Moon over Pell street

[gahspidy]

Another from the Chinatown series. . . . this is an in-camera double exposure. I had waited for the right night to catch the almost full moon, and it happened to be 12 deg. F in this early morning hour. I was concerned with how my gear and film would hold up being out there for about two hours in the cold, but it seemed to do well. Definetely better than my cell phone , which would not display until a few minutes after getting back in the car.
Pell st is the street running into the distance and Doyer st is the one going off to the left of the frame. Doyer street runs down on an incline, as is evident in the shot.
Do you feel this comp is effective?
Thanks

[Capstone]

...I love B&W's. You really have a talent. Not so sure about being out in 12degree weather though ;)

[sweetdeal22]

you have a gift Gary, that's an excellent picture


what type of camera do you have?

[Chunk]

It seems very surreal to me and lot less natural or at least believable feeling than your other double exposure moonshots. That doesn't mean that I don't like the shot though - it's stunning. I think the wide angle feel of the street scene with the telephoto moon is what mostly gives the surreal feeling and maybe a darker street would make me feel more comfortable too.

You get the frigid fingers award for this one.

[swmdrayfan]

Gary, this series keeps me in the 40's 'private eye' mood. You've set the scene really well here. Nice work.;)
John

[readingr]

Gary,

This is a wonderful capture, but as chunk pointed out I would have expected the street to be a lot darker than this for a moon that clear.

One other thing that bugs me is the moon seems to have a white ring around it as if it had been merged from another photo rather than an in-camera capture.

Still like the photo though, and you must be a brave chap to be out in China Town at what time in how cold. Now that has got to be crazy.

Roger

[gahspidy]

Capstone . . .thanks for the comments. yeah, I'm not so sure it was a good idea, but i like having the streets all for myself, and I cetainly did.

Jessica. . . .thanks for the good words and your thoughts on the picture. I'm shooting with a Canon Elan 7 (EOS 33) The street scene was shot first with a Canon 17-40 f4L lens at a wide setting, and the moon was shot with the Canon 70-200 f4.0L at almost a full zoom.

Chunk . . .thanks for the points. I think you hit on somethingthere. I also felt that it looked more surreal than i had hoped it would turn out and I think I might have helped minimize that by not zooming in too closely to the moon. I think the subtle compression factor of the telephoto and the size of the moon lends itself to the "not for real" feel. I am hoping that when i do test it on paper it does not feel that way too much. . . .thanks for the award. I'll take it. i know you have a few sitting on your mantel as well, huh?

John . . .thanks for commenting. Yes, you really like those old movies, as do I. Glad to know your feeling the mood in this one as well.

Roger . . . When you mentioned there being a white ring around the moon, I thought no way. But then you had me looking closely at the screen and it does appear that way. So I went to my original tiff file and examined it closely and there is no white ring at all. So I tried darkening the outter edge area of the moon, resized it as I would for this web image, and it still looked like there was a lighter edge around the moon. I think it must be an illusion or something brought about by the compression or relation of the bright moon to the black sky. Thanks for the points.

[Chunk]

So I went to my original tiff file and examined it closely and there is no white ring at all. So I tried darkening the outter edge area of the moon, resized it as I would for this web image, and it still looked like there was a lighter edge around the moon. I think it must be an illusion or something brought about by the compression or relation of the bright moon to the black sky. Thanks for the points.

Could the ring be from sharpening the smaller image?
Maybe this is one shot where you might need to try different sampling methods in the resizing if any of the problem shows up when preparing for the print.
I do have a few of those awards. I hope to sell the house and move away from where collection of more of them is likely.

[dbutler]

Well, I love it!! But you are hardly surprised are you? The only thing nagging at me a bit is the slight dip to the left that I keep seeing on the hair salon. It may not actually be there but...

[Seb]

Another from the Chinatown series. . . . this is an in-camera double exposure. I had waited for the right night to catch the almost full moon, and it happened to be 12 deg. F in this early morning hour. I was concerned with how my gear and film would hold up being out there for about two hours in the cold, but it seemed to do well. Definetely better than my cell phone , which would not display until a few minutes after getting back in the car.
Pell st is the street running into the distance and Doyer st is the one going off to the left of the frame. Doyer street runs down on an incline, as is evident in the shot.
Do you feel this comp is effective?
Thanks

Gary, with all due respect, I don't think that this picture absolutely needed a moon in it (no offense, you have all my respect for dealing with that cold!) as it just looks terrific due to your composition and exposure. That being said, the moon does look interesting. I dunno if you further edited it but I can't see any halo or weird effect arround it. My only issue is that the moon may looks somewhat too well defined but I wouldn't retouch it. In the end, the picture is really moody and that is what I care about.

This is a fine addition to the series by all means

Seb

[photophorous]

Hi Gary,

This is very good, as with everything I've seen from you, but this is one of the few I'd change. The content is very interesting, and I like the idea, but I would prefer if the horizon were a little lower. Show less of the road in the foreground, more of the sky, and then raise the moon a little higher. It looks a little cramped to me. I think that small patch of sky is different from your other moon double exposures...if I remember right. Just my humble opninion, of course.

