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San Francisco Bay Bridge from Embarcadero, Night #2
Jun 29, 2017 13:46:41   #
divingdancer Loc: Syracuse, NY
 
Same shot as "Bay Bridge from Embarcadero", but:

-1 night later
-Added a B+W circular polarizer to take some haze out of the image
-Hoya ND 6 filter
-Switched from ISO 200 to ISO 100
-F/11
-120 second exposure
-26 mm
-Manual white balance shot through ND filter

Was asked "Why manual white balance?" I was shooting JPG. I have an old/slow Nikon D60, and its speed and storage are a bit limited. Therefore I don't generally shoot raw. As a result I try to get the best live shot that I can capture. At this location there's a lot of sodium vapor lighting right behind me, and it was leaving every shot looking a bit orange. The auto white balance was not dealing very well with it.

Was asked "Why the circular polarizer?" True, it's usually used to reduce reflection off the water, and to saturate colors. But that night there was a very light fog in the air. I was getting a lot of scatter from the lighting around me. The CP was strictly a trial and error attempt to remove some of the backscatter that I was getting off of the fog. It worked out. What can I say?



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Jun 30, 2017 06:59:36   #
Mary Kate Loc: NYC
 
divingdancer wrote:
Same shot as "Bay Bridge from Embarcadero", but:

-1 night later
-Added a B+W circular polarizer to take some haze out of the image
-Hoya ND 6 filter
-Switched from ISO 200 to ISO 100
-F/11
-120 second exposure
-26 mm
-Manual white balance shot through ND filter

Was asked "Why manual white balance?" I was shooting JPG. I have an old/slow Nikon D60, and its speed and storage are a bit limited. Therefore I don't generally shoot raw. As a result I try to get the best live shot that I can capture. At this location there's a lot of sodium vapor lighting right behind me, and it was leaving every shot looking a bit orange. The auto white balance was not dealing very well with it.

Was asked "Why the circular polarizer?" True, it's usually used to reduce reflection off the water, and to saturate colors. But that night there was a very light fog in the air. I was getting a lot of scatter from the lighting around me. The CP was strictly a trial and error attempt to remove some of the backscatter that I was getting off of the fog. It worked out. What can I say?
Same shot as "Bay Bridge from Embarcadero&quo... (show quote)


Wonderful.

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Jun 30, 2017 07:49:34   #
melueth Loc: Central Florida
 
Very cool! Thanks for the details as well. I'd love to see it in the download.

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Jun 30, 2017 09:32:13   #
abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois
 
I like that you provided all those details and reasoning. What matters most to me is the end result which is good technically. The big problem is the lack of any compelling subject matter but you did the best you could with the little that was there.

I am not sure about the neutral density filter. Why did you use it? Why did you want such a long exposure? I would think that the movement of the water without the filter would still be considerable at an estimated 3 seconds. Why did you decrease the ISO? For longer exposure? I might suggest that the shorter exposure would decrease the amount of light scattering off the bridge lights through the fog and any movement of the camera on the tripod resulting in a sharper picture.

My biggest probem is with the polarizer. I would have taken serveral pictures with and without it to see if it really mattered. Comparing only two shots taken on two nights does not make for a meaningful comparison despite you assertion. I do not think it would help because you are not dealing with a single point source of light like the sun. The filter polarizes maximally for light reflected from a single source. Moreover, the movement of the water will cancel out the extraneous reflections.

Finally, I would stick with raw, especially for a shot having such a large dynamic range. You might nudge more details out of the dark and control you color balance better. As it is, the color balance seems to be fine.

Let me know what you think.

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Jun 30, 2017 18:22:11   #
raymondh Loc: Walker, MI
 

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Jul 1, 2017 07:05:03   #
EnglishBrenda Loc: Kent, England
 
Comparing the 2 images I can definitely see how your changes made a difference. I think I like the second better but I miss the lighting on the foreground. Both very nice shots though.

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Aug 5, 2017 22:06:04   #
10MPlayer Loc: California
 
Creative solution to an unusual problem. Nice image. I like it.

Reply
 
 
Aug 5, 2017 22:08:19   #
10MPlayer Loc: California
 
abc1234 wrote:
I like that you provided all those details and reasoning. What matters most to me is the end result which is good technically. The big problem is the lack of any compelling subject matter but you did the best you could with the little that was there.


No subject? Did you miss the giant bridge in the middle of the image?

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Aug 22, 2017 20:05:34   #
larryepage Loc: North Texas area
 
divingdancer wrote:
Same shot as "Bay Bridge from Embarcadero", but:

-1 night later
-Added a B+W circular polarizer to take some haze out of the image
-Hoya ND 6 filter
-Switched from ISO 200 to ISO 100
-F/11
-120 second exposure
-26 mm
-Manual white balance shot through ND filter

Was asked "Why manual white balance?" I was shooting JPG. I have an old/slow Nikon D60, and its speed and storage are a bit limited. Therefore I don't generally shoot raw. As a result I try to get the best live shot that I can capture. At this location there's a lot of sodium vapor lighting right behind me, and it was leaving every shot looking a bit orange. The auto white balance was not dealing very well with it.

