Tag: Blue Hour

Lights on Broad Street

These are two of the images I captured of City Hall in the Center City section of Philadelphia taken during the night photography course Philadelphia After Dark field trip led by the instructor, David Hartz.

These are both HDR images with one image used as the main element for the light trails. I applied the perspective correction and a film filter to both HDR images.

_NIKON D5100_20160430_1293_4_5_6_7_HDR
The best of my images taken during the Philadelphia at Night field trip led by instructor, David Hartz. The blue hour image license is CC0 via Unsplash.
[exif id="20887"]

I'm not sure which one I like better.; the one that was captured at blue hour while the sky was overcast or the one captured during the cross over to full night.

Which one do you prefer?

NOTE: The feature image license is Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial.

Night & Low Light Photography

I am taking a night photography course which professional photographer Rick Wright offers through the Princeton Photography Club. I wanted to learn how to capture star and light trails, and I figured a night, and low light photography course would help me get some handsome experience.

The first class was more of an introduction to the aperture, ISO, shutter speed and proper tripod technique. Not very useful. I've seen many experienced photographers use a tripod, and most of them ignore the tips given by Rick.

The next class was a nighttime field trip around the Princeton University campus. I arrived at the rendezvous point two minutes late ( I checked my iPhone ), and I guess the group has already walked away. I called and texted the instructor, but he did not see my communication until after class. Two hours after class.

After a while, I gave up trying to find the class and did my tour -- with no instruction -- around the campus, taking some images. Here are the results.

Princeton University, Fountain of Freedom, Fountain, Princeton University

Fountain of Freedom outside the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Image © Khürt Williams

My technique was to compose the shot, put the camera on the tripod, pray that the object was in focus -- my cat vision isn't good at night -- set the shutter to bulb and then time my exposures on my iPhone. Inelegant and frustrating. The first three images were out of focus. Timing the exposures would have been easier with my TriggerTrap. But it wasn't working.

The class learned about crossover lighting. This is something I'll have to learn on my own, so I can catch up and get value from the course.