UNESCO World Heritage Site "Speicherstadt", Hamburg at night
This image is from late October 2015. I was out for some night shots in my former hometown Hamburg, Germany.
This image is from late October 2015. I was out for some night shots in my former hometown Hamburg, Germany.
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Mar, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken in Hamburg in November 2015. I was in town, my former home town, for a press dinner with Destination Canada. Later it was a bit foggy and I decided to go for a walk with my camera and tripod to cover the new UNESCO World Heritage Site "Speicherstadt". This part of the old storehouse district (in the middle) is called "Wasserschloss" (water castle) and it's one of the favorite views you can shoot in Hamburg.Time
It's a night shot, maybe around 11pm. The storehouse district was nearly empty. We had the typical November weather at that day, some fog, and a bit cold. Not really perfect for longtime exposures, especially without gloves.Lighting
It's all natural and available light. No flash was used and the illumination of the buildings is just perfect for longtime exposure. I just wanted one perfect shot from this scenery as I saw it often before from my favorite photographers.Equipment
My equipment is quit simple: it's a full frame Nikon camera, a D700 I really love to use on my trips. I had my small travel zoom lens with me, a 24-85 mm, f/3.5-4.5, nothing special, but a light lens for a city trip and not to expensive if you just started with travel photography. The tripod it's a no name product. I would like to have a good Manfrotto, but at the moment it's not affordable for me. My significant other and I made the setup - he helped me to adjust the tripod in the cold, I was freezing a bit. We would never use flash for such things, there was a lot of available light around to avoid it.Inspiration
Hamburg is my former home town for more than 6 years, before I decided to move in with my boyfriend in another city, where he's running a business as photographer. But sometimes I miss the city and the Speicherstadt is really something special and now recognized as World Heritage Site because of its uniqueness. As I explained earlier, a lot of photographers took this image before and I wanted to shoot it myself. Usually people aren't at Speicherstadt at night and don't realize the beauty of it.Editing
Post-Processing is really a pain in the ass for me. But it's necessary, as I shoot in RAW and it's the same like analog photos - you have to develop the negative image to get all the beauty out of it and show it around. Lightroom is my favorite tool for post-processing. To be honest, I don't have a clue about Photoshop or other tools. So, what have I done to the RAW? It's simple: I used the "Upright" function and centered the water castle, lower the highlights and lighten the shadows, increased the clarity, added some contrast, and increased the temperature a little bit. That's it.In my camera bag
My boyfriends owns all the lenses, because as a professional photographer he needs a wider range of it. I only owe the small travel zoom mentioned above (24-85 mm, f/3.5-4.5), but I am often lucky enough to take 1 or 2 of my boyfriend's lenses with me, e.g. an old 80-200mm, f/2.8. My favorite at the moment is his 24-120 mm, f/4 and the 50 mm, f/1.4. They are at the moment part of my bag. My only camera is the power horse Nikon D700, an old full frame camera without WiFi, GPS or SD cards. So I have a bunch of CF cards with me and some batteries. I don't usually use a grip. The tripod mentioned above is also part of my equipment while I am on the road as well as some actions cams.Feedback
Go out early in the morning or late at night, have a stable tripod with you and try to work with all the available light you have. I preferred to have a low ISO (it was ISO 200) and needed 13 seconds for the shoot itself. I little water level bubble attached to the camera can be helpful as well - and if you ever shoot in November like me: bring some gloves!
