Long exposure night shots

[DonSchap]

Anyone have some nifty looking long exposure night shots? I was requested to do a substantially long exposure of the O'Hare Airport skyline, tonight (10/17/2006)... and here she is... looking south, across Lake Opeka, in Des Plaines. The sky is totally overcast, so all the ambient light is being generated by the sodium vapor lamps, at the airport. Kind of like mud in your eye.

16484
Canon EOS 20D w/ EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 70mm f/16 25-sec. ISO-200 5500K Tripod 9:30PM CST

[forno]

Any filters or PP Don, odd colours

[forno]

And a dirty sensor:p

[DonSchap]

Any filters or PP Don, odd colours

Some slight touch up due to spots, but no... this is straight lens stuff. It really is a weird color that way, to be sure. Perhaps it's just a reflection of things to come... LOL. :D

I'm pretty sure that if I took the color temperature from 5500K down to something around 2800K, the color would shift accordingly. I didn't take the time, but it may be worth running back and getting another set. On second thought, it can wait. O'Hare isn't going anywhere, but the weather is going to be even worse, tomorrow.

I was going to take it with the SONY, but the battery pack announced it was exhausted on the LCD... and promptly dropped dead. :eek: It's currently on the charger for a bit.

The first posted shot was 5 seconds longer and taken after this one. Note the pulsing diagonal streak through the sky and into the building. Cool, huh? Airplane... coming in for a landing.

16486
f/16 - 20 seconds - ISO-200 @ 70mm

Note the darker exposure to this one, also. (Yeah, I tried to attend to some spots and added just a bit of sharpening) ;) (I think my sensor got a little dirty during my summertime activities in Northern Wisconsin. Changing lenses while underway, on watercraft. I guess some water spray may have found a way in.)

[Razr]

Some slight touch up due to spots, but no... this is straight lens stuff. It really is a weird color that way, to be sure. Perhaps it's just a reflection of things to come... LOL. :D

I'm pretty sure that if I took the color temperature from 5500K down to something around 2800K, the color would shift accordingly. I didn't take the time, but it may be worth running back and getting another set. On second thought, it can wait. O'Hare isn't going anywhere, but the weather is going to be even worse, tomorrow.

I was going to take it with the SONY, but the battery pack announced it was exhausted on the LCD... and promptly dropped dead. :eek: It's currently on the charger for a bit.

The first posted shot was 5 seconds longer and taken after this one. Note the pulsing diagonal streak through the sky and into the building. Cool, huh? Airplane... coming in for a landing.

16486
f/16 - 20 seconds - ISO-200 @ 70mm

Note the darker exposure to this one, also. (Yeah, I tried to attend to some spots and added just a bit of sharpening) ;) (I think my sensor got a little dirty during my summertime activities in Northern Wisconsin. Changing lenses while underway, on watercraft. I guess some water spray may have found a way in.)

You might try a CC filter, remebering that like lets through like: blue for instance, lets blue-green through, while blocking other primary colors. So the "correct" CC filter would help greatly here. So would ISO 80.
Caution: lowering the Kelvin color temperature would intensify the red-orange backgound.
The higher the Kelvin, the "cooler" the image, though I have no idea of what you'd get with say 6500 Kelvin (probably something greenish-yellow).
Consult with your "pro" lab on the CC filter.

[Nesster]

3second exposure with Fuji F10, Point Pleasant Beach NJ:
http://static.flickr.com/56/129324235_c5aea85a5b_b.jpg

[ktixx]

8 Second Exposure
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Ktixx/DC%20Resource/Parliment.jpg

3.2 Second Exposure
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Ktixx/DC%20Resource/BW__London_Eye.jpg

1.3 Second Exposure
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Ktixx/DC%20Resource/Big_Ben.jpg

[toriaj]

Rather than repost the shot, here's a link:
http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showthread.php?p=161406&highlight=contribute#post161406

It was a 30-second exposure. I was really surprised at how bright the sky turned out.

[DonSchap]

I suppose most folks simply don't appreciate what you can get with a long explosure. Oh, sure, you get the blurs... and trails... but you also begin to see things that you can't with the ordinary exposure of ambient light.

Personally, I plan on doing more of this as time and weather permits. I have some ideas... but, I need some shutter-time to develop them. LOL :cool:

[krzkrzkrz]

I suppose most folks simply don't appreciate what you can get with a long explosure. Oh, sure, you get the blurs... and trails... but you also begin to see things that you can't with the ordinary exposure of ambient light.

Personally, I plan on doing more of this as time and weather permits. I have some ideas... but, I need some shutter-time to develop them. LOL :cool:

I like the shots.

Did you use manual settings for this or did you let your camera decide on appropriate settings?

In my Canon Rebel XTi 400D, I have program mode, which lets the camera decide on appropriate settings when the shutter button is slightly pressed. Afterwards, I am able to change the settings as required. However, I mostly leave it at the default camera settings

[PhotoluluGuy]

Waikiki In The Dark - power outage after a quake that hit Hawaii on Oct. 15, 2006
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n37/photolulu/Canon%20Powershot%20S3%20IS%20Photos%202006/IMG_6580.jpg

Here's a fun one...
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n37/photolulu/Canon%20Powershot%20S3%20IS%20Photos%202006/IMG_4392.jpg

[Nesster]

I don't have a DSLR (yet) but using my film SLR I have a Lenox Laser pinhole. :) The PZ50 doesn't meter with that, but at least I can set exposure up to 30 seconds before having to go the hold-the-cable-release-and-keep-an-eye-on-the-watch route.

http://static.flickr.com/74/225510944_b6f6c3669f.jpg

@photoluluguy Yes that's a great fun shot! I like the angle and how the lights star out.

[Esoterra]

Waikiki In The Dark - power outage after a quake that hit Hawaii on Oct. 15, 2006


Here's a fun one...
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n37/photolulu/Canon%20Powershot%20S3%20IS%20Photos%202006/IMG_4392.jpg

This shot is awesome.... I love it. That would be cool to add some directional gaussian blur at the same angle as the streaking lights to give the sense that the bike is moving at light speed down the streets of Honolulu...past all those hookers! hehe

[gary_hendricks]

For this picture being “straight lens stuff” as you said, I think that this photo looks really good. I agree that you are going to need to do some minor touch up on it with Photo Shop but in all honesty this picture does look really good. I would also take the color temperature down to 2800K just to see what the difference would be. You can then touch them both up in Photo Shop. You may find that you are pleasantly surprised by the results that you get in the end. Plus, if both of the photos turn out nice then you have two different photos that you can offer to the person that asked you to take the picture. I know that a lot of people appreciate the choice and that you may be surprised by what someone else’s eye will choose and the fact that they’re doing it in person will also make a great difference because all of our computer monitors are so different.