Daily Inspiration #54 by Stephen Venter

Today I decided to put up something a little bit different for the daily image. Stephen Venter sent me this eye popping shot of the Sydney Harbor Bridge that he snapped with a Canon 5D Mark II and the 24-70 Lens. Here are the specs:

Camera: Canon EOS 5D MkII.
Lens: Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L USM.
ISO: 200.
Focal length: 28mm.
3 exposures: 3 sec, 13 sec and 30 sec at f/8.

Thanks Stephen for this lovely night shot!

14 Comments

  1. Although I’m not big on HDR I do like this one. Eerie and a touch surreal. Way cool.

    To the fellow who called it “Kitsch” … of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder BUT how arrogant of you to call it Kitsch. Who died and put you in charge of deciding what’s good or bad taste????
    Thanks for reminding me why I left Germany a long time ago.

  2. @11. I agree -a much more constructive way to phrase a critique than being rude. That being said, the image is stunning, and the daily inspiration worked -now I’m wanting to try HDR.

  3. Elaine, I hope my description wasn’t too brief. You’re most welcome to save / use it.

    I think there is a fine line between a realistic HDR and one which can look too unrealistic. HDR can look cartoon-like very easily.

  4. I took a very similar photo just this past January, with my Leica M9 and Summilux 21mm lens wide open at f/1.4, handheld. There was a bit of purple fringe on the lights. If anyone is interested in comparison I will shoot my DNG to Steve as soon as I return home from my travels next week.

  5. I love HDR. I wonder how long the HDR phase will last though? Beautiful picture. I think HDR done right is gorgeous. As long as the original file is interesting, the HDR image will be good, if done right.

    Stephen, your answer to how to do HDR is the shortest answer I’ve eve seen. Mind if I save it?

  6. Thank you for the comments.

    In response to LaDra’s question, the process involved:

    3 long exposure shots at -2 EV, 0 EV and 2 EV (3 sec, 13 sec and 30 sec) using tripod and remote. Raw images imported into Lightroom and exported as HDR to Photomatix. Tonemapped in Photomatix and reimported to Lightroom as TIFF. PP in Lightroom included contrast, levels, and final crop. Exported as JPEG.

  7. Hi, Stephen, great work. Did you use a particular software? Could you share your process for that mix of the 3 exposures?

    Thanks.

  8. I would be surprised to see the 3 originals to see the tranformation. I am sure they are barely keepers

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