Paul

[gahspidy]

Chunk . . . no , I tried the experiment witout sharpening and the ring appeared there. I think it might have to do with a combination of my resizing a very high resolution file ( 120mb at 16 bit color depth, 59mb at 8 bit) down to this 80 kb web version. i usually scan at smaller size for web conversion. also might be partly a "monitor thing". From my printing experience, the illusion will not be in the print. whatever i see in my tiff file zoomed in at 100% is what i get in print, with much more detail than can be seen on the monitor.

D . . .believe me, I'm grateful when you take the time to express when you feel you like it. As for the street having a dip, it does. The side street, which is Doyers street is on an incline.

Seb . . .I actually blurred the moon a bit and added a little noise to it to further help blend it into the picture, although that is not too evident here. It means alot to me that you feel it is a good addition to the series, as I wanted this to work because of the effort and expectations and did not know if I was being blinded by those ambitions.

Paul . . . I appreciate your comments. I think your suggestion would work well, and part of the reason why the composition is as it is was because of a compromise between what i wanted and what the wide angle lens would allow me to get away with.I had my tripod up at it's highest height, about 6 ft. and the lens tilted up as high as i could go without having the buildings start distorting in such a way that would be too difficult to correct in PS. Thanks for your comments , Paul.

[Yoyo Szeto]

Hi Gary,
Good shot! I espeically like the fire ladders and their shadows. I also feel the temperature is very cold (this may be due to the emptiness of the streets). The moon seems a little bit distorted to me but this is a very minor issue.
yoyo

[Robert Ward]

How great to see a street that would be very busy at other times with no traffic, no parking meters, no road markings or gaudy shop signs !! Would love to see the same pic in the day time. Love the surreal feel to this, the shadows from the fire escape are brilliant. Only thing missing here is a lone cat. Well done.
Bobby

[gahspidy]

Yoyo, I'm glad you can see the cold there, as I feel my fingers going numb whenever i see this now. The moon was not quite full and so looks a bit skewed.

Robert, yes, this street is very crowded during open hours. No parking meters because the street is too narrow for any cars to park. i sometimes feel like these quiet hours are the calm before the storm.

[LeeIs]

I've come back to this image many times and thought wow! every time I did.

I still can't believe how well you're capturing your night themes in this series. You have a knack on knowing exactly where to place the light sources though it's really placing your self perfectly among the light sources since I'm sure you can't move light poles.
Of coarse, the perfect placement of them isn't the only reason why this shot works but the real reason is your mastery at exposing this shot while placing them in the right places IMO.

It's clear that there is a light pole behind you or the right slightly that perfectly illuminates the foreground of this shot then we have that other in the middle that illuminates the end of the street and the middle. Absolutely tremendous I think.

Now that's just the lighting.

The composition is equally fascinating to me and the moon adds to the mystery in this shot.

Overall. A+ here. I seriously can't get over how well you're exposing these night shots and especially this one here. It think it's the best one so far in composition and lighting. Great work as always.

[gahspidy]

Liban, thanks for your remarks and the time to lay out your thoughts as you have. I was concerned that my bias was interfering with my judgement on the inclusion of this picture into the series because i wanted the moon in the shot but did not know for sure if it would pull off. So I had taken the same composition without the double exposure of the moon. But I'm encouraged to hear that the general consensus is it works ok. I have just printed this out in a small size and am very happy with the results.
As for your comments on the exposures and technical deatails, I must say that I'm no master at it. I'm just at a point where i know what my particuliar camera will do in given situations and work with that. These night shots mostly have been over exposed by 1 stop from what the Evaluative metering mode has recommended for the exposures. I usually take two or three shots at different exposures, mostly going over the suggested range.( Bracketing) Placing yourself in the right spot is important, and then i really expose for the shadows and do not worry about blowing out the lights. Another big help in getting the exposure is the use of Negative film. This film gives a lot of latitude and can save a picture that might be underexposed by a stop or two. It records and retains information in the darkest areas that can be brought out to some degree later in editing. And finally, I have a few editing techniques that I use to give me the look I'm after.
Thanks for your time ,Liban

[drg]

Gary,

This is a fine 'noir' piece. For me this is a good entry to the rest of the series. The emptiness of the street with the full moon really creates that feel. The only comment I'm thinking of in a critque fashion would be as to the choice regarding the amount of pavement space in the lower foreground? I like the patterns and distress there, but not sure they lend much additional to the photo. I like this series a lot even if I couldn't tell the top of building from an elevated train. Still works for me!

C

[Tuna]

Very nice, Gary. The night mood of this street is well established through your exposure and post-processing. I enjoy the detail and shadowing. I often use a strongly spaced fore-ground to establish balance and leading lines - but in this case your strength in lines is nearly all vertical and, as is, I have a sense of chopping at the top. Cutting off about half of the fore-ground street balances it better, in my view.

Tuna

[Parco]

Great shot. I love the surreal feeling, it's because of the full moon and the emptiness of the street. The b&w add more drama to this photo. Well done!



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