#1 is my favorite.

Too bad about that light pole (damn those things get in the way a lot).

 

Thanks...just wish that laguna seca was brighter. Light pole wasn't too annoying thankfully...but I did want to put it in the picture where it wasn't necessarily an eyesore.....ultimately though, it would be better if they just weren't around

settings:

f 3.0
iso 50
i can't remember the white balance setting!
exposure 1/40 sec

I didn't have my tripod with me for these so I used the floor and sat on the floor and placed the camera on my knee for support. Held my breath and just sat still for a few seconds before taking the picture.

 

Hafid: Those pictures are really nice. I love the color and saturation. Did you do any Photoshop enhancing on the saturation???

 

Last night, DiD and I did our first Photo Tour. We visited the same location I took my first night shots, and shot some of the surrounding architecture. I took a lot of pics, but wasn't very successful. These are the best of my bunch. I blurred out DiD's plates only cause I didn't ask permission from him to post these, so I'm just covering my ****.

I also included a Photoshop experiment. There was no way to get the exposure correct on both the background building and the MINI, so I did a composite of two pictures. I show the result and the two files I combined. I did this using the Mask Function and a very soft airbrush setting. I also did some color adjustment and brightening of the image.

For DiD's car, I didn't do a composite, but rather selective lightening and color adjustment to help bring out the car from the background. There are lots of hot spots. The image was mediocre to begin with, and I think I just barely made it acceptable. I think it's too dark still.

At the 8 second exposure I only have 2 aperature settings, and its either too bright or too dark.

Nikon Coolpix 4300
Manual mode/focus
f2.8
8 second exposure
2 to 4 bursts of an external flash
ambient lighting from marker lights (punched twice)

So Hafid, when are you coming to Los Angeles???





Composite Experiment
Final Composite:

Elements:


Selective Lightening on DiD's car

Before:

 

One of the shots that actually came out to my satisfaction from last night.



I wish I were happier about the way the MINI photos came out.

Aw well, it was still fun to see whole new parts of the city I hadn't seen before.

 

Nice DiD! I was wondering why you were staring at the plants so long.

Lighting was pretty tough last night, but I was hoping your D70 could perform some type of "miracle".

We'll just have to try again!

 

Thanks - very little PS modding...I adjusted the levels on the first and third ones a tad.

 

Interesting experimenting! For the both of you It seems like there's just no place in that composition to accurately light the car without overexposing the background. I see why you took the composition route...certainly helps the situation and brings a new twist to it.

I always thought Union Station at sunset would be a good spot...I took this there the last time I was there - more for fun than anything else...something about those tall skinny palm trees...

 

WOW! You folks do such amazing things with your cameras! I've been a big fan of Hafid since I saw his first set of night shots. I'm so inspired, that I've signed up for a basic photography class that starts in September. Until then, keep posting your beautiful pics, everyone!

 

L.A. is quite a city. Bright lights illuminating the usual tourist areas certainly help out at night. (took this one back in March)

 

Okay, these are the only frames fairly acceptable. Only available light was used- no flash photography here. Critique away!
(settings are as usual.)

Pics were taken in the San Joaquin Valley between 1 & 2:30 AM on Monday, August 9, 2004.

 

#1: The scene of the first one doesn't do much for me - the sign and the lit up tree on the right. Without the brick work, it looks like a pretty ordinary street. The streetlights are overblown and the trees are a bit distracting.

#2: This is my favorite of the bunch. It might be a little nicer if it were cropped tighter on the MINI (removing the overexposed light pole). The white balance looks a little off too, but I think that's minor.

Where you doing something differently in the second shot? The side of your car has better definition than your Bank building shoot. It's still a little underexposed, but there is a noticable improvement.

#3: This shot has a lot of potential if that street light weren't there. It's right over top of the car. That draws my eye straight to the main problem with the picture. Again, the white balance needs adjustment. Composition wise this one works for me, but that streetlight being so prominent kills it.

