Assignment: city lightsI'm working through each of the masterclass assignments in Tom Ang's Digital Photography Masterclass. The first one is an urban night shoot. "Find a location that offers a variety of colored lights, such as street furniture, shops, restaurants, and offices. Choose somewhere safe to walk around so that you can concentrate on capturing the brilliance of city lights." So, working with low light and fastest prime lens I have (50mm f/1.4), shoot a cityscape at night. 
This medium-size city gets really quiet at night. Only the hum of high-voltage safety lighting most nights, even this close to uptown. 
Coming up to the beer and dougnut corner. Probably could have stopped this down a bit. For some reason this really looks like a tilt-and-shift photo of miniatures. Perhaps because the lens is wide-open. 
I tried a number of different versions of this shot. I wanted to get one that showed as many frames of reference as possible. 
Holiday lighting. 
Dependable B&W conversion. 
Quiet alley behind the main drag. 
Wet square.
Our tiny shopping district, a trio of young ladies cross the square. 
High-contrast B&W conversion. 
Uptown square looking down the tracks across the main street toward the old rail station. 
Nostalgic Holiday treatment. 
Flags and cenotaph. 
Car park at night. 
City Hall, through trees. 
I was trying to paint with only the light coming from the church. 
Traditional B&W conversion. 
This is a bit out of focus, but I liked the shadows and colour.
Some of these ideas worked and some didn't. Shooting handheld, even with a fast f/1.4 is a challenge.
I'm working on a part II of this one. |
