Night Lights - Beijing National Theatre

[Herriot]

Hi,

A few photographs from a very cold Friday evening walk with the tripod, would appreciate any feedback you can offer on any of these.

Many thanks
Herriot

[n8]

All have quite a wow factor too them. The last two make me think of the windows 7 wallpapers.

[LeeIs]

Beautiful Herriot. You got the colour balance right on in the first one. I'm not a big fan on the colour balance in the orangish ones. The blue hues are perfect for this. Well done.

[llewpics]

Very well done. My favorite is #3. It may sound minimalistic, but for #1 I would like it better without the buildings on the left and right ...

[jetrim]

Also not crazy about the white balance in 2 & 3 but the composition is spectacular in all 4 shots. I did play a bit and can tell you that #3 looks STUNNING in black & White :devil:

[gahspidy]

I agree that these are all very nice, but the #3 really feels to be the one that steps above the rest. i too prefer the color balance of the first. I love the symetry of #3 and so feel that a slight crop from the left will bring both ends even.
Jets idea about a b&w conversion looks good and something to consider as well.

really nice work

[Coastal Flyer]

Outstanding job on all shots. You really nailed it on all. I prefer #1, just because I like the use of water and reflections so much. Night photography is my favorite, so you were hitting my soft spot regardless. Congrats on the sticky. Well done! Are these HDR?

David

[PhilF]

I like it.

[draymorton]

Night HDRs - cool. All wonderful. Last is the weakest for me - and there's a halo around the structure.

But your weakest is apparently stronger than most people's strongest.

Congrats on the feature. Little wonder how these made it here.

[stu-52]

Congrats on the WFP.

FWIW, I think you should have used the same white balance for the one that was chosen as WFP.

Here's another take on the same subject:
http://stuckincustoms.smugmug.com/Po...830_4YtE7-A-LB

[LeeIs]

Congrats on the sticky.

What makes you guys think it's an HDR? To me It looks like a straight up night shoot.

[draymorton]

I was so out-of-it when I posted that last comment... I think I read "HDR" in one subject line and transferred it to this one. I could swear that I saw those three letters in here somewhere, but I guess not.

Amazing pics, though, regardless.

[GB1]

Incredible place for sure, and the shots do them justice. Looks pretty clear outside for Beijing (!) Very clean photographs. I do like the little bit of trees and buildings you can see in the bottom image. Nice work, and an even nicer place. This building must be very inspiring to the performing artists.

GB

[Herriot]

Thank you all for your comments and it is a great suprise that one of these was featured! I am always amazed by the amount of friendly and constructive feedback people are willing to share on the forum.

n8 - Thanks for the kind words, number 3 is the one that caught my eye the most but the tones on the first would be my preference overall, just a shame about the movement in the water over the long (15 second) exposure..

Leels - Thanks for your feedback, the tones in the first came out well and represented the -13 degrees I was battling against (in nothing but my work suit after my meetings ended), a peaceful place surrounded by a lot of ice!

llewpics - Thanks, I actually like the balance the buildings and trees add to 3 of the 4 images but can see that they may be slightly distracting...

Jet - Thank you as well, if you saved a B&W version of #3 then by all means go ahead and post it on this thread, it would be really interesting to see what you managed to do with it.

Gary - Thanks for the feedback and the sticky, as I say, this was a big surprise! I think an additional crop on #3 would make complete sense, many thanks again.

David - Thanks, no HDR involved here, these are just straightforward night shots mounted on my freezing cold tripod. 12 to 15 second exposures with the ISO as low as it could go (pretty much my standard formula).

PhilF - Glad you like them!

Dray - Thank you for commenting, you're right about the halo on the fourth image, I liked the colours in it though so wanted to share but you're completely right.

Stuart - Thanks, it might be something for me to try on my next trip up, I am keen on the 3rd image but wanted to try and keep it warm as it looked a bit like what I would imagine the entrance to an alien ship could look like and as such wanted to keep it bright / slightly intimidating.

GB - Thanks for your feedback and you're absolutely right, this is clear for Beijing. I have taken the tripod up 4 times on work trips since November and this was the first time I felt I had anything worth sharing. The weather is really cold at present so I suspect that this may have something to do with it. Did I mention the Chinese opera that I could hear while photographing #3, I found that to be very inspiring as I was photographing from the outside, not sure that my pictures would inspire those performing on the inside though!

Thanks again all
Kind regards
Herriot

[Grandpaw]

Nice set of photos. Night photography is one of my favorites, Jeff

[jetrim]

Jet - Thank you as well, if you saved a B&W version of #3 then by all means go ahead and post it on this thread, it would be really interesting to see what you managed to do with it.

Thanks again all
Kind regards
Herriot

This is one version I particularly liked. It's actually a cyanotype (Blue & White)