Night City
A misty city at night glows warm
A misty city at night glows warm
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Feb, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
Cape Town, South AfricaTime
Night timeLighting
Fog is a regular feature of life in Cape Town and this can provide some great opportunities to experiment with as the special atmosphere that city lights create provides a unique opportunity to see familiar sights in a new and interesting way. I specifically waited for a foggy night and deliberately went about the city looking for an ideal vantage points to capture the interaction of the fog and the city with its artificial lightingEquipment
Canon 40D with Nikkor EF-S17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM lens. A tripod was usedInspiration
The surreal mood and lighting created by the ever changing interaction of the fog rolling in over the city inspired me.Editing
As fog has a tendency to reduce contrast the image was enhanced by increasing both the overall lighting contrast and colour saturation.In my camera bag
These days I always carry a full-frame Nikon D800 and 14-24mm f2,8 lens along with a 24-70mm f2,8 and my Sigma 105mm macro lens. If space and weight allows I also like to carry my backup D7100 which permanently has the new Nikkor 200-500mm lens attached.Feedback
Low-light photography in strange lighting conditions is a real hit-and-miss affair. Don't use the cameras automatic settings and always use a tripod. I find that night shots always look better if the blacks are truly black so you will need to experiment with the correct amount of under exposure. The trick is to take lots of images at slightly different settings and see which settings look best - this is easy and totally free with digital. Don't use high ISO numbers when shooting in fog as this will introduce more 'noise' than the misty conditions already impart to the image. The bottom line is always be on the look out for interesting scenes with unique lighting.
