night shot

I took this tonight standing on the beach. What you are seeing is a three mile 6 lane bridge that connects Ocean Springs to Biloxi Mississippi. There is a pier next to it that is about 300ft long. If you look under the bridge through the pilings at the far end you can see several casinos. This is basically right out of the camera and downsized to be able to post here, Jeff

D90
Sigma 10-20 lens taken at 10mm
ISO 800
F22
30 second exposure

Sometimes those dark areas without detail are a distraction but in this case I like how the bridge leads into that darkness and the contrast between it and all the lighted areas.
I also like the star flare on the lights and how sharp it is.
Nice stuff.

looks like you have two hot pixels. it also looks like dust on your lens or something, not sure what it is. not much more to say though.

Frog, thanks for taking the time to look and leave a comment.

Caleb, as far as the hot pixels I think what you are seeing is lights on the buildings. The spots you are probably talking about as far as dust is only on that one shot, so I don't really know what it was. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment.

When I went down to get this picture and was looking for something different than the standard bridge shot. This bridge is about three miles long and is curved in an "S" from one end to the other. I got the shot exactly like I wanted it with the perspective of being at one end and the casinos on the other side of the bay showing through the pilings of the bridge. I am very happy with how it came out but by the lack of comments that it received it must not have come out as good as I thought it was. I will post one more view and see if it works any better, Jeff

Both versions are outstanding, Jeff.
Been insanely busy these past few days, but the studio had a very successful grand opening reception last night, so I'll be able to comment/post a bit more now :)

I liked it, but it's a bridge..... It's well executed but it's also the type of subject that's well executed (shot to death).




I personally liked the first one you uploaded (for the deep black around it, reflections, clearer bg, etc), although the second has its own value (sunset, deeper shadows on bridge, no lens flare/dust/hot pixels).

Thanks jetrim for taking the time to look and leave a comment.And also thanks to caleb for stopping back by and leaving a comment also. I know that there are many pictures of bridges out there so I was trying to get something a little different. I was very pleased how they came out. One of my friends met me over there to shoot some also and got a picture of me in action. I was using my Nikon D90 with a Sigma 10-20 lens and he was shooting with a Nikon D700 and Nikon 12-24 lens. He took my best side, Jeff

I guess I missed this thread as I was skimming the forums.

I think both shots are great. You did a good job turning the bridge into an interesting subject. I'd say it would be worth cloning out a few of those lens spots (almost looks like sea spray...), especially the ones on the water.

Tell your friend he got a nice shot with you in it too.
You must have been very still as there is no motion blur or very little for a 4 second exposure.

cm-mtb, does this look any better? I don't know if I got everything but I did get some.

Frog, I see you are putting your new Firefox EXIF plug in to good use. I was staying very still because and movement on the pier could show up in my long exposures. I also took out some tiny white spots that looked like pixels but they were actually stars, Jeff

Nice pictures Jeff.......

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Grandpaw

cm-mtb, does this look any better? I don't know if I got everything but I did get some.

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There are still a few like you said, but it does look better to me.

I prefer the second one. The star effect on the lights just overpowers the picture for me. At first glance it actually made me squint my eyes. I think it also makes a big difference because those stars aren't reflected in the water. Because you don't see as many lights and the star effect isn't as big helps that one. But what really matters is which one you like best.

Original and then one with the light reflection in the water toned down. What do you think? Better or worse, Jeff

I do see some strange flaring, spots around the lights. Did you use a UV? I think it is a good idea to take it off on night shots.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Greg McCary

I do see some strange flaring, spots around the lights. Did you use a UV? I think it is a good idea to take it off on night shots.

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Greg, I took care of the spots in one version of this shot and can eliminate it again in the final version. What I was wondering is toning down the reflections of the lights in the water an improvement or not. When I do the final version of this the spots will be gone but how about the reflections. I did a quick fix on the reflections and want to know if it is worth spending more time on or leave them in, Jeff

I like the toned down version the best. You are good at editing.

I prefer the reflections toned down. - TF