A bit of night fun

[Omaroo]

Sorry - more harbourside shots. Gotta love Sydney at night. I'll add them as I go. Just trying to get used to the sensitivity of the D40 at night - a pretty steep learning curve!

I took a bunch of shots of each subject, and like Andrew (Rocketboy) will try a little HDR processing in PS. These were taken at 200 ISO with a 18-55 AF-S ED lens set to around 50mm. I took shots of each subject for 30, 25, 20, 15, 13, 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.5 & 2 seconds at f/6.3. This is a pretty bright lens and the CCD is very light sensitive, so I'll go out again tonight and try again by stopping down to f/7.1 or f/8.

Cheers - and thanks for looking :)
Chris

[ballaratdragons]

They are very good pics, Chris! I especially like the bridge pic :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Ironic isn't it. As much as I hate outdoor lighting, Sydney Harbour is beautiful when lit up. :doh:

[Omaroo]

LOL! Thanks Ken :)

Yep - the bane of all stargazers - light - is what makes Sydney as vibrant as it is. The number of tourists out tonight was phenomenal - they were just everywhere and enjoying the views and food.

I had a ball just wandering around by myself. I took over 250 snaps so I've got a bit to do...

Cheers
Chris

[iceman]

Excellent images, Chris! There's so much to photograph in Sydney at night.

[Omaroo]

Thanks Mike :)

Yes, there certainly is a lot to photograph in Sydney at night. It's been so long that I've just had a night to wander around I'd forgotten how good it is.

The photos are suffering a fair bit by uploading them to here with a data limit, but you get the general idea.:D

Cheers
Chris

[RB]

These are beautiful Chris, I love the perspectives you've captured, just lovely !
The colours are gorgeous too and they all look great even at forum size.

I just love the city at night, I bet you had a ball, great to just walk and walk especially around The Rocks and around the quay/Opera House.

Looking forward to more.



I do the same, starting from the darkest frame up to the lightest, usually picking around 5 or even 7 frames to combine. Also choosing an appropriate aperture to give nice sharp images.

:thumbsup:

[Omaroo]

Thanks a lot Andrew - I really appreciate your thoughts. :)

I'll re-visit these scenes maybe tonight, and try variations on the settings and apertures. Your Opera House HDR exercise has inspired me to go ad see how well I can do. Considering that I'm in full manual mode, I'm going to try some other Ai lenses tonight at various settings too.

Great fun!
Cheers
Chris

[gary]

Hi Chris,

They are all stunning. What turned out really nicely are the shots that reveal
the interior of the Opera House. I particularly like the first image and the
third image in the top row - right down to the reflected light off the wine
glasses in Bennelong. The HDR has given them a wonderful ambience
and these two shots in particular are reminiscent of computer rendered imagery
using radiosity techniques, yet you have managed to do it with a camera
in the real world with stunning results.

I see you asking yourself the same question, which is how the exteriors would
go with stopping down the lens further? Since some of the point sources are so
bright, it might be interesting to either stop down even further than you
proposed or even try some much faster shutter speeds.

It might be an interesting exercise to determine what is the fastest shutter
speed that resulted in some image appearing, namely that produced by the
brightest lights, then bracketing up to that point. That might even turn out
to be 1/1000s or faster.

Anyway, that is easy for me to say, as while you are out in the cold night air
experimenting with settings, most of us will be indoors warm somewhere awaiting
your results. :)

Once again, brilliant and thank you for sharing them.

Best Regards

Gary
Mt. Kuring-Gai

[Omaroo]

Thanks for the kind words Gary :)

I'll follow that advice and try at far faster speeds as well. I only went down to 2 secs last night, and a 2 second exposure still saw a lot of light captured. I'll give it a sliding range of tests in both speed and aperture and see what happens. It's a nice sunny day so far, so here's hoping for another beautiful clear evening.

Cheers
Chris

[ving]

great images chris!
the d40 is a rippa of a camera hey :)
you know what, the kit lens is pretty darn good too :)

[Omaroo]

Thanks David :) Yep - I love my D40. The kit lens isn't half-bad either. Does yours rattle a bit when it's powered off? Mine does, but as soon as you power up all the slack disappears as the SilentWave focusing motors tension up.

What's even more impressive is that only one of these images has been HDR processed. The rest are straight out of the camera...... :thumbsup:

I will, however, do the rest tonight. Working in the RAW is a good challenge in its own right.

Cheers
Chris

[ving]

i havent noticed and rattle in my focus... :shrug:

bought any more lenses for it? i got the 55-200 af-s. works a treat and sharp as a tack most of the time... i should have saved for the vr version as it would have solved most of my problem shots :rolleyes:

[Omaroo]

Maybe I'm being too critical. I'm still getting used to the idea of a plastic (albeit glass-filled polycarbonate) lens, and mine does rattle tiny bit if shaken lightly. It's not a problem though, as the slack (and rattle) is taken up as soon as power is turned on. I think it's just an idle state thing. I DO love the weight, or lack thereof, of these lenses though. I could carry it and the camera combined in my hand all day without it getting heavy.

I have a ton of the old Ai lenses which I will never part with. Most of my stuff is done in manual mode anyway, and autofocusing is handy but entirely unnecessary to my way of use. I would, however, like a VR one day.

Cheers
Chris