Sydney Harbour & City at night (2 photos)

[Potatis]

Hi everyone,

This is my first time posting in this forum. I thought I'd start by posting these 2 photos. Thanks for looking.

Doug

[stubbsy]

Doug. What a showoff

These are superb. The lights and colours are sharp and vibrant and the images are so punchy I've now got a black eye . You've set yourself a very high bar to meet for your future posts. Thans for sharing these beauties. BTW Is Sydney a magic city at night, or what!

[BBJ]

Hi Doug, Welcome to the forum and nice pics there. Might pay to put your location in your profile. I think the pics are great and oneday i might even get to Dydney to see the light of the harbour etc..
Cheers
John
BBJ

[jberth1]

Very nice - so sharp I'm bleeding ! The colours are just superb.

Would you mind sharing your PP on these ?

Cheers

Justin

[Potatis]

Gee! Replies already!

Thanks Stubbsy, I appreciate your comment.

Thanks John. I've updated my location. I'll fill out some other info when I get some time.

Thanks very much Justin for your kind compliments. The PP was easy with these. I bumped up the saturation and contrast a tiny bit and used smart sharpen in CS2.

The reason I didn't have to do much was because I set my camera up just as it was starting to get dark, but not dark enough for the lights to come on. Then as the lights came on I started to take photos with the remote. I was there about an hour to an hour and a half - something like that, until it was fully dark. I took about 130 photos, so it was about 2 photos a minute on average. But there were times I had to wait for ferries to get out of the way so I wouldn't get streaky lights, so when they weren't there I took a few at a time. Because I had photos at all these different light settings, I just picked one that appealled to me from the thumbnails, and edited in the way I did above. PP was minimal in these photos, which is unlike me.

Thanks again for the comments,

Doug

[KerryPierce]

Very cool shots, Doug. Sharp, with good color and composition.

[DionM]

Great colours and composition.

Must get to Sydney again, dang that's two threads now I've said that

[birddog114]

Potatis
Welcome to the DSLRUsers.com!
You have done well with your first post!
Very nice, colourful and good composition.
Are those in Syde....ney???????
Spring is here, perhaps a night out workshop for all the night hawk

[Oneputt]

That second shot is a real stunner

[Geoff]

Hi Doug,
Welcome to the forum! You have set the bar high for yourself with these first two image posts, they are brilliant. Well done and I know you will enjoy your time spent here on the forum.

[Potatis]

Kerry, thanks for your comment.

Dion, yes come to Sydney, there's plenty to photograph. Thanks for your comment.

Birddog, it sure is Syde....ney! Hehe. I look forward to catching up with you soon at a mini meet. My sensor could do with a darn good cleaning, and I'm almost brave enough to try and learn how to clean it.

Thanks Oneputt. I'm pleased you like it. I'm not used to seeing the photos with a white background, so I was worried they might look a little dark. (Contrasty)

I'm encouraged to post more now. Thanks again everyone for your comments.

[Potatis]

Hi Geoff, thanks for your comments. Well, I'll post again soon. As for setting the bar high, I hope my future photos will measure up. I've seen some excellent photography here in the small time I've had to look around. Places like this are a great place to learn. I love to see what other people are doing with their D70s.

[Geoff]

No worries Doug.
Would love to see some EXIF data on your two shots
What lens? Kit?

[MHD]

And what body for that matter!

[Geoff]

And what body for that matter!

He only needed his own body to walk to where he was etc...hahahaha.

Nah..good question.

I think it's too early on a Monday morning to attempt humour.

[Alpha_7]

Wowsa!! Awesome photos, sharp and vibrant. Great stuff and welcome to the forums!

[Potatis]

Hi Geoff, yep I used the kit lens. I'm not sure how much exif info you want so I am posting all I have. Since taking these photos, I've become better at understanding exposure, so I shoot mostly in Manual mode. I was brand new to night photography when I shot these. I was experimenting a little, which is why the first photo was in "aperture prioroty mode" and the 2nd "Shutter priority" mode. I know better now and just shoot manual most of the time. Shooting in RAW is a big help.

