vonhughesstanton

Downtown Fort Worth Texas Nightlife

Photo of Main St in downtown Fort Worth Texas. Shot at night time in low light conditions.

Photo of Main St in downtown Fort Worth Texas. Shot at night time in low light conditions.
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NIKON D3100

settings

Aperture 56/10 ISO 800 Shutter 1/10 Focal Length 550/10

upload_date

Aug, 2016

Views

151

Likes

Awards

Top Shot Award

Peer Award

Absolute Masterpiece

All Star

Magnificent Capture

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Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken in Sundance Square in Fort Worth Texas. It was winter time around 7pm at night.

Time

It was winter time around 7pm at night. I was out taking landscape photography of downtown Fort Worth to add to my portfolio.The amazing thing about the time of day in this shot is the streets are usually full with cars and tourist.

Lighting

The lighting used was a flash. This simple flash exposure created a calm serenity in the photograph. The lighting highlighted something new and something old. Using the flash perfectly balanced the brightly lit renovated buildings and the old majestically lighted courthouse.

Equipment

This was shot with a NIKON D3100, 18-55, flash, handheld. Honestly when I shot this photo I had just picked up my first DSLR camera a few months prior to taking this photo for my son's wedding. I had no idea I was using such a basic camera, I was out having fun photographing the city of fort Worth. This camera had long exposure times and high ISO noise but I didn't recognize these limitation until later.

Inspiration

I was inspired to take this shot by the notion that Main St USA is dying. Living next to the metropolitan city of Dallas, you realize how small urban settings can give you a respite from the hustle of the big city. Another thing that inspired about this setting was it reminded me of one of my favorite 80's movies "Back To The Future". Man I still dream of driving that Delorean down a street like the one in the photo. That's what makes photography great is everyone has an imagination.

Editing

This photo was a challenge due to my limited Photoshop skills and the limitation of my Nikon D3100 (DX). No one told me this camera is a ISO nightmare at 3200. In the post processing I had to brighten the colors to add more contrast to the photo. As you figured, I had to reduce and cleanup the ISO noise. Being an amateur at the time, I had touched the lens and created a smudge mark that I had to clone from photo. The pixels of the photo I later realized from pixel peepers was not high enough. But for 6 hours of post processing over several days I was satisfied with the outcome.

In my camera bag

In the beginning, I had my first love a Nikon D3100 with the kit lens and a simple flash head. Since then I've had my fist full frame camera, Nikon D700. It stopped working and I sold the parts for more than I bought the camera. Talk about appreciation. Now I have still have the Nikon D3100, D5000 I use for photobooths and a D600. In my bag I carry Sigma 70-200mm DG, Nikon 85mm, Nikon 24-70mm. For the DX cameras I carry Nikon 35mm lens and a Sigma 18-50mm for casual photography.

Feedback

My advice when trying to capture something special is to be patient and wait for the moment. Sometimes I will take multiple picture from different angle of the same subject. Doing this has helped me capture things happening in the scene that I was unaware initially. Once I was doing landscape photography in a park when I spotted a spiral staircase, unbeknownst to me there was a young lady taking a photo in the foliage. These type of photos only happen if you out enjoying what you love to do and being patient.

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vonhughesstanton

vonhughesstanton

Downtown Fort Worth Texas Nightlife

Photo of Main St in downtown Fort Worth Texas. Shot at night time in low light conditions.

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow vonhughesstanton

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