After sunset close to home

[singingsnapper]

Been waiting for more settled weather as has been pretty damp and foggy here in South Wales. Walking to and from one of the local supermarkets I fancied a shot at twilight over the busy M4. The conditions were pretty good so decided to give the location a try. I suspect that some of the drivers thought I was a speed trap as a stream of traffic was moving more slowly.

Pentax 645D FA 33-55 at f/11 and 33mm 15 secs ISO 100 processed in Color efex pro 4


Mynydd-Dinas-and-the-M4 by singingsnapper, on Flickr

a tighter crop:


Mynydd Dinas and the M4 by singingsnapper, on Flickr


Pentax 645D FA 120 at f/11 20 secs ISO 100


M4-towards-Port-Talbot by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[simon3116]

Very nice Paul, I think the tighter crop works better.

Third shot works very well with the smoke and the lights.

[mlaumann]

Great shot, and very well achieved! Try make up some more of these.

I got some questions (or suggestions... call 'em what you want :p);

Have you considered trying doing this in HDR? I know its kinda hard with all the moving vehicles, but you could do the HDR from, lets say, 3 images or so, and then afterwards make up the vehicles in a 20 sec. shot. Combined those the right way and it could look awesome! Just an idea.

Second; tried it on a highway or another road, a little more outside the city? If you could achieve an almost pitch black sky, and only having a few cars passing by it could make up some nice effects aswell.

Go ahead and lets see some more shots. Keep it up!

[ALwin]

You have the technique but what you need to improve is the 'where & when' you apply it. I did this kind of thing a few years ago when I got into this field, my excitement with playing around with a new technique and toy. But now looking back at those photos, I am surprised at how beginner'ish I was back then.

As Mlaumann wrote, go to a place with less lights. Perhaps a road that is some distant from city lights and with few street lamps. Try to get above the road, perhaps standing on a hill, if you can. Imagine just seeing streaks of lights from the car as the main source illuminating the road, perhaps as they drive around a twisting road. Well this is just 1 idea.

Another idea would be to perhaps do some urban stuff, in the city, at a busy place. Either from a height looking down onto the street or standing at the pavement corner of a busy intersection.

Actually, looking at the photos again, the location you chose has a nice landscape, maybe just needs a little correction of composition or just move around a bit to find a better spot. The main drawbacks are the highway street lights and the lights from the nearby city. If this same landscape and highway had been in another location which offered good 'Dark Sky', on an exceptionally clear night during astro twilight hours, you could've gotten night sky shots. It would've gone well with the light streaks from the passing cars. Too bad a majority of Europe suffers from light pollution that it's hard to observe the night sky.

[singingsnapper]

You have the technique but what you need to improve is the 'where & when' you apply it. I did this kind of thing a few years ago when I got into this field, my excitement with playing around with a new technique and toy. But now looking back at those photos, I am surprised at how beginner'ish I was back then.

As Mlaumann wrote, go to a place with less lights. Perhaps a road that is some distant from city lights and with few street lamps. Try to get above the road, perhaps standing on a hill, if you can. Imagine just seeing streaks of lights from the car as the main source illuminating the road, perhaps as they drive around a twisting road. Well this is just 1 idea.

Another idea would be to perhaps do some urban stuff, in the city, at a busy place. Either from a height looking down onto the street or standing at the pavement corner of a busy intersection.

Actually, looking at the photos again, the location you chose has a nice landscape, maybe just needs a little correction of composition or just move around a bit to find a better spot. The main drawbacks are the highway street lights and the lights from the nearby city. If this same landscape and highway had been in another location which offered good 'Dark Sky', on an exceptionally clear night during astro twilight hours, you could've gotten night sky shots. It would've gone well with the light streaks from the passing cars. Too bad a majority of Europe suffers from light pollution that it's hard to observe the night sky.

this evening I've been on the hill you can see in the shot. Still working on them, but I have a few almost done. Will post in a bit when they are.

