Uncategorized
Houses Below
Good ol’ downtown Philly.
I’m obviously playing with new techniques now that I’m shooting primarily with a 5D. This one is a combination of three shots (the EXIF information shown, a 2s exposure, and a 30s exposure). I’m fairly happy with the results. The crop is unfortunate, but I couldn’t get this shot with only 70mm. Maybe I’ll try re-shooting this with my 300mm on the next weather-appropriate evening, but the glass in that lens is really soft (unlike the 24-70 f2.4L that I usually shoot with).
Wow. Love the little cloud whisp on the top of the pyramid building!
That’s actually what made me frame the shot to begin with. The clouds around the top of the Mellon building looked like smoke rising.
I like this composition. I’m not clear on how you would have preferred to crop it tighter. Did you just want to get the top of the Mellon Building? Seems like you’d need a lot more than 300mm for that. Could you show us by just cropping this shot?
I think overall it’s a little grey and low in contrast (which is quite the opposite of what I usually think about your post-processing). That’s probably mostly a factor of the ambient lighting and cloud cover; the shot might be more compelling on a clearer night (though you’d probably lose the wisps of water vapor over the Mellon building).
In any case, I’m liking these recent shots a lot more than your common found-object-on-the-street shots. That doesn’t seem like a result of the camera switch… Has there been some change of thinking for you?
Wow, this is fantastic. I love the framing – not sure what you would have wanted to be different!
Mark, LL: this crop is what I wanted, compositionally. The unfortunate part is how severe the crop is. It really should have been taken with a 200 or 300mm lens, rather than the 70mm I was carrying. The full 70mm shot (before rotation and crop, but after other processing) is:
http://www.jorj.org/potd/IMG_6679_80_81.jpg
Mark, you’ll notice that most of my recent shots have been night shots. I avoided night shots with the 300D because it was far too noisy. Now that I’ve got a camera that I’m not afraid to use at 1600, I’m experimenting with night photography more. (And more than that, the 5D has given me a reason to experiment with photography in general. I feel invigorated.)
Thanks for showing the original shot – it’s reassuring to know I’m not the only one who can’t hold a camera straight! (ha ha)
Now if I could only learn to hold one STILL… 😉
Jorj: Ah, thanks for showing the full frame. Now I understand.
As for holding a camera straight, a grid screen is your friend. Are they available for Canon?
The 4-degree angle here was courtesy of the Walnut Street Bridge. Apparently it’s not quite level! Either that or Philly is tilted. 😉
Way to make the city look pretty!