mediumcool
Active member
Popping oleander
Sony a7 w/adapted Canon FD 100mm f/2.8 1/1000 f/4 ISO 400
Sony a7 w/adapted Canon FD 100mm f/2.8 1/1000 f/4 ISO 400
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Well, thank you for the kind words!Audi-dudi,.....I can't stay silent anymore and need to ask some questions about these wonderful B/W images which you seem to have an inexhautible supply of!
All of my nighttime photos are captured using only ambient light (although this often includes streetlights, such as was the case with the first photo I posted above.) I never engage in any HDR shenanigans, although I do shoot a series of seven, identical images and stack / median-blend them in Photoshop to create a single, low-noise, original file. From there, I use various standard techniques in Photoshop to post-process the files, but I do everything myself, including the B&W conversions, and use no external plug-ins or filters or other software. As for why the floodlights are not burned out in the first photo, in fact, they are burned out, but only very slightly. I am very careful when choosing the original exposures and I use the usual highlight recovery methods during post-processing, as necessary. (To give you some idea of how extensively I post-process my files -- or don't, as the case may be -- I rarely spend more than 15 minutes working on any one file.).........These are time-exposures at night...I get that much! But,...is this moonlight blended with the flood lights?....or 'just' the ambient sky light ? Is there a lot of post-editing involved?.....why are the flood lights not burned out?
Truth be told, I live in an upscale area (although my subdivision is the least expensive one in the zip code!) and the houses I photograph usually do have landscapers who maintain the yards, including blowing off the driveways and sidewalks weekly or semiweekly There are certainly plenty of guard dogs around, too, but they're usually kept behind the backyard fences. I have occasionally encountered unhappy homeowners, as well as had visits from the police, but so long as I photograph from the street or sidewalk -- i.e., public property -- I'm not breaking any laws. The biggest threat to my safety that I potentially face is actually wildlife wandering into the neighborhoods from the open desert of the Indian Reservation that's only a few blocks to the south. I encountered a mountain lion on one occasion and have been charged by a javelina on another, plus there are always coyotes chasing after rabbits and rattlesnakes slithering around, etc.Also, sitting here in the 'old world'...are these 'new world' houses really like this?...or do you vacuum the drive ways before shooting?....No unfriendly guard dogs?...or police with big revolvers!
As for what this project is about and why I'm doing it, you might find this discussion to be instructive: Photos and Stuff: Criticism: Two Portfolios.....These are fantastic images!...but what the heck is this all about?!!
Nah ... this is an upscale area and it's rare that I encounter anybody when I'm out photographing at this time of the night.You must be very brave to be out late with all the lethal weapons (guns) everywhere!
So. High turnover of dogs and cats?… stumbled upon mountain lions and bobcats lying quietly in the grass as they wait for a meal to show up, not to mention the rattlesnakes and coyotes and hawks and owls that are out and about late at night looking for a meal...
Occasionally, but they're not a mainstay of their diet, which is usually rabbits (of which our neighborhood has a very large number these days) and most backyards around here are fenced, which tends to complicate matters for them.So. High turnover of dogs and cats?