'twas Night in Stockholm...

[LaFoto]

... when I took these (Hobbes's new photo of night photography made me decide to post some more of my Stockholm-at-night photos for you).

1.

The Aida-Bella, a big cruise ship, mooring for one night

2.

Kungliga Slottet - The Royal Palace (to the right) and Storkyrkan, the Church for all the royal ceremonies (and a fat raindrop on my lens ... :roll: )

3.

The Grand Hôtel

4.

The National Museum

5.

Kungliga Slottet- The Royal Palace - front view (and more raindrops on the lens :roll: ). After this photo I stopped taking photos at night in Stockholm. It got too wet (and it was late).
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3183/2805697150_b90d8741ce_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2056/2805696870_5f31baf21b_o.jpghttp://farm4.static.flickr.com/3008/2805696728_d00e7a755f_o.jpg

 

[mukti]

Hi,Why do the pics look computer generated?or is it some kinda style you were trying to achieve?Just curious to know.
I've never been to Stockholm but these places look too perfect.Would love to know what is the technique you have used to get these pics .

 

[Alex_B]

Hi,Why do the pics look computer generated?or is it some kinda style you were trying to achieve?Just curious to know.
I've never been to Stockholm but these places look too perfect.Would love to know what is the technique you have used to get these pics .

I think what you mean is the effect generated by using ambient light and long exposures to get rather bright images. some of these would look darker in reality when you stand there. also a small aperture was used so you get point-like highlights as stars. this in combination might give the whole thing some artificial feel.

to me, number 3 is the most natural one.

as for the raindrops, they can be a pain I know that all too well!!

 

[LaFoto]

Alex is right, Mukti: these are long exposures (most of them were exposed for all of 30 seconds, which is a loooong time when you're standing next to your camera on tripod, waiting for the exposure to be done ), and they were (on purpose) taken with relatively small apertures to create that star effect on the light sources (tiny spot of light that get through the little hole, and more light that gets through the closed blades). Nothing of these photos is computer-generated, though.

But Alex is also right in saying that often the REAL scene was darker than appears on the photo, mostly so in the case of the last: that castle (given it is the Royal Palace) was hardly lit at all. I'd have expected to see it illuminated by floodlights, but nothing...).

 

[Hobbes]

hahaha those photos are awesome! wish I could hold my camera absolutely still for thirty seconds I really like the first one, the water and the reflections are just amazing kinda looks like the whole lake is frozen.

btw what lens did you use??

 

[LaFoto]

The Sigma DG Macro 70-300mm lens.
Fully pulled for the first. That boat was quite far away... Impossible for me to recognise neither with my eyes only nor through the viewfinder nor on the screen if that boat really was the Aida-Bella. Only at home, with the photo large on my screen, could I finally see that, indeed, it was that cruiser.

Right, I know for sure about the first ... but would need to look if not the others or some of the others were taken with the kit lens... hang on.

 

[LaFoto]

Here we go:

2. Sigma lens (70-300) at f11, 30 seconds, 70mm, ISO 100

3. Sigma lens (70-300) at f18, 30 seconds, 70mm, ISO 100

4. Sigma lens (70-300) at f18, 30 seconds, 70mm, ISO 100

5. Canon kit lens (18-55) at f18, 30 seconds, 18mm, ISO 100

 

[Hobbes]

Here we go:

2. Sigma lens (70-300) at f11, 30 seconds, 70mm, ISO 100

3. Sigma lens (70-300) at f18, 30 seconds, 70mm, ISO 100

4. Sigma lens (70-300) at f18, 30 seconds, 70mm, ISO 100

5. Canon kit lens (18-55) at f18, 30 seconds, 18mm, ISO 100

ah great lol thanks for the info. I will keep that in mind when I'll be shooting with tripod once I get one

well and of course a telephoto lens like yours. I am currently using a kit lens, EF-S 17-85 IS USM.

hmm my guess is that cruiser is one of those to Finland. Its whole a lot bigger than the one I was on last year and looks whole a lot more fun to be on too. well sometimes I wish Stockholm is bigger like London or New York because I am running out of interesting places to go to take night shots here but I guess at least the chance of getting robbed during the night is a lot smaller too

 

[LaFoto]

No. That cruiser is a German cruise ship and it IS the AIDA, it has the typical wave-line on it and reads www.aida.de even. My friend Heike knew that boat (and two friends of hers) would be there on that very Sunday and she specifically went to look and look and look again if the AIDA had arrived, and late at night we finally saw her.

 

[Darton]

#4 looks really good. Nice contrast.

 

[mukti]

Thanks for the detailed info LaFoto and Alex.

 

[LaFoto]

So you liked these, Mukti? If that is the case, you might also be interested in these and also in these - maybe?

 

[SwitchFX]

These look brilliant, I love the look given to them by the lengthy exposure time. What ISO were these shot at?

 

[BluRevo]

I love them all, especially the last one!

 

[Chiller]

Im diggin these Corinna. Sweet shootin girl.