more motorcycle night shots

ericande · Nov 18, 2006

After the feeback from my first attempt at doing this, the first pic on this thread http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62404, I decided to go back and give it another shot.

These first two I was just playing around with different apertures and shutter times.

This is no PS

I did a little adjusting of the levels on this and that's it

On this one I took Eigthball Walker's advice and merged two shots together in PS. I don't have a remote for my camera so it shifted ever so slightly when I pushed the button so I had to try and clean up the edges of the bikes a bit. I also darkened the white part of the left bike a little, it looked way to fake. It's still not perfect but better. This is my first attempt at merging two exposures like this and I think it came out OK considering. A remote is essential I have discovered, so I will get that.

I appreciate any comments or criticism!

Eric

Ab$olut · Nov 18, 2006

levels look way too high on the 2nd one looks like the city is burning!

Also for motorcycle/car shots I find switching the lights on gives a better effect!

Other than that great pics

ericande · Nov 18, 2006

Yeah, I knew the 2nd one would be way overexposed, I was trying to play with how the water would turn out. I like how smooth it looked with the long exposures. I need to get a neutral density filter!

fmw · Nov 18, 2006

As an old studio shooter I'm going through all the possibilities for placing strobes in the shot. If I had an assignment to shoot that for a motorcycle manufacturer I would have brought strobes to the location. Actually, I think you did pretty well on the final image. It is a commercially viable composition. It lacks a little contrast, not overall, but just in the motorcycles and the color cast seems a little "peaceful" given the nature of the subject. This results in some confusion about whether the subject is the motorcycles or the cityscape.

Overall, I think it is a great image and worth all the work you obviously put into it.

ericande · Nov 20, 2006

Bump because I'm going to hopefully try this again tomorrow night.

I'm going to take multiple types of shots with some new techniques, HDR for one. I'm also going to use the smallest aperture the whole time to get rid of the "blooming" of the background lights. Last I'm going to try "painting with light". I haven't tried any of these yet so it should be fun. Hopefully weather cooperates (but I live in Seattle).

Anyone have anymore tips or things I could try?

Thanks!

bitteraspects · Nov 20, 2006

looks like you need to adjust your white balance

250Gimp · Nov 20, 2006

I like the dreamy effect in #2, but you do need to cut down the city lights in that one. #3 is a very nice shot as well. MAybe you can combine the two effects?

ericande · Nov 20, 2006

250Gimp said:
MAybe you can combine the two effects?

That's my hope. When I took #2 I knew the levels were very high but I did it on purpose to see how it affected different sections of the exposure. It's very hard to tell from the small LCD on the camera what it will look like. I think tonight's will turn out much better if it doesn't rain.