St. Augustine at Night

RSL

Here are three of many night shots from St. Augustine this week -- processed as Silver Efex Pro's idea of Tri-X. Seems pretty close to me.

torags

Yup close to Tri X.

Nice stuff Russ (maybe a little more dof in #2 - if was possible)

RSL

Wasn't possible, Rags. That only light in the place is from the candles. It was f/1.4 with a 50 prime. I've forgotten the name of the place. If you're on St. George street at night some time, look into the doors along the way. You'll find it.

TonyCooper

Between Tom (Black Mamba) and I, I don't think there's a place in St Augustine
that we can't identify by sight, but that tunnel is a new one on me. Must be a
parking garage or hotel. I don't really see any interest there, though.

I assume you'll be taking some night shots of the lights.

RSL

Tony, It's not a tunnel and it's not a parking garage or hotel. It's Treasury, just off St. George, and shortly after sunset. It's not much of a street shot but I kind of liked the effect of the people getting out of the way of the cars coming through.

No. I don't make night shots of lights any more unless people are associated with them in some way.

richardman

Very nice. Definitely things to learn from.

Quincy T

All three definitely have some great aspects, Russ. 1 has wonderful leading lines, and I immediately started wondering what/who he is waiting for. #2 I feel has the strongest story, and I think the DOF choice (accident? haha, I hope that's not insulting...)lends something to the shot if you choose to be wild in your thoughts about it. The focused girl seems to be the favored child in that shot. #3 the headlamps on the car seem so magnified in that tunnel it seems interesting, and like you said, not much of a street shot per se, but still pretty interesting, and complemented by two other interesting photos.

M38A1

Nice shots Russ.... Very much does remind me of Tri-X.

What's the white 'orb' in #1? A light fixture?

And I'm impressed with the Auto mode for these. That body of yours did a nice job figuring out the mixed lighting in #3.

RSL

Quincy, Yeah, #2 really is the only story, though the guy in #1 sort of looks as if he might have just robbed the store on the right. After the preliminary culls of technical flubs I ended up with 110 frames worth printing on the digital equivalent of contact sheets -- which I always make -- but I'm not terribly happy with the result. On the other hand, that's often the way it goes. Unfortunately I don't get "The Midnight Guitarist" on every trip to St. Augustine, though I must have walked thirty miles trying.

Actually, the focus in #2 wasn't an accident. I knew I had two to three feet of DOF at that distance and the light on the little girl's face was very good, so I focussed there. It's certainly not insulting to explore stuff like that. I should also confess that this shot's cropped a bit. There was some junk off to the left that I couldn't exclude with a prime lens, so I shot knowing I was going to have to crop.

Scott, Yes, the white globe on the left in #1 is a light fixture. I made that shot from the balcony below the room in the St. George Inn where we always stay when we're in St. Aug. Yep, the D3 program mode does a great job at night with a 50mm f/1.4 prime on the camera, especially if ISO is on automatic. It sure beats the old days when you had to keep shifting gears on the camera shot by shot.

torags

Sometimes the story to get the shot is as interesting as the shot

Quincy T

RSL wrote: »

Actually, the focus in #2 wasn't an accident. I knew I had two to three feet of DOF at that distance and the light on the little girl's face was very good, so I focussed there. It's certainly not insulting to explore stuff like that. I should also confess that this shot's cropped a bit. There was some junk off to the left that I couldn't exclude with a prime lens, so I shot knowing I was going to have to crop.

I figured that was the case, I only assumed it might be accidental since sometimes I feel like all of my focus is accidental, and I'm constantly wondering what I'm doing wrong with a 7D and 24-70 L-series that makes focusing seems based on chance.

Granted, a lot of my recent stuff has been in the deep of the night...

torags

You might like to try single spot focus & metering on your subject (the con is you leverage dynamic range - which might be good, if you don't need the background)

RSL

Rags, I always use single spot focussing, but I use AF-ON on or its eqjuivalent all my cameras -- never a half-push on the shutter release. Standard matrix metering usually is very close if not spot on. On the other hand I may set a bit of exposure comp depending on what I see in front of me. ACR's Recovery, Black, and Brightness sliders can do the final adjustments unless the dynamic range is horrendous.