In my own night photography I'm trying to eliminate as many direct light sources as possible from being framed in the picture. It is a challenge, but ultimately it should pay off in pictures that are more evenly illuminated while minimizing hotspots.

 

Is the goal of this thread to shoot and display mediocre pictures of our cars by using existing lighting (or getting lucky by finding that one scene with perfect lighting that Hafid seems always able to achieve ) or to use the tools of photography to take the best looking pictures at night??

I'm talking about great composition, careful control of existing lighting, or taking advantage of supplemental tools to bring out particular highlights if needed (such as using a flashlight?), and expertise over the use of your cameras--knowing how to set exposure, focus, etc.....

I agree about BnB's shot #1. I see he's trying to use perspective with the streetlights and the angle of the camera, but unfortunately, it should draw your eyes to something interesting, and not to a BEE sign.

#2 there seems to be a light source that's helping with the definition. Maybe it wasn't a flash, but there is definitely something behind/in front of him as he took this picture.

Composition in most of BnB's pics are usually pretty good, but something went haywire in these pics. Especially #3 with the bright light and telephone pole sticking out of the roof.

When we take portraits of people, we strive to avoid these easily fixable flaws of things in the background appearing to grow out of our subjects heads. Why should it be any different with our MINI's?

 

Ultimately I think we're trying to improve the pictures through a better understanding of our cameras, lighting, and off camera adjustment (photoshop). I don't see any reason to restrict that to only the available light (i.e. no supplemental flash).

As we're finding, night photography presents some special challenges (or maybe better put it accentuates existing issues that are easier to ignore during the daytime). White balance and lighting play HUGE part in night photography. Both of those are a lot easier to deal with during the day.

As you point out, composition becomes even more critical at night. Looking at where your light sources are, considering how that interacts with the subject of the photo, and which areas are going to be overexposed / underexposed and then trying to make adjustments (shutter/aperture/flash) to compensate for that.

That's my impression anyway.

 

It's a learning experience for all of us I think. To aid in that, I would think it would be a good idea to point out a couple of other pics you would see from someone else and share them here to help. We're all limited by our own capabilities and it would be nice to have some professional pics to contrast with as well to help express tips and pointers for what you can or cannot do.

Check this photographer and some of his night shots...

http://www.ruji.net/pc/index.html

 

Thanks Hafid for posting those pics. Definitely worthwhile to see what the pros are doing, though except for the rooftop shot,they all look "very slick". I love that first shot

 

In following Hafid's suggestion of posting some examples from others, here are some photos from Arin Ahnell He's a regular on iPhotoForum

 

Boy I do like those first two from the pro you posted dave. Excellent effect with the rain.

 

The rain effect was created with a 5+ minute exposure (those are stars). The streaking is caused by the earth's rotation over that period of time.


I have this picture in my head that someday I'd like to attempt to create.
Use an electric blue / white MINI and then have a long enough shutter to capture that streaking of the stars.

The problem I see is balancing the amount of flash required to properly illuminate the MINI, while at the same time working in near total darkness out in the middle of nowhere to get the sky exposed for long enough to get the stars to show up with that effect.

The additional complication is that with the long shutter times, it's going to take a while to get the picture set-up correctly (multiple exposures in the 5-30 minute range).

Grab a Snickers. It's going to be a while.

 

A bit on the grainy side but I was tripodless.

--
Cheese

 

Not bad cheese. the xb is well lit actually. Now, if you could have snapped a pic with the moon just a touch behind the clouds...that would have been cool...and maybe with a car going through the pic....turn down your ISO a notch if you can.

 

nice work guys....i gotta get out there and shoot!

 

This is my one semi-sucessful try at mini "night" pictures...

 

A few I just took of mine... Still learning





these two are not exactly a night shots

 

DJ_Konky:

I think I've seen a couple of those pictures posted before over on the VWvortex Photography Forum (either there or in the Car Lounge). Welcome to North American Motoring!

I like all three of those shots, especially the top one. Nice work.

Dave
(DenverMINI on Vortex)