April 13, 2013

Bay Bridge lights


click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Late Thursday evening I wanted to see if I could shoot the Bay Bridge light show WITHOUT my tripod. Short answer---I returned last night and shot the scene WITH my tripod.

SO, ABOUT THE IMAGE (ABOVE)
Hand-holding a camera at night, even with with a "sky-high" ISO of 6400 and image stabilization--shooting in darkness is almost possible, but the results tend to be grainy and pixelated. You may be able to see how I jiggled the camera with this image (above) BUT TO SAVE THE DAY, for this image I used Photoshop's "SmartBlur" filter, which blurs content nicely--covering all sorts of sins--while preserving edges. Not something I rely on on a daily basis, but it is an easy fix for an otherwise "impossibly-bad-quality" photo.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

However, this image and the one following were done Friday evening WITH my tripod. This image (above) is a panorama, made up of 7 individual pix.
It would make a h-u-g-e mural.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

ISO-100 for maximum quality. f-8 for a few seconds. Two stops (-) exposure compensation. 200mm on full-frame Canon5D-Mark2, with 70-200 "L" f-2.8 II I.S. Zoom.   Location: pier behind Ferry Building.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Gandhi said hello and offered a kind thought. Something along the lines of "f-8 and being there"...

P.S.:
I took some video last night, so I'll let you know when it is ready.
The video shows movement--for a while, fishes appear swimming across the cables. Shadows, clouds, waves...



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2 comments:

Nancy Ewart said...

These are so beautiful - ethereal. Say HI to Gandhi for me. I think those are the most beautiful photos of that statue that I have ever seen.

Anonymous said...

what a great nightview!!! fantastic!
wishing you a nice sunday! Hilde

 
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