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Living in San Francisco I'd say you have some pretty good options. I've always wanted to shoot the Golden Gate at night from a popular beach there. I'm not sure of it's name.
Derek
You must be thinking of Baker Beach, since it's the only one where you can clearly see the Golden Gate... absolutely GORGEOUS beach, but the GG Bridge is actually not as impressive at night. I personally think the Bay Bridge makes for better night shots, due to the heavy lighting, less fog, and urban backdrop - so that's what I'm gonna aim for.
You must be thinking of Baker Beach, since it's the only one where you can clearly see the Golden Gate... absolutely GORGEOUS beach, but the GG Bridge is actually not as impressive at night. I personally think the Bay Bridge makes for better night shots, due to the heavy lighting, less fog, and urban backdrop - so that's what I'm gonna aim for.
The bay Bridge does look to have better lighter after seeing this one:
San Francisco through Bay Bridge | Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/seemoo/3229230236/ - broken link)
And this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nhanchanahal/3054694203/ (broken link)
Man, these make me want to take a trip up there just to shoot at night!!!
There's something very weird about that panoramic... in fact, there's no chance it ISN'T two photos stuck together! You simply can't see both bridges from any spot in town, and if you could they'd be facing the other direction - from the angle of the GG Bridge, the Bay Bridge should be to the right. Nice shot, but definitely not original/untouched.
Edit: Duh..... it says right in the link that it's an "8 image stitch." I knew something was fishy, LOL.
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Man, these make me want to take a trip up there just to shoot at night!!!
Derek
You're not that far, come on up! I just got back from an evening photo excursion myself, and finally got the view I've always wanted... apparently you have to go to Treasure Island for the "money shot." Unfortunately I discovered my tripod is broken (after arriving at the spot), so I had to get creative with it. Actually learned a lot tonight, and figured out some cool features on my P&S camera.
First I tried using the simple night setting, from the Piers in San Francisco itself... cool water image, but the bridge is not so good.
So then I headed over to Treasure Island, and set my camera on "starry night" with a 15 second shutter speed... also used the self-timer, so it wouldn't matter if I jostled the camera while hitting the button. And it worked!! This isn't the best shot, since I wanna save that for the contest, but here's an example of what that produced:
There's something very weird about that panoramic... in fact, there's no chance it ISN'T two photos stuck together! You simply can't see both bridges from any spot in town, and if you could they'd be facing the other direction - from the angle of the GG Bridge, the Bay Bridge should be to the right. Nice shot, but definitely not original/untouched.
Edit: Duh..... it says right in the link that it's an "8 image stitch." I knew something was fishy, LOL.
You know what, I wondered the same thing. After looking at this image for a while I realized that the photo was actually taken from the other northeastern side of the bridge opposite Baker Beach and Fort Point. Maybe Horseshoe Bay area? And yes, it took 8 images stiched to show both the GG Bridge and Bay Bridge in one larger image. But a cool view none the less.
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You're not that far, come on up! I just got back from an evening photo excursion myself, and finally got the view I've always wanted... apparently you have to go to Treasure Island for the "money shot." Unfortunately I discovered my tripod is broken (after arriving at the spot), so I had to get creative with it. Actually learned a lot tonight, and figured out some cool features on my P&S camera.
First I tried using the simple night setting, from the Piers in San Francisco itself... cool water image, but the bridge is not so good.
So then I headed over to Treasure Island, and set my camera on "starry night" with a 15 second shutter speed... also used the self-timer, so it wouldn't matter if I jostled the camera while hitting the button. And it worked!! This isn't the best shot, since I wanna save that for the contest, but here's an example of what that produced:
Sucks this one came out crooked
Yeah, my wife already thinks I'm a crazy photographer. So what's another two hour drive for such cool views of the city.
I figured Treasure Island would be the place to get the Bridge and the city in one shot. Although it does sound a little tricky getting down to sea level - no beach easy access according to the one photographer. He said he slipped and slid his way down for the shot.
I can't view your images yet from work. But I'll check 'em out tonight. Glad you found a mode which worked. The tripod situation sounded a little tricky.
You know what, I wondered the same thing. After looking at this image for a while I realized that the photo was actually taken from the other northeastern side of the bridge opposite Baker Beach and Fort Point. Maybe Horseshoe Bay area? And yes, it took 8 images stiched to show both the GG Bridge and Bay Bridge in one larger image. But a cool view none the less.
The GGB shot does look like Baker Beach, actually... maybe Crissy Field, if they flipped the image around.
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Yeah, my wife already thinks I'm a crazy photographer. So what's another two hour drive for such cool views of the city.
Isn't crazy photographer kind of redundant? Weather's supposed to be nice this weekend!
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I figured Treasure Island would be the place to get the Bridge and the city in one shot. Although it does sound a little tricky getting down to sea level - no beach easy access according to the one photographer. He said he slipped and slid his way down for the shot.
I didn't go ALL the way to the water, but it was easy getting a few feet away... just have to crawl around the little fence, near the entrance to the Naval Base. There's a little slope of rocks once you go around, which I stayed on top of - my dog tried to go down, though. Definitely slippery if you're not wearing the right shoes!
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I can't view your images yet from work. But I'll check 'em out tonight. Glad you found a mode which worked. The tripod situation sounded a little tricky.
Yeah, it sucked... somehow the most important piece, the top piece that you screw the camera onto, had broken off completely. I had to basically rest the camera on top, and it was really hard to keep straight & steady. Guess it's time for a new tripod, unfortunately.
Btw, I wonder how they got that photo so blue & bright? Guess that's where fancy cameras and/or clever settings come in...
Actually, in a way both yes and no. A lot of what you will find in these colorful, clean and bright night shots has to do with post processing. For the blue that is basically the white balance which can be adjusted in Photoshop. Many time at night the white balance gets thrown way off and has to be readjusted and fine tuned. For example my image which won the CD photo of the year last year took quite a bit a readjusting/fine tuning in PS.
I take the image out of camera as the starting point, kind of like a diamond in the rough. And the digital dark room is where shaping the diamond begins. Of course one has to start out with a decent rough/raw image. But it is sometimes surprising what an average, too dark or funky colored image can look like after correction, refinements, sharpening, etc...
I hope you don't mind. I took one of your images and did some quick PS adjustments to color primarily, also Shadow/Highlights to lighten a bit. There is a strong yellow/brown cast in the originals. I moved this more toward blue. Also desaturated a bit. More could be done especially with the original file as it has more data to extract from. In brightening the web image noise was introduced. Ideally it would be better to expose longer for a brighter original. This last part is where a camera with manual setting comes in. Basically it will allow one to dial in the exposure length as well as the aperture. A higher aperture will create the star effects of the lights seen in some night shots for example.
Derek
Last edited by MtnSurfer; 09-10-2010 at 09:25 PM..
Wow, your photo was gorgeous... I can see why you won the contest! And thanks for tweaking my picture - looks much better. But are we allowed to use Photoshop for the contest entries?
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ty
I just got back from an evening photo excursion myself, and finally got the view I've always wanted... apparently you have to go to Treasure Island for the "money shot." Unfortunately I discovered my tripod is broken (after arriving at the spot), so I had to get creative with it. Actually learned a lot tonight, and figured out some cool features on my P&S camera.