1st photo:

[Image]
Make = NIKON CORPORATION
Model = NIKON D70
Orientation = top/left
X Resolution = 300
Y Resolution = 300
Resolution Unit = inch
Software = Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows
Date Time = 2005-08-10 23:10:18
Exif IFD Pointer = Offset: 216

[Camera]
Exposure Time = 8"
F Number = F8
Exposure Program = Aperture priority
ISO Speed Ratings = 200
Date Time Original = 2005-08-06 18:03:29
Shutter Speed Value = -3 TV
Aperture Value = 6 AV
Exposure Bias Value = 0EV
Max Aperture Value = F4
Metering Mode = Pattern
Flash = Off
Focal Length = 70mm
Color Space = Uncalibrated
Exif Image Width = 750
Exif Image Height = 491
Focal Length In 35mm Film = 105mm

[Thumbnail]
Compression = JPEG Compressed (Thumbnail)
X Resolution = 72
Y Resolution = 72
Resolution Unit = inch
JPEG Interchange Format = Offset: 586
JPEG Interchange Format Length = Length: 5159




Photo #2



[Image]
Make = NIKON CORPORATION
Model = NIKON D70
Orientation = top/left
X Resolution = 300
Y Resolution = 300
Resolution Unit = inch
Software = Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows
Date Time = 2005-08-10 23:09:26
Exif IFD Pointer = Offset: 216

[Camera]
Exposure Time = 5"
F Number = F7.1
Exposure Program = Shutter priority
ISO Speed Ratings = 200
Date Time Original = 2005-08-06 18:02:11
Shutter Speed Value = -2.32 TV
Aperture Value = 5.66 AV
Exposure Bias Value = 0EV
Max Aperture Value = F4.14
Metering Mode = Pattern
Flash = Off
Focal Length = 122mm
Color Space = sRGB
Exif Image Width = 750
Exif Image Height = 492
Focal Length In 35mm Film = 183mm

[Thumbnail]
Compression = JPEG Compressed (Thumbnail)
X Resolution = 72
Y Resolution = 72
Resolution Unit = inch
JPEG Interchange Format = Offset: 586
JPEG Interchange Format Length = Length: 6201

[Potatis]

Thanks Alpha_7 for your comments and kind welcome.

[Glen]

Doug, very nice shots

[Potatis]

Thanks very much, Glen, I appreciate your comment.

[PiroStitch]

Welcome to the forums and great first image posts

With the PP, it's bordering on being oversharpened for me. It's good that it's sharp, but some of the buildings appear to have a bit of a halo to me.

The contrast bump or possibly due to the smart sharpen has brought out some noise/grain...then again it does create a nice appeal to the pic

Overall great pics and you definitely have to be commended on your patience in staying out there for over an hour

[moggy]

Great pics, I've been toying with doing a night trip to try to take similar shots. Maybe a group trip as Birddog sugests?

Bob.

[Potatis]

Hi Pirostitch, thanks for your comment. You are right, the photos are bordering on oversharp. If you look REEEALLY carefully you can see halos in a couple of spots. This is the result of sharpening after the resize down. The original size photo, which I've printed from, is not oversharpened but still quite clear when viewing at 16 x 24", and definately clear at 8x12". You can see inside the office windows, which is my favourite thing to look at in the printed photo.

Hi Bob, that sounds like a fun thing. I feel I've almost got enough shots of Sydney Harbour, but photographing with other people sounds like good fun.

[flipfrog]

im seeing more digital noise in the sky in the fitst pic than in the second..was it shot at the same iso? what was the big diffference?

great shots btw

[Potatis]

Hi Dee, thanks for your comment.

The ISO was the same for both - 200. The noise in these photos was not too bad in the original, but showed up more by brightening the photo after sharpening. You see, it was only after I posted these photos that I realised I had posted the wrong ones. The originals have a dark blue sky. I had them printed at the lab, and the sky and lights came out very dark. So I compensated by brightening the photos and the prints came out perfectly. I accidently printed the brighter photos.

Here is how it should have been:





Here is what I posted before: