Bay Area bridges taken at 3am with the water still

[Alex Burke]

I took these late night after I got off work last night the water was pretty still on the bay so it made for good reflections. Please click twice and view full size, hope you guys like them.
View attachment GRi808y.jpg View attachment BSmfMDH.jpg

 

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[DizzyDigger]

Absolutely beautiful shots MM..that second especially.

I'm curious...what camera did you take those with?

Saved the right pic, and removed a couple the obstructions
along the bottom, and also the blurred cable (top right) that
I'm guessing got in the way when you took the shot.

Here's your shot...


(all I did was polish it)

 

[vpnavy]

Nice photographs MeteorMiner. Thanks for sharing...

 

[Alex Burke]

Thanks Dizzy I think the obstruction is possibly the way all the light projects upwards from the bridge almost like the Luxor in Vegas. I've noticed it before if were talking about same one i.e. originates at pyramid on bridge I wanted to catch the top of Sutro tower in the pic too but when I got it framed right those pics didn't turn out as well as this one. The camera was Nikon D3200 sigma 70-300mm ($100 found on craigslist lol) @300mm, F11, iso200 30 second exposure. Thanks for touching it up it looks more colorful too Here's the other pic with Tungsten white balance which I like but thought looked too touched up even tho it's stock minus the white balance so I was hesitant to post Thank you vpnavy for the compliment also.

I forgot to add in the pic below the Farallone Islands are visible 27 miles offshore! Added to the 12 miles I'm guessing to the bridge the camera captured an island 39 miles away at night which I still can't believe.
View attachment rHBIkeD.jpg

 

[DizzyDigger]

MM, you are taking some really nice shots! The 3200 is a fine DSLR, and
can take pics as good as anything else out there in it's class.

If you don't have one, I would really encourage you to get a copy
of a good processing program such as Adobe Elements 10 (or whatever
version they're up to now) and Adobe Lightroom. With those two programs
you can do just about anything with an image that needs done, and
in all honesty the only program I use anymore is Lightroom v3.6. Once you
learn the program (which isn't difficult) you can take a good image, and
then improve it greatly with a few minor changes.

The Sigma 70-300mm 4.6-5.8 Macro is a fine lens, but I found it's
not quite as sharp at the higher ISO settings as the Nikon version
(which I use frequently). It cost about $145 new on Amazon (the
Sigma).

If you get another opportunity at that same shot (of the city), try it
next time at f8, 300mm and ISO 400. At f11 the aperture really
starts to close down, and if you can open it more by moving up to
f8 (might even try f6.3?) and at that distance you should still have
plenty of focused depth.

Your composure is overall very good, however you've reached the level
where applying a couple of the basic rules of photography will bring
immediate improvement. The "Rule of Thirds" is important with landscape
shots, as it brings balance to the image. In your tungsten shot of the bridge (below)
all I did was crop it to a panorama vs. the original 2x3 crop, and also just
slightly (like very little..lol) enhanced the colors of the lights on the bridge.
Cloned out a couple of eye catching distractions near the horizon, and also
leveled out the horizon. Less that a minutes work in Lightroom.



I firmly believe that photography today is 10% science (settings for the camera, etc.)
20% inspiration, and 70% artistic impression. Once you've selected the proper
camera settings for the shot, everything else revolves around your artistic viewpoint
of the subject. You frame the image you want to take, and then in post-processing
you can make that image reflect not only what you actually saw, but you can even infuse
your emotions of the moment into the finished image.

You have a great grasp of subject, and I believe you have the artistic skills
to take your photography to a much higher level if you choose. The site
"Cambridge in Color" has a superb set of tutorials that will help you along,
and I highly recommend them to any beginning or intermediate level
photographer.

 

[tamrock]

Very Nice!

 

[TNGUNS]

Wow....... wonderful things to see. I live in a whole different world in my little rural Tennessee county. Mountains, TN River and thousands of acres of agricultural fields.

 

[Alex Burke]

Wow....... wonderful things to see. I live in a whole different world in my little rural Tennessee county. Mountains, TN River and thousands of acres of agricultural fields.

TNGUNS- Thank you, the interesting part is when I've been in a rural setting I miss the city after a while, but I almost always miss being in the country and your lucky to live there Mostly I miss the stars, peacefulness and beauty of it all. That being said the city has some perks I'm sure I'm forgetting like 24hr food...

Tamrock- Thank you Sir.

Dizzy- Thank you that looks way better! I really do need a post production suite and it's on my list I also want to get into doing HDR pics soon so I need to get the tools for that too. Your right about the lens it's soft and in daylight it is more obv but it was cheap and I was dying to get a longer lens so I went for it. I have a 70-300 cannon lens which is a much better lens but I haven't had the money for a canon body yet I will definitely try the settings you suggested next time I get a chance and post back here. If you have a bigger size on your computer of the touched up file can I send you money for a 12 pack for it? Thanks for all the great tips touch-up work and compliments.