From the Car

The curse of suburbia is that most of transportation is via vehicle and not on

foot. In trying to become more proficient at street photography, I have been

frustrated by the fact that most of the shots that I see are when I am either

behind the wheel or in the passenger seat. So, I've decided to "go with it"

and start a "From the Car" series. And, yes, I do know that there is

massive motion blur in this shot. I liked it anyway.

Amy, This is an interesting image to analyze.  By looking at the upper histogram (of your original) we can see that you underexposed the picture by about 3 stops, thereby throwing away something like 90% of the pixels your camera captures.  I took the liberty of changing the adobe raw setting (which generated this second version of your picture)  and it produced the lower histogram which is an adjustment trying to compensate for the underexposure.  Since it was done with a jpeg rather than an original raw file it generates the comb effect of missing pixels.

In looking at this second version I see that there is an apparent double exposure with all electric lines doubled and each traffic light appearing twice, which I do not understand.  Perhaps the wind was moving the lights rapidly to and fro and your camera exposure captured both ends of the pendulum swing.

If you do not use raw files from the camera, you might want to look up Raw files on the web.  As far as exposure goes you might want to look up articles including the phrase "expose to the right."  My advice is to ignore the one author who finds fault with this procedure.  I think it is a very useful technique.

Regards,

Jerry

Hi Amy,

that's true, walking suburbia can be a very frustarting affair, while driving in a car through them is utterly boring.

Try to do your street photography in the inner cities - if there are any in your part of the world.

In cities in Old Europe it's somewhat easier to ply the streets on foot & ,of course, don't forget New York & similar megapoli.

cheers

Sam

Jerry and Sam: Thanks to you both for stopping by and critiquing my image(s). I will google the "exposure to the right" technique. As far as using RAW goes, that's something that I know I need to explore further. A dumb question: I understand that each camera has a proprietary RAW conversion program, but I also know that there's a way to work in RAW in PS. Is it necessary to have the camera RAW software installed or can one work solely with Bridge/PS? Honestly, I just haven't taken the time to learn HOW to use RAW. Now seems like a good time...any basic tips are appreciated.

(As to exposure, my eye seems like the look of the underexposed image a little better in general. It's personal (though not mainstream) taste I am sure as I seem to frequently get that feedback). I sincerely appreciate all critiques and do make note of them.

Thanks again,

Amy

You can work strictly in PS3 and in Bridge when shooting RAW. Note that Bridge will come with some auto settings which you can override if you'd prefer to guide the conversion rather than having the software designers guiding it. For instance, the default may sharpen and adjust contrast to a certain degree. You have control to override those decisions if you like.

I, too, prefer the feel of the underexposed shot, though I try to expose for more information and then get my darker looks through post processing so the darker looks have more depth and detail than an underexposed file generally allows for. 

I have a feeling, the development of a series from the car will be an exciting project for you, and one where the whole will be more fulfilling than the sum of the parts. As part of the project, I think this can definitely work nicely. I'll be curious to see the vision that develops.

Thanks for your response, Fred. I did spend some time on Google today ferreting out some RAW tutorials and ETTR information. It was most helpful. I am hopeful that this "From the Car" series will work out. Keeping safe while driving is a primary concern, of course. We'll see how it goes. I foresee a lot of pulling over to the side in my future....

Both are good.  I love it underexposed in this case.

--Lannie