Bikes at night

Richard

M38A1

Being a bike kind of guy myself,

I like how you were able to capture blue bikes and the blue bus. They seem to compliment each other in opposing ways.

rainbow

Like the blues and like the lighting (especially for a night shot).

Qs: Did you boost the blue channel to emphasize the color? Was it this well-lit a street or did you push the brightness some?

misterb

Nice- the blue bikes are cool!

Richard

Thanks, guys. It was a well-lit main street and the repetition of the blues is what caught my attention. I didn't specifically target the blues for enhancement--it just came out that way in doing my normal workflow, which has become a little baroque but only takes a few minutes.

lizzard_nyc

If I didnt' know better I would swear this was shot in South Beach.

Great attention to detail with the blue and blue--I know I would have missed that.

Lovely night shot.

Richard

Thanks Liz. Glad you liked it. It was a runner-up from the night shooting exercise.

SamirD

How much post was done to the shot? What were the exposure settings?

Richard

SamirD wrote: »

How much post was done to the shot? What were the exposure settings?

35mm, f/1.8 1/100 sec ISO 1600.

Not sure how to answer "how much," but probably more than many people do with color pics. My normal process now involves doing the basic exposure and color work in ACR, making a high-contrast B&W version, then overlaying the B&W on the color. Sounds like more work than it is.

HTH.

SamirD

Did you think about altering the white balance? I usually change mine in the camera before shooting to remove some of the yellow cast by these type of lights.

Richard

SamirD wrote: »

Did you think about altering the white balance? I usually change mine in the camera before shooting to remove some of the yellow cast by these type of lights.

I don't worry about it in camera since I shoot in raw, but I did spend some time on WB in this one in ACR. Night street shots tend to have mixed casts because there are many different types of lamps in play. That makes it very hard to pick a global WB that works everywhere. One could make local adjustments, but I'm not sure there's much point to that. Fact is, colors are weird on the street at night and IMO that's part of what gives them character.

SamirD

I figured you were shooting in raw, so that's why I asked about post processing first. .

Yeah, there are a lot of weird casts in situations like this. But you are right, that's what allows the blue to pop. That and the shallow dof focusing the viewer to the blue bike.

Richard

SamirD wrote: »

I figured you were shooting in raw, so that's why I asked about post processing first. .

Yeah, there are a lot of weird casts in situations like this. But you are right, that's what allows the blue to pop. That and the shallow dof focusing the viewer to the blue bike.

Right. We had an interesting discussion about color casts in night shots a while ago in this thread. Check out the color correction example I gave there.

SamirD

Richard wrote: »

We had an interesting discussion about color casts in night shots a while ago in this thread. Check out the color correction example I gave there.

Oooo...will do!