Across the Salzach at Night

This is an interesting image Thomas. One that also is technically correct for a "night shot". One of the problems I have had with these types of images is that the unlit portions of these types of images are often too dark...like black holes. In this case it's still an issue, but not too bad as I have often seen. What I have learned to do when trying to catch these types of photographs, is to get in there just BEFORE the last light of the evening is gone. This way, you will get at least something out of the sky, and those dark shadows have a little more life...AND, you still get the nice lights and tones that are desirable. Just a suggestion. Here is an atachment of what I am talking about. The many rolls of *Nightime only* images are not nearly as effective as the after sunset versions. Nice work...Aloha.

Vincent, not 1/2 an hour ago I was on this image of yours (and several others) trying to come up with a critique. Frankly your work is very hard from me to critique and not just give you "ohhs and ahhs". I thank you very much for your input. I am learning the very point that you speak of. This particular shot would not have benefited from the sky as there is a large cliff behind this part of town. I am attaching an image of a scene just up the street. A little more light on the buildings certainly would have helped though. Also, I was only there one night, so I had to work my photography into a short vacation schedule. Thanks for your comments. They are appreciated.

Hi Thomas, I've found properly exposed shots such as these almost impossible to achieve with a single exposure even with extensive post-processing. An approach that works for me is layer blending of two (or more) identical shots each respectively exposed for highlights and shadows. From my experiences of staring at live night scenes, the dark-acclimatized eyes are quite able to pick out the faintest detail after a few minutes, which might explain common objections to total darkness (black) in a night photo.

 

Here's a tutorial of one such approach that primarily addresses daytime photography but applies equally to night shots, and here's an example of its night application done some time ago.

Michael, Thanks. Great tips.

Thanks from me as well, Mike. This is how we can all learn something.

For some reason, my post yesterday,in which I (as a pedant)corrected the spelling of SALZACH and my rating, as well as your acknowledgment, Thomas, were deleted overnight, so I post it all again. And, once more, nice shot...thanks for the links, Michael.

Yes, as was my correction. There was a big database failure yesterday, so not photo.net reverted to a previous version (before the comments and correction). Thanks again Walter.