NYC - Stacking Night Shots

[KevinKal]

After reading a great deal on the techniques for low-light photography and numerous unsuccessful attempts, I finally captured a few images I am happy with. Wanted to share them with you, and thank you all for the information shared on these forums :)

1. NYC Skyline (from other side of Brooklyn Bridge)
http://kalwerisky.smugmug.com/photos/17735503-M.jpg


Image 2: Empire State Building (from Brooklyn)
http://kalwerisky.smugmug.com/photos/17743483-M.jpg

[lakeside]

Kevin,

Very nice. There is just something about night shots of a cityscape that I really like.

Have been wanting to take a few of NYC at night and just read a thread on dpreview. The shots there were taken from Hoboken. Going to have to do that soon.

Steve

[KevinKal]

Hi Steve,

I agree, night shots always seem to win me over (when they come out, that is!). Funny you should mention dpreview, as that is where I found most of my information on low-light photography and stacking/blending in PS. It was also there (in the STF) that I found some good links on where to take Manhattan skyline photos. Perhaps these are the same links you mentioned, but I'll include them all the same:

1. http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=11536956

and this one too, courtesy of Andy Williams:

2. http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=11171953

Cheers,
Kevin

[lakeside]

Kevin,


Thanks for the links. Looks like I may have to make a few trips to try the different vantage points.

The thread I was referring to is: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1034&message=12729093

Steve

[DoctorIt]

Those are cool shots! Do you have links to the thread on the blending and stacking? I've been curious about that for a while. I can search, but if you have 'em handy, I'd appreciate it.

[wxwax]

IIRC, stacking is done to eliminate the noise of long exposures. IOW, high end dSLR's should not need stacking.

And the blending is using layers to combine different exposures, I believe.

[DoctorIt]

IIRC, stacking is done to eliminate the noise of long exposures. IOW, high end dSLR's should not need stacking.

And the blending is using layers to combine different exposures, I believe.Right, I do plenty of blending with my RAW exposures to get the best of everything. I was just thinking there was something special about working with night shots. I've heard it a bunch of times, so was curious what was being referred to. If it's just that, then yeah, ISO 400 and Neat Image do the trick much easier.

still curious though.

[USAIR]

Great job real keepers:clap :clap :clap :clap

I tried this a couple of times with Sony 717 and 828 works great
But like Sid said with some of the newer cameras you don't need to use it

Love the shots

Thanks
Fred

[Andy]

blah blah blah show me the links!

three stacking tutorials here by luben (http://www.solev.net/)

shay on stacking 101 (http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=2502988)

nightshots in 10 ez steps by shay (http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=2754958)

ten more steps on nightshots by shay (http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=8815003)

[KevinKal]

Yup, the reason I tried the stacking/blending was to 1) increase dynamic range 2) decrease noise and 3) get a time-lapsed effect on the water. Thank you
Andy for the links you provided - DoctorIt, these are the same ones that I have been learning from.

Thank you Fred for your comments - I'm a fan of your work.

Cheers,
Kevin