Urban night photography

[Apoorv SHarma]

Hello BCMTians,

I have been trying to learn night photography in the streets of Toronto. One of the most beautiful spots in the city is a building called Gooderham. I was inspired by this photo and attempted to create my own version:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/insightimaging/18851281035

So, after spending 1 hour in -10 C, I came up with very bad results.

Now, these are unedited versions, all I did was convert them to Jpeg.

EXIF for the above image:

EXIF for the above image:

This is the best I could do with Photoshop:

The major issues I see are:

Noisy sky, overblown street lights and just the top edges of the buildings.

Would love to hear your thoughts on what I am doing wrong and how I can fix it.

 

[Yogesh Sarkar]

From the JPEG you shared, this is the best I could do in Camera RAW editor of Photoshop. RAW would have better editing scope.

Best option is to shoot multiple exposures in such a scenario, one exposing for the scene and another for highlights to get a balanced image and then merge both in post, much like an HDR.

 

[adsatinder]

4-5 points mentioned have big white spots....
Have seen other's pics.
How that star type light glows ?
Is that via lens only ?

 

[nadz11.ns]

How that star type light glows ?
Is that via lens only ?

Using a higher f-stop (f9 and above) will give star like glow to the lights.

 

[iamsomnath]

You are trying city nightscapes. All the shots are suffering from wide open aperture ( 2.8 ) and distortion ( building vs building wrestling). Try shooting raw on tripod with mirror lock up and cable release , base ISO ( you got that right), F8-F11 , aperture priority . And that's a starting point.What lenses are you using ? If you have a 50 , take a lot of vertical images and stitch , that will get rid of distortion easy and cheap. I appreciate your effort.

 

[Ankur003]

I like your approach. You got inspired by some image and decided to get your own version. But since you could not get similar results, you are opening it for discussion. This is exactly what I did three years ago when I moved to Singapore.

Coming to your image I see, Gooderham is not an easy place to shoot. I see a lot of red lights, roads, building, wires.. in short, a lot of clutter. And since you are at ground level a slight change in vertical of the camera will result in horrible distortion. try to maintain verticals and horizontals while shooting.

The image you have shared is most probably a composite of 2-3 images. One exposure for background, one (or more) for trails on both sides. I doubt the photographer will be too lucky to have buses (or tram?) on both sides at the same time.

I also noticed that all lights in the building behind are lit up in Flickr image but not yours. This is probably because these are offices and already closed when you shot them.

 

[Apoorv SHarma]

From the JPEG you shared, this is the best I could do in Camera RAW editor of Photoshop. RAW would have better editing scope.

View attachment 735482

Best option is to shoot multiple exposures in such a scenario, one exposing for the scene and another for highlights to get a balanced image and then merge both in post, much like an HDR.

Thanks YS, will try that out next. The main concern is about the sky, how do I make it let noisy and smoother?

You are trying city nightscapes. All the shots are suffering from wide open aperture ( 2.8 ) and distortion ( building vs building wrestling). Try shooting raw on tripod with mirror lock up and cable release , base ISO ( you got that right), F8-F11 , aperture priority . And that's a starting point.What lenses are you using ? If you have a 50 , take a lot of vertical images and stitch , that will get rid of distortion easy and cheap. I appreciate your effort.

Thank you so much for your input. I did use a tripod and a cable release. Lens used was Tokina 11-16. Will try F8-F11 and stitching method this weekend.

I like your approach. You got inspired by some image and decided to get your own version. But since you could not get similar results, you are opening it for discussion. This is exactly what I did three years ago when I moved to Singapore.

Coming to your image I see, Gooderham is not an easy place to shoot. I see a lot of red lights, roads, building, wires.. in short, a lot of clutter. And since you are at ground level a slight change in vertical of the camera will result in horrible distortion. try to maintain verticals and horizontals while shooting.

The image you have shared is most probably a composite of 2-3 images. One exposure for background, one (or more) for trails on both sides. I doubt the photographer will be too lucky to have buses (or tram?) on both sides at the same time.

I also noticed that all lights in the building behind are lit up in Flickr image but not yours. This is probably because these are offices and already closed when you shot them.

I am thinking of going less wide due to all the wires and lights, will try few different angles and focal lengths.

 

[iamsomnath]

While shooting multiple vertical frames with 50 mm , ensure that at least 1/3rd overlapping is maintained, stitching becomes much easier. My 2 cents.