City lights make Red Snow

[christopher88]

I won 3rd place out of 150 photos at a gallery show with a version of this photo but it had more editing than this version.

Picture was taken at Page Park by rock river in dixon,il...
The sun had just sank below the horizon and cold brisk air was creeping into my bones as I walked up the road away from river to my car,to the spot you are viewing from.I could see the color in snow but not as intense.The sky hadnt turned black yet so there was some visible light,it was that time when...if youve ever taken a photo after sunset and sky looked deep dark blue in photo.Dec 4th at 5:03pm
Composition,I was trying to get the S curve of the road and the little bridge with city lights and river in backround,I had no idea the sensor was so sensitive to light when exposed for many seconds.And after this I read that the sensor picks up way more light than the human eye...
"Post Processing"
Adjust white balance slightly in raw editor
1. Duplicate layer,set layer property to screen and about 25%.
2. Duplicate Backround layer and layer property set to Multiply and you have to adjust to your taste using this layer and screen to get your result as it has control over overall lightness and the multiply has a slight vibrance effect in this situation,rather than using vibrance kuz my city lights were already giving me issues,multiply helped tame lights.
3. I ended up having to do a freehand selection of lights by river and add as 4th layer to help with the look i wanted for lights.never did get what I wanted.The shutter being open so long blew out lights in spots but the rest was saveable(need a grad filter).
Merge all,unsharp mask 2.0 pixels 25%.
Downsized 70% convert to jpeg for here.
I won 3rd place out of 150 photos at a gallery show with a version of this photo but it had more editing.

Olympus e-620 14-42mm lens at 42mm
Manual mode on a tripod
Sharpness +1,Gradiation - Auto,Picture mode - Vivid
Shutter Speed -- 20 sec.
Aperature F- 8
Metering -- ESP
Custom white balance -- 14000
ISO 250

[Shutterbugdeb]

Very pretty. I especially like the reflection on the water. Congrats on your well deserved win!

[christopher88]

Thank You,it was my 1st contest and just wanted the experience with print-frame/matting,and see the gallery show.3rd place was 50$,wasnt expecting anything...lol.
Oh ya...those big dark things in river are old supports to a train bridge.