Outdoors at Night ...One Last Time

This is the Coliseum on St Martin's Lane, the home of the English National Opera. A very attractive building when it's all lit up and I wanted to capture the name in the revolving sign at the top.

This is Charing Cross Station. The mixed lighting sources played havoc with the auto white balance so I had to do some colour correction in Photoshop. With hindsight, I should have done a custom white balance setting.

This is the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. I didn't have my tripod with me so I had to prop my camera on my rucksack which was carefully placed on a pillar. I always carry a hotshoe-mounted spirit level as I've had problems in the past with wonky shots.

I wanted this view of Leicester Square Gardens as it includes several types of lighting. The scrolling sign on the ticket booth has become a solid red block due to the slow shutter speed, but this complements the green foreground. This also required a camera-on-rucksack balancing act .

What have I learned?
I've noticed a huge array of lighting sources and colour combinations used to light up the city, and many buildings are totally transformed by the choice of lighting. My camera skills were put to the test and the limitations of my camera were exposed, so all in all, a long, but useful exercise.

Outdoors at Night ...Again

I ventured out again last night and I've still got loads more to do! Actually, I'm going to take another 3-4 and call it a day. This was taken overlooking Blackfriars underpass with the camera mounted on a tripod. The images that follow were all taken hand held.

These are the Royal Courts of Justice (the Court of Appeal) on Fleet Street. I was struck by the choice of up-lighting bearing in mind the purpose of the building.

This is The Edge Bar on Soho Street and this type of lighting is generally in keeping with the local area. There's a bit of distortion in this because of the use of a wide angle lens.

One of the shops on Regent Street. The time was 23:25 by this stage, and the lack of natural light helped to hide my reflection.

Outdoors at Night

Brief:

The aim of this exercise is to explore the variety lighting effects and colour in artificial light.

These images were taken on the all night photoshoot last weekend. The first 2 were taken around sunset so there is still some colour in the sky.

Although the sky in the final image lacks detail, I liked the glassy effect of the River Thames caused by a 30 second exposure.

This was a crafty shot taken on Monday evening in an amusement arcade in The Trocadero. I wasn't able to fine-tune the camera settings because I was trying to avoid being seen by the security staff and the man using the machine! I managed to rescue most of the highlights by duplicating the image at different exposures in RAW and then tone mapping them in Photomatix Pro.

This is a group of Spaniards in Leicester Square who were celebrating Spain's 2-nil win over Honduras in the World Cup. I'm not sure what type of vehicle cast the red light on the pavement, but I like the effect.

This was taken outside the Hampshire Hotel in Leicester Square. I was first attracted by the fairy lights above the entrance, then I noticed the many different colours being cast by the surrounding buildings.

What have I learned?

The last 3 images were taken with a Nikon D80, which does not perform particularly well at ISOs above 400. Consequently, there was much trial and error and a few deleted shots.

For the next set of shots, I will use a Nikon D700 because it copes better in low light. this will allow me to concentrate more on composition and perhaps be more creative.

Shortest Night

Yesterday, I joined a group of fellow photography enthusiasts for an all night photoshoot on the shortest night of the year. We met up at 17:00 in a pub near London Bridge and set off to catch the final rays of daylight before the sunset at 21:21. The sun was due to rise on the following morning at 04:43 so we had the entire night to capture the city.

This was one of the first pictures I took with a newly acquired Nikon D700. Taken from Tower Bridge at 20:24 as the sun started to set.

This was my first attempt at zoom burst photography. Taken from London Bridge at 01:34.

This is one of a series of images taken whilst walking along the Thames Path. The time was 02:26.

Another image from the Thames Path, captured at 03:08. The London Eye is one of my favourite London landmarks.

This was one  of my final images, taken from Charing Cross Bridge at 03:58 as the sun started to rise.

What have I learned?

This exercise was gruelling but thoroughly enjoyable!

My daytime photography is primarily concerned with controlling light since it's usually readily available. But in this instance, I had to think more about accessing it first and then controlling it.

I was very aware that my approach was quite different during this exercise (apart from the mandatory use of a tripod and very long shutter speeds). Night-time photography seemed to give me more creative license - I wasn't concerned about whether subjects were evenly light, in fact, the greater the contrast, the better.  Also, blown highlights were viewed as a thing of beauty!