[singingsnapper]

The weather wasn't as clear today as it was yesterday although it stayed dry it was misty in the middle distance for much of the day.

Pentax 645D FA 33-55 at 45mm f/16 20 secs


Port-Talbot-at-Twilight by singingsnapper, on Flickr

Pentax with FA 75 at f/11 25 secs


M4-makes-its-way-around-the-twilight-mountains by singingsnapper, on Flickr

FA 120 f/16 20 secs


Twilight-M4 by singingsnapper, on Flickr

and some crops from the previous one:


M4 light show1 by singingsnapper, on Flickr


M4 light show4 by singingsnapper, on Flickr


M4 light show3 by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[mlaumann]

The first one you just posted is AWESOME! My first thought was; MORDOR!!! The smokes from the factories in the background is a very nice effect. Super cool!
And theres so much going on in the photo, that it can be some kind of overwhelming - but somehow theres a fine balance between chaos and calm atmosphere.

Its very well achieved, and its a much more interessting setting and angle than the early ones. Personally I would have cropped out some of the sky a bit, but thats just my opinion.

[singingsnapper]

A multiple exposure shot as the sun was setting:

Pentax 645D FA 33-55 at 33mm and f/16 combined using Nik HDR efex pro


swansea-Bay-sunset! by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[ALwin]

From the higher perspective your long exposure photos improved. For the 1st photo of your 2nd batch, the ones you posted after my reply, play around with a pano-crop. But I still say you should've waited till it was later in the night, when the sky is darker.

Nice work with the HDR photo, however the foreground in the bottom right ruins the shot I think.

[singingsnapper]

From the higher perspective your long exposure photos improved. For the 1st photo of your 2nd batch, the ones you posted after my reply, play around with a pano-crop. But I still say you should've waited till it was later in the night, when the sky is darker.

Nice work with the HDR photo, however the foreground in the bottom right ruins the shot I think.

Thanks. I stayed until well after it went dark and took 6 2 min exposures. The trouble was that there was a quick change in temperature and my lenses kept fogging up so had to abort. My favourite crop is the M4 light show 4. I like the dynamic of it and the contrast. I'll have to revisit with my 400mm. Trouble is as the year goes on the road will be less busy when it gets dark

[singingsnapper]

Here are three different crops of the first shot of second set. I prefer the first two myself:


Port Talbot twilight crop1 by singingsnapper, on Flickr


Port Talbot twilight crop2 by singingsnapper, on Flickr


Port Talbot twilight crop3 by singingsnapper, on Flickr

ETA

A tweeked one of no 2


Port Talbot twilight crop3-2 by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[singingsnapper]

I climbed Mynydd Dinas again, this time climbing higher on the Western side to see if I could get a good sunset photograph, and stayed later until it was darker back at the other side of the mountain.

Here's the sunset:

Pentax 645D FA 120 f/16


The-Sun-sets-over-the-Gower-Peninsula by singingsnapper, on Flickr

Port Talbot Steelworks after dark:

Pentax 645D FA 120 f/11


Port-Talbot-Steelworks-at-Night by singingsnapper, on Flickr

I did make a tailight attempt later at night, but for me the streetlights overpower the road and there aren't enough cars driving east meaning there are not enough rear tail lights showing. I will have to hunt out a different location without streetlights, which is a pity as the way the road snakes would make for a dramatic tail lights shot in darker conditions although I do like the ones above.

[singingsnapper]

And a twilight shot from the same position as the sunset in the previous post:

Pentax 645D FA 45 - 85 f/4.5 at 45mm and f/11 3 exposures blended in photomatix and adjusted in CS5


Swansea Bay at Twilight by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[digitalfingers]

Wow, you've certainly come along nicely with these shots!! I love the M4 (4) shot and the Port Talbot Steelworks. Impressive.

[Lorna12]

All of these photos are brilliant I love them all.

Ive just seen this http://www.nyip.com/ezine/outdoors/sunsets.html gives some other great tips on how to capture that great shot!