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Night Train


jasonwallace

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Landscape

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I took this image tonight at a local train station. The absence of

activity and the lighting struck me. I used a tripod and long bulb

exposure that I then post processed and cropped to this view.

Constructive critiques are appreciated. Thank you.

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Impressive result. I like the colors, the diagonals and the lack of noise literally and metaphorically. I believe though, that the two distinct bright lights could have given a better, more clear, sun-star effect. What was your aperture setting?

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Jason, my only suggestion might be to take the shot earlier, when you still have some natural light in the sky. But then you might have all those people messing up your shot ...

Christoph

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Yannis, thank you for taking the time to comment. I was nervous about getting the whole image in focus so I stopped the lens down to f22 to get a large depth of field. Would going with a larger aperture have given the effect you are talking about? This is my first try at a night image like this so any advice is much appreciated. thanks again.

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I think the lack of sunstars has more to do with the lens used than with the aperture. Jason, you don't state what lens you use, but I'd assume it's a relatively modern lens with rounded aperture blades. These lenses don't produce nice sunstars because their rounded blades are designed to produce nice round out-of-focus highlights (I personally found the old hexagonal highlights way cooler, but that's a matter of opinion). I attach a quick--and-dirty demonstration. The image on the left was shot with a 30-year-old Nikon 105mm 1/2.5, the one on the right with a Nikon 70-200 1/2.8 VRII. Both at approximately the same focal length and focused at the same street light (the one above the stop sign). The framing etc. are not perfect because I had to reposition the tripod head to accommodate the larger zoom lens, and it was a tad cold outside (6 F). Both were shot at f11 and 15sec at ISO 200 with my old D90.

The old 105mm has a straight 7-bladed aperture and produces beautiful 14-pointed sunstars - the 70-200 mm has rounded aperture blades (not sure how many) and produces rather subdued sunstars.

25578493.jpg
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Christoph, Thank you for the feedback and willingness to share.  I appreciate it very much.  Its very helpful in understanding this art that has so many facets to it.  I look forward to learning them all ... well, more of them anyway :-)

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Hi Jason,

you're welcome. Part of me just wanted to check whether the aperture design really makes a difference (I always read about it and took it for granted), and it was fun to take the old lens for a little night shooting. I don't think one's ever done learning new stuff.

Christoph

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