picture a day day 2 nightscapes

RocketMan

This is a scene I've been meaning to shot for some time now, the morning was clear and crisp so it seemed it was the perfect picture op. It is on the alt. route to work and since I go in early during the winter months it always dark.

very little photo retouching done on either one, other than increasing lightness.

Looking north into Alexandria Va from just outside the beltway. It was the mist rising off the top of the cooling tower of the power plant on the right that first caught my eye some time ago





opinions, suggestions for improvements always welcome.

RM

jsedlak

first shot seems a little hazy... I really like the second one though!

RocketMan

jsedlak wrote:

first shot seems a little hazy... I really like the second one though!

yeah the camera was having problems focusing, so I had to set it manually since I had it set on only one focus point and it was pointed right at the horizon line, the second one I had lowered it a bit. These were the best of the lot, I'll have to try some more soon from this location.

Did find this one that with a bit of sharpening does seem better than number one above, and just checked my astronomy software and the little white dot to right of center looks to be polaris. Added bonus! :-)



RM

CatOne

You sharpened the noise in the sky on the second try.

For a shot like that, with stuff far in the distance, just set the focus on manual, and on infinity. Everything will be in focus, as it's all effectively *at* infinity, as far as the camera is concerned. Infinity captures it in the circle of confusion.

RocketMan

CatOne wrote:

You sharpened the noise in the sky on the second try.

For a shot like that, with stuff far in the distance, just set the focus on manual, and on infinity. Everything will be in focus, as it's all effectively *at* infinity, as far as the camera is concerned. Infinity captures it in the circle of confusion.

Thanks for the info, I'm using a laptop and its not the best resolution in the world, plus the angle of view really affects the image, brightness and such. I'd do more stuff at work where I have a better system, but they block a lot of sites, including this one, cause its a goverment (army) installation.

Thing about the focus is that the kit lens seems to like being at slightly UNDER infinity for me to get a crisp image at distance. I'll try the fixed focus lens next time.

Makes it hard to edit, but my money is going to other more important things right now, like motorcycles, trips and such! So a better computer is kinda down on the list right now.:D

RM

raceMpower95

I'm not sure what editing software you use, but if you have CS2, the blur tool would be an easy way to clear up the noise in the sky. Use the lasso to select the sky and then Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Adjust the settings until it looks right. I have done this a few time to achieve a smoother sky with smooth gradients. Here is the result of about 3 minutes of messing with it (looks a littlebit better):