Red night

Congratulations! This is the Image of the Week selection for the Elements of Humankind Gallery, week ending 9/19/03!

Seattle Skyline
Click below for a larger and better version:

http://www.fototime.com/ABB3B3B1E020069/orig.jpg

WOW. The light is perfect!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, this is so cool! What were your settings, and how did you determine them? Is this a digital capture or scanned film? Just curious.

Now this my friend, is pure "knock-em dead!!!)
Fantastic!!!
Mike

Holy cow! this is awesome. Is it a composite or a single frame - the contrast of Rainier seems almost impossible at that shooting distance.

Thanks, gang! Let me tell you about this image. It was taken on an unusually warm winter evening in early January. I arrived at Kerry Park just before sunset and set up my tripod camera. The evening was unusually clear and Rainier could be seen quite distinctly in the distance. Winter days, if cloudless, are wonderful because of the almost complete lack of haze.

Just at dusk, the clouds were transformed into a sea of red and blue, and the western face of Rainier was reflecting the warm glow of the setting sun, but the lights in the downtown buildings had not come on yet. I snapped a picture. I waited 1/2 hr until the building lights came on and released the shutter again, careful not to move my camera system even 1 pixel. Needless to say, you need a very stabel tripod, cable release, and preferably mirror lockup for the longish exposures.

In photoshop I combined the images. I replaced the shadow detail in the 2nd exposure with that of the first. Remember that the shadow regions in the 2nd exposure will include the sky, Rainier, and the unlit portions of the buildings which will be dark because they are no longer illuminated by the setting sun. These same regions will be well seen in the first exposure. Thus you can get a sunset with a night time effect.

This is easily achieved in film also. Use bulb mode. Release the shutter at sunset, then have some means of being able to hold a black card over the lens for 1/2 hr and then expose the film again when the building lights come on. Be sure to use very slow speed film or the graininess will kill ya.

Heather Forcier wrote:Wow, this is so cool! What were your settings, and how did you determine them? Is this a digital capture or scanned film? Just curious.

Thanks, Heather. Setting for the 2 exposures:

Digital capture with iso 100; f11; shutter speeds of (1/125 and 3 seconds); focal length of 100 mm.

E.J. Peiker wrote:Holy cow! this is awesome. Is it a composite or a single frame - the contrast of Rainier seems almost impossible at that shooting distance.

Thanks, E.J. This shot is a composite in the sense that 2 shots were combined. but the 2 images weren't at differnt focal lenghts or of different places. The 2 composites were just at different times from the same exact place. See my post above for the explanation. Rainier can be seen that clearly from Kerry Park in Seattle on a clear day. Those clear days, however, are few and far between

A stunning Cityscape. Saturated beautifully. The mountain in the BG is the final superb touch.

Fabulous! Well seen and executed. I see posters, postcards, etc. available all over Seattle.

Great shot. THis is essentially a a film technique of double exposure. Shoot the sky with the buildings in silhouette,then double expose when it is dark and the buildingsare lit. Well done and beautiful.

One shot or two, it is off the scale.

the light is quite attractive but that upper right corner only detracts from the image in my opinion and the cityscape feels somewhat artificial to me. Cropping from the left edge might help this plus the square format would likely fit the image pretty well.

I think your location was inspired here -- outstanding composition and the technique is excellent. The sharp lines of the tower tower balances the smooth natural lines of the mountain beautifully!

I like it with the upper 1/3 cropped away for a 3:1 panoramic even better.

Michael Brown wrote:Now this my friend, is pure "knock-em dead!!!)
Fantastic!!!
Mike

You can say that again!

Yes, this is just plain gorgeous!!

I love it.

I liked this so much I had to show it to several family members today. I love the contrast of Rainier's natural majesty and Seattle's man made glitz. The lighting manages to give this a otherworldly glow. I think this is just fantastic and unique.

Killer!!!!

Hearing the description of how this image was made makes it even better for me.

Very nice. My only nit is that I would like to see the flor at the foreground level.