Long exposure of Horseshoe Bend, Arizona at MIDNIGHT [total DARKNESS to the naked eye]

This photo was taken in total darkness at midnight on a full moon day, I didn't "see" this scene with the naked eye ... I've been there in the past so I just composed approximately and open the shutter for 45 _FREEZING_ minutes (It was december 26) cold as hell :)

 

What do you think of the result? Please rate! Also check my "SINGLE PHOTOS" folder!

I took this photos on a cold december night around midnight. I couldn't "see" that scene because of the darkness. It required the full moon _plus_ a 45 minutes exposure to get something on film. It really impressed me because it was "invisible" to the naked eye but still there, it's just like if I was an animal of a strange species able to see in color in the dark night.

 

My tripod was perched about an inch from the cliff (about 1000 feet?). It was kind of scary in the cold night! There were some small icebergs on the Colorado river, that's about the only thing I could see down there. With the long exposure you can see the reflection of the moon on the smooth surface of the river.

 

Tell me what you think and please rate this and other photos in my folder.

Heres a toast to dedication!

 

I can imagine how you must have felt up there at night. 45 minutes is a long time to make faces out of the shadows behind you!

 

It would look nice projected. Its interesting to see how Astia (was that really what you used?) has increased in contrast with the long exposure. I like the soft edges to the shadows also, from the moving moon. Your exposure is just about perfect for this effect.

 

But tell me, why didnt you shoot it at f/2 for 5 minutes? (Or even f/1.4 for 2 minutes.)

Yes this was really Astia, I like it for night shots, because Velvia gets too greenish and I don't like the color and contrast of Provia 100-F for night shots, also I like the color shift of Astia _WITHOUT_ a filter ...

 

Now why didn't I shoot at f2.0 ? Well My wide lens can only shoot at f3.5 at 20mm and f4.0 at 24mm (I think) ... So this was about 24mm (maybe a bit wider) ... Plus I couldn't focus because I didn't see ANYTHING in the viewfinder so at f5.6 I got more depth of field even though at 24mm maybe I didn't need it. Notice the rock in the middle (bottom part) is just beneath my tripod and it's in focus ...

That's evidence of fact, moon has pretty neutral gray color :)

Nice image gotten under unusual conditions, really !

Top marks, at least 12 out of 10, for dedication. Also fine marks for the end-result: it is a very pleasing picture.

 

My only problem is that it seems you have nothing to show for the 45 mins of cold darkness. I mean: if you hadn't told me I wouldn't have known. Presumably (I haven't been there) you could have taken similar pictures during the day (maybe not with so silky smooth water...)? Wouldn't if have been nice if there had been star-trails or something....?

 

How did you determine the exposure time? judging from the grain and vignetting at the corners, there is some heavy leveling or curve tool going on here......?

I don't know why I hadn't seen this one earlier. Great effort. This definately inspires you to get out more at night. I have been doing some experimentaion and logging to remeber, but nothing to post yet, thanks for the tech data. Like the DOF.

Im speachless...

It's look a day picture whit a oil lake...

Allan, thanks for your comment, about the star trail I think there were some clouds around the horizon line, that's why the stars where washed out. I can't remember totally because after 30 mins my brain (and rear end) were frozen solid ... Plus I heard some weird coyote noises or something similar coming from the desert! :)

 

The exposure was recommended by a friend of mine, now I pass it on to you! :) And about curves and stuff, the slide looks almost exactly like this, I had some problems getting the shadow details in my first scan (You can see more shadow detais on the light table) so I rescanned and leveled a bit, but the result here is what you see on the light table, the water is even more GREENISH on the slide, kind of a fluo green ...

 

Also interesting thing: do you see the moon's reflection in the bottom left corner of the river? The whitish stuff are not rapids, it's the moon reflecting on the small floating blocks of ice, all smoothened with the 45 minutes exposure!

Amazing photograph! Deserves photo of the YEAR.

I made an image

lit mostly by moonlight and was surprised at how much the

moonshine looked like sunshine, then I saw your picture...

This is the greatest one I have ever seen in my life

Hmmm. Let me see. The Luney f4 rule says that in order to get something similar to a sunshine under moonlight, you must expose at f4 for 1/ISOth of day; for ISO 100 film, 1/100 of a day is 14,4 minutes. You then need to take reciprocity failure. In the end, 45 minutes is 15 minutes + 1,5 stop, which seems like a reasonable figure, except that you actually shot at f5.6, so you might be somewhat underexposed (I don't know what the suggestion correction is for Astia).

 

Anyway, it doesn't matter much, as the picture is quite nice. I don't agree with the fellow above which says the night doesn't add anything to the picture. Look at the extreme smoothness of the water; look at the soft shadows (they obviously moved around a lot in 45 minutes); look at the darkness of the water, difficult to get under the full sun; and look at the sky, which is not quite a normal blue. Everything look just a bit off form the normal, in a subtle way - the picture owes much of its appeal to the night exposure.

 

The choice of wide angle is nice too, because it adds some drama, but this is fairly obvious.

Philippe, thanks for your comment, I shot at f5.6 and the slide doesn't look underexposed at all, it evens has more shadow detail than this scan here ...

 

Also it depends on which day around the full-moon, this wasn't the exact day of the full moon, also I think it depends on the amount of pollution and smog in the atmosphere at that particular spot ... Someone else could maybe elaborate on this subject ...

As I said, a lot depends on the reciprocity correction for Astia at 1000 seconds, something I don't know. If it's around 0,5 or 1 stop, you're exposure i quite right.

Alex this wasn't the night of the full moon but I think 3 days earlier, someone can check it up but this was the night of Dec. 25, 2001. So the light wasn't as strong as the full moon but you're right I saw my surrounding but only a dark shadow on the other side of the cliff, I even tried to use my flashlight to lit the other side but it was too far, all I really saw was some small icebergs floating on the surface of the Colorado river! So I focus "approximately", I set it to "infinite" then just move back a bit, I was lucky it came out sharp!

Incredible, incredible shot. As someone else commented, this phenomenol shot makes me want to get out and try some night time long exposures. Regards, Bill Gibson

Ernest, this is a REAL piece of work! I've taken some night photos myself but nothing ever came close to this picture. I salute your courage and dedication as this is one beautiful picture. I would have sworn the pic was taken during the day and I love the soft water effect.

The fact that you took this at night makes it certainly special, but, as has been said before: if you hadn't told I wouldn't have noticed - except perhaps for the texture of the water. It's a very nice photo, don't misunderstand me about that, but I can't help feeling that the high ratings are more the result of the special way you made it than the intrinsic qualities of the photo. It would have been a real winner if it also had star trails as in one of your other night shots.

Truly inspirational! This means that I won't get any rest at night now on my photo outings. I will really have to get some Astia and try this! Everything that needs to be said has been. Thanks for a detailed explanation of the techniques involved. Those interested might also want to look here for another moon-lit landscape.

I almost missed this by glossing over thumbnails; glad I didn't. Too bad there isn't a rating for technical merit. If I had taken this picture, my dad would have said: "Why not just wait 12 hours and save youself the trouble?" :-)