…………and a photo of the actual city square at night so you get a bit of an idea of how the trees came to have such extremes of light and dark outlining their shapes. The above photo was made standing under a tree and looking up above my head.
It was just after 5.00pm when I arrived in Melbourne’s CBD yesterday and with several urgent errands already completed near my home, I must admit my feet were sore and I was tired.
I had been planning to go to a friend’s Art Exhibition opening, but by the time I walked around a couple of blocks to fill in time until the 6.00pm opening, my feet, (always a pain problem with too much walking), just couldn’t carry me any longer and I was forced to go home, having missed the exhibition completely.
I hope it went well.
I did manage to make quite a few images in the low light of the lane up that end of the city before I left though. I probably missed the best photo opportunity in the dark lane when I asked 2 chefs leaning against a wall if I could take a photo of them in the low light. Their white aprons and chef’s hats stood out really well in the dark. But they declined, so I kept walking.
There was little, or no light, in some spots and hand holding the camera down to 1/15, 1/20 & 1/30 shutter speeds meant I ended up with a lot of soft focus. I managed to sharpen the focus on most of them in post processing, so if you are aware of poor focus, they’re probably the 1/15 shutter speed images I couldn’t sharpen.
Normally I can’t hold the DSLR perfectly still below a shutter speed of about 1/40. Despite this, I’m still keen to share the images. I couldn’t decide on any one particular photo.
I love low light photography and while I had to ‘tweak’ the definition, contrast & light a little, I’m sure you will get the atmosphere that I was trying to achieve.
I think this is about the first time, I’ve really had a chance to make many low light photos (in the city at night) with my DSLR – I’m keen to have another try in the future, but next time, I won’t be walking around doing errands beforehand. I’ll ensure I am not breathing heavily with exertion, so I can hold the DSLR still. Perhaps next time will be better with my 50mm f1/4 lens. These images were made using my general 18-200mm telephoto ‘walk about‘ lens which I use when I can only carry one camera body & lens. My previous city photography at night was using my small Canon A3000 IS ‘point & shoot’ camera just over 3 1/2 years ago.