Rush hour

[Nikoner]

Hi guys, this is my first post in this forum section so I hope I haven't made any mistakes in the thread. So here's a pic I took yesterday evening. I'd like to hear what you think about it



It's a HDR compiled of 2 shots, each taken at f/13 and f/16. Total exposure time is 45 seconds, ISO 100. The camera is Nikon D90 and the lens is the kit one (18-105 mm).

[Matthias099]

I like the shot. I haven't dared to go into the world of HDR yet. But it seems I should try.

[Wolfsburg]

I like it AW-LOT

[Nikoner]

Thank you for your comments
Matthias, you certainly should I wasn't really planning on making a HDR but I when I got home I realised I want more car lights, that's why I merged two pictures into one.

[IABoomer]

I like the colors. Blue hour shots create some really cool skies, especially if you can get some cloud texture in there. There's also a nice contrast between the cool natural sky color and the warmer man-made lights of the streetlights and cars. I like the angle of the shot, where the traffic is running diagonally through the shot to give it some depth.

A couple minor nits to pick. There's a bit of halo around the trees on the right and the tower on the left. Considering the rest of the image is very vivid, but more natural looking, those edge details stand out more. If the whole thing was more surrealistic, then the halo effect wouldn't be so obvious. The other thing is, I'd like just a bit more headroom for the tower. It's composed/cropped a bit too close to the upper edge for my liking. I feel like I'm missing the last little bit of the structure there.

[Nikoner]

Thanks for your critique, I agree with both of your points about the halo and the top of the tower. I'll have to retake this pic when the weather is good enough (it's currently clear and there are no clouds at all...)

[giannisna]

Very very nice! Well done!

[Krusty79]

You've captured the feeling of a busy street at night very well. Having the green signal light in there was a nice touch. I also noticed the halos. I've read that adjusting the micro-smoothing (if you're using Photomatix) can reduce that.

My only nit pick is that the sky color is too unrealistic for my taste.

[chriskey]

I think its superb and I want to try this. Where was it taken??

[Nikoner]

Thanks giannisna, Krusty and chriskey! It was taken in Bourgas in Bulgaria.
This evening I decided to try picturing the same scene from a slightly different viewpoint.



f/16, 54 seconds, ISO 100 - shot in RAW and edited in Photoshop CS5.