Hong Kong Harbor at Night

[rpcrowe]

I fully intended to use a tripod for this shot but, my tour group left our Hong Kong hotel at eight in the morning and never stopped back at the hotel for me to grab my tripod. I ended up on the Kowloon side near the Star Ferry Terminal to see the Hong Kong light show without a tripod.

Being on a tour can really cramp my style. We ended up arriving at the Star Ferry Terminal just a few minutes before the light show began. I could not have used a tripod if I had one because there was a big group of people in front of me. Luckily at 6'2" tall, I can shoot over most of the Hong Kong Chinese. I looked around and there was nothing against which I could have braced the camera. I just had to trust hand holding and the IS assistance of the lens.

I set my camera's exposure at -1 stop and then bracketed -1, 0 and +1 stop which actually gave me exposures of two stops under what the meter was reading, 1 stop under and exactly on. I have learned by experience that if I bracket night shots without first setting the exposure at -1 stop; the +1 exposure is usually way too much light.

I set my ISO at 1,600 which is about the maximum that my Canon 30D can handle. However, I would rather have a relatively sharp image that is a bit noisy than an image with less noise that suffers from camera shake.

I used a 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens which, by the virtue of its constant f/2.8 aperture and image stabilization is a very viable low light glass. Obviously, I had the IS turned on.

The best exposure ended up as 1/20 second @ f/2.8 which is well within my hand-holding capability when shooting with the 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens.

I post processed using Photoshop CS3 and used Topaz Adjust 3 deNoise for noise reduction.

I am quite satisfied with the results.

[Maik]

Great shot and explanation. Thanks for that.
If you could have used a tripod and took a shot with a few second exposure, the boat in front would defenitly ended up unsharp in the photo.
It's a pitty my Nikon D40 does not have the bracketing option....

[BrazucaNY]

nice shot well done