. You're right that it can be challenging to obtain good results, but when you do the photograph will probably be much more appealing and almost always more creative than the typical photograph that stops all motion.

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