Train Tracks, Downtown

[ForrestCroce]

This was a two or three minute exposure, and during that time a train came under the bridge I was standing on with headlights blazing, leaving trails in the photo. I used a 15 mm rectilinear lens on a 5D, and pointed the camera upward just a little bit, which means distortion is inevitable.

It's kind of hard to make out, but that's the Space Needle to the left of downtown. The exif and all that are posted here.

[Mr Yuck]

this is a really cool shot. It is hard to make out the space needle in this small version, but everything else works great. I took a look at your other shots on your site and they're awesome too.

Welcome to the boards and thanks for sharing! I bookmarked your site, it's well done. I really like how you give each picture the attention it deserves rather than just putting them out there like I'm guilty of doing.

Dead link under your Emotive gallery, Depression, not sure if that's on purpose or not.

[GB1]

FC - Welcome. Your shot is interesting, a lot of curves and dramatic colors and lighting. It almost seems like graphic art. Is this a normal shot or did you make multiple shots and merge them so to smooth out the exposure? (I forget what they call this technique..) For suggestions for improvement, I would somehow like a bit less blockage from the foreground objects like the rail, or at least a balance of them on the right side too. The building on the right, its tilt is a little extreme and hard to take. The sky is excellant IMO, as is the moon. Good overall work, hope to see more.
GB

[afdlips]

FC - Welcome. Your shot is interesting, a lot of curves and dramatic colors and lighting. It almost seems like graphic art. Is this a normal shot or did you make multiple shots and merge them so to smooth out the exposure? (I forget what they call this technique..) For suggestions for improvement, I would somehow like a bit less blockage from the foreground objects like the rail, or at least a balance of them on the right side too. The building on the right, its tilt is a little extreme and hard to take. The sky is excellant IMO, as is the moon. Good overall work, hope to see more.
GB

That technique is called HDR. I really like this shot. There are a lot of colors not normally dominant in a night shot and that adds some nice features. the distortion is a little dissapointing. Maybe some photoshop tweaks to straighten them out. Nice work

[Coastal Flyer]

This is a gorgeous photograph. The texture is so creative, the colors are almost animated. I love night photography and you have captured the heart of my photographic interests with this shot. Really nice.

CF

[gahspidy]

Welcome to the forum,
Very nice shot. The distortion works for me as it goes with the "other worldly" effect the entire image carries. I like your use of the rail in the foreground. too bad about the blown out moon, but it is not too detrimental. It would be nice if you could double expose and have the moon exposed perfectly.
The image looks crisp and clear. Nice work.
btw, I have heard that the full frame sensor can be subject to somewhat heavier vignetting than the smaller sensors. Have you noticed an issue with that?
Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

[Has He Lost His Mind?]

You can try lens correction on photoshop. Filter-> lens correction. But aside from the distortion (which I like), it's perfect. It seems refined. The skies are amazing, the sense of line in this photo is very good. The only thing that's bothering me is the factory on the right, I wish it wasn't cut off. But, aside from that, I love it.

[Yoyo Szeto]

Hi.
I like the distortion. It echos well with the cloud which gives a sense of motion. I image the train is travelling at an ultra speed, which causes the distortion of its surroudings.
yoyo

[ravenmore]

I actually like the blown out moon. For me this whole image has another worldly quality - the moon actually looks/feels like the sun on some alien planet to me.

[dbutler]

I, too, love the distortion. Gary is right that it adds to the "other worldly" effect. I can't decide on the railing in the forefront, but it definitely doesn't interfere with the initial impact of the image overall. Nicely done.

[Coastal Flyer]

Forrest,

What is the technique HDR? I am not familiar with this term.

Thanks,

CF

[gahspidy]

Forrest,

What is the technique HDR? I am not familiar with this term.

Thanks,

CF

CF, forest did not say that he used HDR for this shot, and I doubt that he did. It stands for High Dynamic Range, and is a process in which you take three or more exposures of the same exact scene (using tripod) each exposure being different. One for the highlights, shadows and mids. There are filters available ( CS2 has one) that merge the exposures together to achieve what looks like a perfectly exposed shot all around.

[Mr Yuck]

Here's a good write up
http://www.hdrsoft.com/resources/dri.html#capture

There's lots of HDR open source programs if you dont like spending money.

I dont think this particular image was HDR but a few of his are HDR on his website, it says so in the info for each image.

[Herriot]

Forrest, welcome to the forum, a great shot to open with! A lot has already been said, I think you have composed this very nicely and IMO the distortion from the lens (more than the 5D I believe) works very well with the other curves and angles captured in the shot. If this isn't HDR as suggested by some other members, I am really impressed that certain areas of the shot are not heavily overexposed after a 2 minute exposure, very interesting and agree with the suggestion that this looks like graphic art.

Hope that you continue to post in the forum
Herriot

[starriderrick]

Nice work.Very interesting.I like the distortion.Perfect as Is. Welcome to PR.

[Coastal Flyer]

Gary,

You are correct, sorry. My mistake. I misread the comments below. But, response has been good to the question and gives me some sources to review to bone up on what this is. The technical ability just from what you have said are way over my head. I have a hard enough time with what little I know of PS let alone blending three images into one. Thanks for the info.

CF