Video University: Video University Forums: Digital Photography for Videographers: Just for fun

VideoUniversity.com
Home	Free Library	Store
Free Catalog Please support VU by making your B&H purchases and links through this B&H ad. Doesn't cost a penny more.

See The New VU Postcard Catalog

To post in the forums see the Forum Guidelines.

Join or Renew Today.
New Benefits for all VU Members

Forum Guidelines and FAQ
Main Index	Search Posts
Who's Online	Log In

Home: Video University Forums: Digital Photography for Videographers:
Just for fun - night photos

Postal Boy
Veteran

Nov 7, 2007, 4:41 PM

Post #1 of 6 (627 views)
Shortcut

Just for fun - night photos	Can't Post

I took these the other day and I thought they turned out kind of nice, so thought I would post them for fun. The web format (web browsers) kind of dull the colors a little, but here they are:

www.postmavideo.com/vu/harpers_ferry

-Postal

(This post was edited by Postal Boy on Nov 7, 2007, 4:42 PM)

RustyB
Veteran

Nov 8, 2007, 1:32 AM

Post #2 of 6 (597 views)
Shortcut

Re: [Postal Boy] Just for fun - night photos [In reply to]	Can't Post

Dude those are awesome! Are they all HDR images? What did you shoot them with?

I went to Harpers Ferry back in the early 80's....pretty neat place. (Went there riding in the back of a 1981 Ford F-150 with a camper shell, all the way from Houston. Laugh

)

the People's Video Collective blog
wedding video and the means of production

Postal Boy
Veteran

Nov 8, 2007, 10:20 AM

Post #3 of 6 (577 views)
Shortcut

Re: [RustyB] Just for fun - night photos [In reply to]	Can't Post

They are HDR, but I seem to be getting good results just by MANUALLY merging different exposures. The merge-to-hdr has a little trouble lining up some of the images, even if it is a pixel or so off. I think that at a long distance even being on a tripod causes a little shift depending on which way the wind is blowing and the moon phase or something. So manually aligning and just softly erasing the over-exposed portions seems to work pretty well also.

Shot with a Canon 30d in manual mode - iso100 and shutter speeds from 1/200 through 30 seconds. Here is a listing of the shots used in the wedding cake shot. The last on the list is the "HDR" version. Then I decided I liked the darker, moodier picture so I took image 1 (really dark) and image 3 (right "mood" lighting") and overlaid the light image on top of the dark image. I then just used a soft brush on a layer mask to mask out the overblown light to let the dark lamp show through (I don't really erase anything anymore - just use layer masks. They are easier to "fix" when I screw up). Then a little levels/saturation tweak and I was fairly happy with it. The second image took about 10 minutes this morning to tweak.

Full image set:

And the merge of just 2 images:

-Postal

Postal Boy
Veteran

Nov 8, 2007, 10:35 AM

Post #4 of 6 (576 views)
Shortcut

Re: [RustyB] Just for fun - night photos [In reply to]	Can't Post

In Reply To

)

I think it probably hasn't changed much over the last 25 years...I have only been here a couple of years, but everything still LOOKS like it did back in the late 1800's...I suppose that is the way historic towns are supposed to be, though. We don't see many "camper shells" around here anymore, though Tongue

Shadow
Veteran

Nov 13, 2007, 11:32 AM

Post #5 of 6 (506 views)
Shortcut

Re: [Postal Boy] Just for fun - night photos [In reply to]	Can't Post

Great shots! Thanks for sharing.

__________________________

Laura K
Veteran

Dec 1, 2007, 12:06 PM

Post #6 of 6 (416 views)
Shortcut

Re: [Postal Boy] Just for fun - night photos [In reply to]	Can't Post

Wow, very nice.
L
4EVER GROUP AFFILIATE
Get affiliated!

"... it seems that if you're passionate about something, it freaks people out. You're considered bizarre or eccentric. To me, it just means you know who you are." - director Tim Burton

Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.