Margaret Bridge and Chain Bridge
Budapest, Hungary
Budapest, Hungary
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Jun, 2015Views
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Contest Finalist in 400 Cities By Water Photo Contest
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Behind The Lens
Location
I’m an amateur "shoot-for-the-fun-of-it" photographer. I take pics of whatever catches my eye, heart, and head. I took this photo of the Chain Bridge, Margaret Bridge, and the Parliament building in Budapest, Hungary (aka “The Pearl of the Danube”) from the top of Gellert Hill.Time
Budapest is a beautiful city, but it’s most beautiful in the soft light of early morning, late evening, and at night. One problem with shooting the Danube at night is that many boats cruise up-and-down the river, and they can sometimes interfere with what you want to shoot, especially long exposure shots. I shot this sometime between 9:00 and 10:00 pm. Fortunately, river traffic had died down, and I was able to get the shot without any moving boats in the photograph.Lighting
I used the lights of the building and bridges. No special effects or settings were used.Equipment
I shot this photo with a Samsung NX300M, a 50-200 mm lens, and a tripod.Inspiration
Well . . . if you’ve ever seen the Danube, the bridges, and the buildings at night, then you will know what the inspiration was to take this photo. Budapest is simply a gorgeous city at night.Editing
I shot the photo in RAW, and I did minimal post-processing. I removed a bit of noise with MacPhun’s Noiseless Pro, and I sharpened the photo a bit with MacPhun’s Intensify Pro. That’s it.In my camera bag
I carry as little possible when I’m out shooting. For a bag, I use a Metrosafe™ 250 GII anti-theft shoulder bag. It is not a camera bag, but it’s padded, unobtrusive, safe, and it holds my stuff fine . . . and it doesn’t look like a camera bag! Currently, I shoot with an Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II, and it goes with me everywhere I go. I always have my M.Zuiko 17mm f1.8 prime lens with me. In addition, I’ll carry either my M.Zuiko ED 12-40mm f2.8 PRO, my M.Zuiko ED 40-150mm f2.8 PRO, or my M.Zuiko ED 14-150mm f4.0-5.6 II. I also use a Sun-Sniper "Steel" Shoulder Camera Strap, so that my camera always hangs on my hip and can be quickly grabbed when needed. The lenses I carry with me depends on what I plan to shoot for the day. I also carry two extra batteries, a lens brush, a lens cleaning cloth, and a small bottle of liquid lens cleaner. That’s it!Feedback
To capture a similar photo, I think it’s important to be familiar with the surroundings and to take a lot of shots. I shot in aperture priority, and I took about 30 shots at several different exposures (ranging from 1 second to 30 seconds). I also used a neutral density filter (ND4) on several of the shots. Out of the 50 shots I took, one or two were good, and the rest disappeared when I hit the delete key on my computer. In my opinion, the key is to take many shots (with different shutter, aperture, white balance, settings, etc.) and in the end, if you are lucky, you might come away with one or two good photos. And . . . don’t be afraid to use the delete key on your computer . . . and if none of your shots were good, delete all of them, and then go out and shoot some more . . . and have fun!
