Platinum

GordonKoh

Jubilee Bridge

SONY ILCE-7M2

settings

Aperture f/10 ISO 800 Shutter 32/10 Focal Length 160/10

upload_date

Dec, 2015

Views

1901

Likes

+420

Awards

Featured

Contest Finalist in HDR Cityscapes Photo Contest

Winner in City Over Water Photo Challenge

Peer Award

+148

Superb Composition

+55

Absolute Masterpiece

+23

Top Choice

+17

Outstanding Creativity

All Star

Magnificent Capture

Superior Skill

Genius

Love it

Emotions

Impressed

Top Ranks

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 1

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 1

Behind The Lens

Location

Being a self taught amateur, I usually explore the local places for inspiration. The location for this photo is a popular spot with both the tourists and local photographers.

Time

This photo is one of my personal favorites. I envisioned an image of the city skyline against the blue hour sky, so I got up early in the morning around 5.30am to catch the dawn for this shoot. Also the early morning provided for a still water condition for the river, and would make the composition even more appealing with a clear reflection of the skyline and bridge. Hence the proverb "early bird catches the worm" really does apply!

Lighting

The streets lights and the general lighting from the buildings would make a great combination with the blue hour sky. However the exposure should be properly captured while ensuring that the emitted lights would not overwhelm. So a trade off must be found. I chose 3.2 seconds as the shutter speed paired to an aperture of F10 for overall sharpness.

Equipment

I used the mirrorless Sony A7II paired to a Sony Zeiss 16mm lens to capture this image. At 3.2 seconds, a tripod was used. In order to minimise shake due to the pressing of the shutter button, I used a remote controller.

Inspiration

One of my objectives to capture this scene was to convey the modern facade and the jubilant mood of the skyline. This angle offered a good leading line from the bridge towards the beautiful skyline of the city's skyscrapers. I believed this was not my best shot at it as it was too cloudy and I would have preferred more dramatic cloud formation such as cotton clouds. Will revisit the place for a re-shoot in the future with more dramatic cloud formation. I hope this photo would inspire sense of exuberance and jubilee as the city celebrated its 50th anniversary as a nation.

Editing

Modern digital photography would normally involves not just the techniques of shooting, but if combined with some touch up work through the raw file, would have bring out the best of the image. In my instance, I shot the photo in raw, and did some post-processing work in Adobe Photoshop to bring out the shadow details, balancing the highlights, and enhancing the vibrancy of the image. I tweaked the temperature a little to enhance the blue sky.

In my camera bag

I believe opportunities can come any time at any part of the day at any place, so I pack a few lens in my bag to cater for all sorts of opportunities that might arise. The lens that is usually attached to my camera is the Sony 16 to 35mm F4 lens, good for most landscape situations. On standby is the 24 to 240mm, which I usually use where zoom in is needful. A 85mm macro lens is also kept in my bag just in case an interesting macro opportunity comes by. Also, I recently acquired a 12mm fisheye lens which I usually deploy for some tight urban spaces. An add-on flash is a standard item in my bag. Since I shoot lot’s of landscape, in my bag I also have a Ninja Nodal panoramic head to shoot couple of portrait frames which I will stitch later in Adobe Photoshop. A 100mm square filter system by Nissi and a few ND, GND, reversed GND, and a polariser filters are kept in my bag. You can imagine the weight of this bag given the amount of items that are packed into it! But it certainly is worth its weight in gold since it can handle the kinds of scenarios that could crop up and special moments do no wait for no man nor come back another day.

Feedback

To capture a city skyline with reflection from a water body (such as a river or lake), I would usually consider a few elements. One is the hour of the day. second, the cloud conditions and third would be the stillness of the water. My favorite shoot for such a landscape would usually involve the blue or golden hours, and if lucky a good cloud formation to complement the sky. An understanding of the direction of the sunset or sunrise, even tide levels would be helpful for such scenery. Nowadays, there are many smart phone or ipad apps which offer weather information to aid the photographer. One good advice is always plan to arrive at the location at least 30 minutes earlier to allow you to explore for best angles and time to set up your gear. I have actually missed some of the most fantastic sunrise moments by arriving a minute too late (with regrets of course). Good luck in your field trips!

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GordonKoh

GordonKoh

Jubilee Bridge

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow GordonKoh

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