Was asked "Why the circular polarizer?" True, it's usually used to reduce reflection off the water, and to saturate colors. But that night there was a very light fog in the air. I was getting a lot of scatter from the lighting around me. The CP was strictly a trial and error attempt to remove some of the backscatter that I was getting off of the fog. It worked out. What can I say?
Same shot as "Bay Bridge from Embarcadero&quo... (show quote)


Hey DD--

You mention being memory limited. Not sure what size memory cards you are using, but I just took a look at the manual for the D60, and it indicates that the body is compliant with SDHC memory cards. That means that you should be able to go at least to 32 GB. Just don't select a card that says SDXC...most likely will not work. I recently bought two reasonably fast (80MB/second) SDHC cards for $19.95 each at my local computer supermarket. That might help you on storage. And I know that the list in the manual does not include cards that big, but it's probably just because they weren't available when the manual was printed.

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Feb 22, 2018 11:41:53   #
Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas
 
Commendable, acknowledge the problem, work through the problem producing a beautiful picture that could be mounted for a living room wall.
Someone else said you don't have any compelling subject matter, balderdash you have the San Francisco Bay Bridge lit up at night..

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Feb 22, 2018 14:38:37   #
BBBruce77 Loc: Eureka, Montana
 
Really appreciate your in depth explanation of how you approached your subject and the various little solutions to small problems. The polarizer application is something I would never have thought to try. The result of your efforts is quite splendid.

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Apr 21, 2018 17:45:14   #
alx Loc: NJ
 
divingdancer wrote:
Same shot as "Bay Bridge from Embarcadero", but:

-1 night later
-Added a B+W circular polarizer to take some haze out of the image
-Hoya ND 6 filter
-Switched from ISO 200 to ISO 100
-F/11
-120 second exposure
-26 mm
-Manual white balance shot through ND filter

Was asked "Why manual white balance?" I was shooting JPG. I have an old/slow Nikon D60, and its speed and storage are a bit limited. Therefore I don't generally shoot raw. As a result I try to get the best live shot that I can capture. At this location there's a lot of sodium vapor lighting right behind me, and it was leaving every shot looking a bit orange. The auto white balance was not dealing very well with it.

Was asked "Why the circular polarizer?" True, it's usually used to reduce reflection off the water, and to saturate colors. But that night there was a very light fog in the air. I was getting a lot of scatter from the lighting around me. The CP was strictly a trial and error attempt to remove some of the backscatter that I was getting off of the fog. It worked out. What can I say?
Same shot as "Bay Bridge from Embarcadero&quo... (show quote)

Can't wait for #3 and more and I thank you for your well laid out reasoning. I admire your willingness to experiment an share.
For those who can't see the beauty of the bridge at night, looking for ways to improve upon a good picture with experimentation shows a photographer ready to grow and who can achieve greatness.

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Jul 24, 2018 08:25:00   #
yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey
 
Aesome shot - well done!

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Jul 26, 2018 12:47:34   #
photodoc16
 
divingdancer,
Nice photo. Sounds like your old/slo D60 has a custom WB option. Sodium Vapor is about 2500 - 3000 Kelvin and you seem to have neutralized it. Or did you approximate somehow?
Thanks,
Photodoc16

Reply
Feb 9, 2021 20:12:14   #
joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA
 
divingdancer wrote:
Same shot as "Bay Bridge from Embarcadero", but:

-1 night later
-Added a B+W circular polarizer to take some haze out of the image
-Hoya ND 6 filter
-Switched from ISO 200 to ISO 100
-F/11
-120 second exposure
-26 mm
-Manual white balance shot through ND filter

Was asked "Why manual white balance?" I was shooting JPG. I have an old/slow Nikon D60, and its speed and storage are a bit limited. Therefore I don't generally shoot raw. As a result I try to get the best live shot that I can capture. At this location there's a lot of sodium vapor lighting right behind me, and it was leaving every shot looking a bit orange. The auto white balance was not dealing very well with it.

Was asked "Why the circular polarizer?" True, it's usually used to reduce reflection off the water, and to saturate colors. But that night there was a very light fog in the air. I was getting a lot of scatter from the lighting around me. The CP was strictly a trial and error attempt to remove some of the backscatter that I was getting off of the fog. It worked out. What can I say?
Same shot as "Bay Bridge from Embarcadero&quo... (show quote)


Like a beautiful fantasy brought to reality Excellent composition

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