Quincy T

RSL wrote: »

Rags, I always use single spot focussing, but I use AF-ON on or its eqjuivalent all my cameras -- never a half-push on the shutter release. Standard matrix metering usually is very close if not spot on. On the other hand I may set a bit of exposure comp depending on what I see in front of me. ACR's Recovery, Black, and Brightness sliders can do the final adjustments unless the dynamic range is horrendous.

I mostly use single spot focusing with evaluative metering. Maybe that is a bad idea on its own. AF-ON or the equivalent? What is that on a Canon and what does that mean exactly?

I'm surprised there is a technical subject with the camera itself I don't know about.

RSL

Quincy, It's been a long time since I've had a Canon -- It was a Canon 7 (Very nice Leica M knockoff) I bought in Vietnam in 1965. I loved that camera, but it had a titanium shutter and when I got home I found the shutter was a bit too noisy for some of the commercial work I started doing, so I sold it and bought Leicas.

AF-ON is a utility button on the D3, very close to my thumb in both horizontal and vertical release positions that I've set up to use for focussing. I could also set it for metering plus focus or just metering, but I want metering to be associated with the shutter button. The equivalent button on the E-P1, which I often use on the street, is AEL/AFL. No, it's not a bad idea at all to be able to focus on a spot and then shift the view. Have you ever used a half-press on the shutter release to set your focus and then had focus jump when you shifted to the composition you wanted and then pressed the shutter release? That's why I want my focussing to be completely separate from metering and the shutter button. I don't know what AF-ON would be on a Canon DSLR, but I'd be willing to bet it's there somewhere.

torags

Hey Russ I was making the suggestion to Sword, didn't mean to tell you how to...

In my experience... Nik calls their metering dynamic; if you choose nine focus points the light is "averaged" on those points. If I shoot backlit surfers, the "average" exposure makes the surfer a silhouette. Mostimes I want more surfer detail. I choose spot metering and I believe the metering is the average of three points and I get more surfer detail but behind him is blown (which can be good for subject separation). It's excellent for high key work.

I'm sorry I don't know about Canonware...

Quincy T

RSL wrote: »

Quincy, It's been a long time since I've had a Canon -- It was a Canon 7 (Very nice Leica M knockoff) I bought in Vietnam in 1965. I loved that camera, but it had a titanium shutter and when I got home I found the shutter was a bit too noisy for some of the commercial work I started doing, so I sold it and bought Leicas.

AF-ON is a utility button on the D3, very close to my thumb in both horizontal and vertical release positions that I've set up to use for focussing. I could also set it for metering plus focus or just metering, but I want metering to be associated with the shutter button. The equivalent button on the E-P1, which I often use on the street, is AEL/AFL. No, it's not a bad idea at all to be able to focus on a spot and then shift the view. Have you ever used a half-press on the shutter release to set your focus and then had focus jump when you shifted to the composition you wanted and then pressed the shutter release? That's why I want my focussing to be completely separate from metering and the shutter button. I don't know what AF-ON would be on a Canon DSLR, but I'd be willing to bet it's there somewhere.

Oh okay, I know that button and I do remember reading about it. Hmm...you know I've never even tried it out, but maybe if I start using it regularly I'll actually get used to using it haha. There have been many times when I've wanted to recompose and have accidentally released the shutter button, having to restart the process two or three times.

Richard

Canon DSLRs also have AF-on as well as exposure lock buttons, in addition to the half-press shutter release.

Quincy T

Richard wrote: »

Canon DSLRs also have AF-on as well as exposure lock buttons, in addition to the half-press shutter release.

Yeah, I went out shooting in downtown Tampa for a couple of challenges over at DPC, and I tried it out...very cool and much easier to use than I expected.

RSL

Be sure you shut off the half-press shutter focus.