Megatrond
01-12-2007, 06:34 AM
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/megatrond/352027142/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/163/352027142_28a4e5393a.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Shining Beacon" /></a>
Even though the shot feels a little cliché in the sense that the subject is always "just there," I like the way it feels against the sky and how it really stands alone in a city of giants. Plus the fact that you can see stars in a sky facing towards midtown is pretty neat.
* Where Was it Taken?
Obviously in New York. Less obviously shooting from the 18th floor of a building on 28th and Madison. I was in a darkened apartment shooting through the 4" that the window would open, which severely limited my choices for how to frame the shot. It was a warm summer night at about 12:30 in the morning, just after they turn off the bright lights on the building.
* What settings did you use?
Mode: Manual
Exposure: 30 sec (30)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 27 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire
Timer: Used it to avoid camera shake
* What gear (camera, lens etc) did you use?
Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT with the 18-55 kit lens, no filter
* Why did you compose the shot as you did?
Didn't really have many great options with the window locked as it was. I suppose I could have shot through the window and ignored that the glass was filthy.
* What post production work have you done on the shot (if any)?
I ran it through DxO to fix some of the lens distortion and then fiddled with the levels in photoshop. I didn't realize the benefit of RAW when I shot it, so it was shot in jpeg.
* What were you hoping to achieve with the shot?
I wanted a nice shot of the building, and was trying out long exposures for the first time. When I took this I had only recently upgraded from a point and shoot to an SLR, so long exposures were novel to me.
* What did you do well?
Patience. It took me something like 30 iterations to get a photo that I felt turned out nicely.
* How could you have improved it?
I think I overexposed it a little and if I had to frame it differently I would consider getting a higher perspective on the building and include a bit of the horizon.
Even though the shot feels a little cliché in the sense that the subject is always "just there," I like the way it feels against the sky and how it really stands alone in a city of giants. Plus the fact that you can see stars in a sky facing towards midtown is pretty neat.
* Where Was it Taken?
Obviously in New York. Less obviously shooting from the 18th floor of a building on 28th and Madison. I was in a darkened apartment shooting through the 4" that the window would open, which severely limited my choices for how to frame the shot. It was a warm summer night at about 12:30 in the morning, just after they turn off the bright lights on the building.
* What settings did you use?
Mode: Manual
Exposure: 30 sec (30)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 27 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire
Timer: Used it to avoid camera shake
* What gear (camera, lens etc) did you use?
Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT with the 18-55 kit lens, no filter
* Why did you compose the shot as you did?
Didn't really have many great options with the window locked as it was. I suppose I could have shot through the window and ignored that the glass was filthy.
* What post production work have you done on the shot (if any)?
I ran it through DxO to fix some of the lens distortion and then fiddled with the levels in photoshop. I didn't realize the benefit of RAW when I shot it, so it was shot in jpeg.
* What were you hoping to achieve with the shot?
I wanted a nice shot of the building, and was trying out long exposures for the first time. When I took this I had only recently upgraded from a point and shoot to an SLR, so long exposures were novel to me.
* What did you do well?
Patience. It took me something like 30 iterations to get a photo that I felt turned out nicely.
* How could you have improved it?
I think I overexposed it a little and if I had to frame it differently I would consider getting a higher perspective on the building and include a bit of the horizon.