Feeling cold?

[lerabu]

Hi all!

After a saturation phase I am now in a desaturation phase :O

This is a shot I took the other day while taking a night walk in the city. The lights were really yellow. I denoised the shot, reframed it (could have done a better job to be honest...), adjusted levels, curves, desaturated it and added a cooling filter and sharpened it up a little.

Does the shot feel cold?

If you have any other comments or recomendations please don't hesitate to repost the shot.

Thanks!

Original EXIF:
ISO 3.200
A: f3.8
Focal Length: 21mm
S: 1/60 sec
Nikon D80
18-105mm kit lens

[SwissJon]

Why don't you go pure b&w? I think that might look better. The shot feels quite warm to me. Kinda like a summer night.

Is that lens flare, snow or dirty lens?

[phaither]

i don't know much, but i agree with the shot feeling more on the warm side...

[dcclark]

First off, I like the overall shot. The composition and lines right down the middle are a good start.

I agree on the warmth, although personally I sort of like that. However, if you want it to be cooler, I would try introducing more of a bluish cast. Also, there is definitely some asymmetry (i.e. it's a bit crooked! -- partly from perspective), which tweaks my eyes a bit.

Finally -- ISO 3200 with only 1/60 sec -- while you can't undo this, it's worth thinking about the exposure choices. You could choose a narrower aperture for more depth of field (not too essential here), or decrease the ISO (to avoid noise) while only dropping the shutter speed a little bit. You can easily shoot handheld at 1/40 or 1/30 sec., or with a tripod at slower speeds.

Good start, give it a bit more work!

[Jonbar18]

I like the colour, although it does feel warmer. The composition is great.
However, there are two things that ruin the image a bit:
The two lights at the back, just outside the tree are very bright compared to the rest of the image, and close to the main subject, so it is very distracting. Maybe a mask to slightly darken it?
There seems to be fingerprints or similar on the lens, most visible between the first two trees on the right.

[lerabu]

Dear all,

Thanks for the answers and contributions! Let me address the remarks you made which are very helpful!

Warmth / Cold: I can see how it feels warm. I used to saturate my image much more before and thus this desaturation felt cold to me. I have applied a cyan filter to this image already, but maybe the intensity needs to be higher. I'll do that!

Lens flare / fingers: I really don't know to be honest. I am using a UV filter to protect the lens so maybe it's some flare from it. I noticed that too and it ruined it a bit to be honest.

ISO / Exposure / Aperture: I was on a walk with my wife and it was really cold. She gets allergic when I try to grab a tripod for our walks around town at night :P So I had to react in seconds and set the camera to the highest ISO it can capture. Unfortunately the D80 isn't the best low light sensor out there. I will revisit the location alone and reshoot on a tripod with a shutter release. I agree that with a small aperture more detail can be captured and I can stoop down to lower ISO (400 is my guess) and shoot.

I will try to tweak in PS also and repost something but I am leaving for a few days so I'll repost some time later.

I used NoiseWare for PS to denoise the shot, but it can really lead to a lot of blur, I tried resharpening with the Unsharp Mask function but it doesn't quite look the way it should (or at least I can't make it look - yet!)

Thank you for the good comment son the comopsition!

Cheers!

[Sistereinstein]

Blues are on the cool side of the color spectrum, Reds are warm. This seems obvious, but I only considered applying it to photography as I was studying painting in my efforts to gain a new perspective on compositions.

She gets allergic when I try to grab a tripod for our walks around town at night :P

I had to LOL on that one. My husband does not want to walk/drive/sit while I look at things. It's impossible to get any more that "It's nice" from him.

[SwissJon]

I still think this photo would be vastly improved by going purely black and white. Add a little grain and you'll have a really nice picture.

Oh dear.. Seems to be a disease with us photographers. My wife's reaction to seeing the tripod is "Do you need that?" and a look of sheer disappointment.. So I've taken to stowing one in the boot of the car and leaving it there.. She's unlikely to notice until it's too late.. I've got a Gorillapod for night time walks, it fits in the pocket and gives acceptable results when I don't have an alternative.. Tie it to a tree and use the remote shutter release.

[lerabu]

Originally Posted by SwissJon

Oh dear.. Seems to be a disease with us photographers. My wife's reaction to seeing the tripod is "Do you need that?" and a look of sheer disappointment.. So I've taken to stowing one in the boot of the car and leaving it there.. She's unlikely to notice until it's too late.. I've got a Gorillapod for night time walks, it fits in the pocket and gives acceptable results when I don't have an alternative.. Tie it to a tree and use the remote shutter release.

Originally Posted by Sistereinstein

My husband does not want to walk/drive/sit while I look at things. It's impossible to get any more that "It's nice" from him.

Oh gosh! So I am not the only one!

I also tried stowing it in the car but and it worked for a while but I had to empty the booth for a trip recently lol

When I get back home from my trip I will try a blue cast version and a B&W version and I'll post the results! I am testing my panning technique on London black cabs this weekend lol!

Cheers!