SF Bridges Night Views

kdog · April 30, 2013

From Kirby Cove, you can spot the Bay Bridge from under the Golden Gate Bridge. Cool, huh?

Thanks for looking and comments always welcome.

-joel

Ridgetop · April 30, 2013

For me it's all about that second shot. Beautiful.

Stumblebum · April 30, 2013

I love the first! Getting shot like this is on my bucket list! HOW do you get those perfect stars without any haziness from all those lamps? Both far and near! I get lot of fuzz at night....not sure if its the lens or technical flaw...Thanks!

kdog · April 30, 2013

Ridgetop wrote: »

For me it's all about that second shot. Beautiful.

Thanks!!

kdog · April 30, 2013

Stumblebum wrote: »

I love the first! Getting shot like this is on my bucket list! HOW do you get those perfect stars without any haziness from all those lamps? Both far and near! I get lot of fuzz at night....not sure if its the lens or technical flaw...Thanks!

Thanks! I think it's the lens, Canon 24-70 F2.8 MKII. I had a couple of friends there that night were using the 24-105 lenses, which frankly is my usual set up too, and noted their shots aren't as crisp as mine. I wouldn't have thought there'd be such a big difference between those two for landscapes, but now I'm thinking there is. The starbursts are fantastic with this lens. I doubt I will be going back to the 24-105 any more. :nah

joshhuntnm · April 30, 2013

what was the exposure time on the first one. Nice work!

kdog · April 30, 2013

Thanks, Josh! Exposure on both was 192 seconds (3:12), f/11, ISO100.

endurodog · April 30, 2013

Outstanding shots!!!

ian408 · April 30, 2013

Both are very nice. I like the first for its perspective.

Stumblebum · May 1, 2013

kdog wrote: »

Thanks, Josh! Exposure on both was 192 seconds (3:12), f/11, ISO100.

Thanks for the info! Can you say how you got the focus to work? In this case I would have put AF point on brightest light so autofocus would work, if it works. For night photography, that has been the biggest challenge for me so far, finding enough light to get Autofocus to work. When there is not enough light available, what should we do? Thanks in advance!

kdog · May 1, 2013

Stumblebum wrote: »

Thanks for the info! Can you say how you got the focus to work? In this case I would have put AF point on brightest light so autofocus would work, if it works. For night photography, that has been the biggest challenge for me so far, finding enough light to get Autofocus to work. When there is not enough light available, what should we do? Thanks in advance!

Focus was pretty easy. I think I focused on the GG bridge, which is the brightest light. Although, I usually have good luck with my 5DMKII even in low light. Use the center focus point. A fast lens, f/2.8 or better helps. I'll often focus the camera on a bright light source that's approximately at the hyper-focal distance I want, then without removing my finger from the shutter, put the lens in manual mode and recompose my shot (or a bunch of them). You can always use manual focus and live-view with maximum zoom too. I've done that a lot when using a combination of lens + TC that's greater than F/5.6, which is what our cameras focus at. Although, a patch was just released today to make the the 5DMKIII focus at f/8 which is great news, or will be when I get my 5DMKIII back from Canon. :bluduh