Tag Archives: night photography

Testing the Canon 5D II for Noise

From Night Photography blog by Andy Frazer: More 5D Long Exposure Tests:

Seattle-based night photographer Brian Chapman has posted another set of 5D MkII long exposure tests, this time all taken at night. Although this set was taken at ISO 400, underexposed, and then pushed during RAW conversion, the results are very interesting.

Brian Chapman’s experiments are essentially a night photographer’s torture test – shooting at high ISO, underexposing, compensating in post, adjusting the image, and including areas of uniform color and luminosity. If you aren’t familiar with real life noise issues in digital photography you might think, “Ugh! Noise.” If you have done night photography and made prints for images like those in the test you might be thinking, “Hey, that’s pretty darn impressive!”

FocalWare Moonrise Calculator for the iPhone

Andy Frazer links to a description of some software that is almost enough to make me buy an iPod Touch. (Not an iPhone – the monthly fee is too high for the way I use a phone. :-) FocalWare Moonrise Calculator for the iPhone.

Holiday Lights, San Francisco Waterfront

Holiday Lights, San Francisco Waterfront

Holiday Lights, San Francisco Waterfront. San Francisco, California. December 21, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

This photograph was made from the east side of Treasure Island, in the middle of San Francisco Bay. This is a classic location for night shots of the San Francisco skyline, and on this night I stopped as I headed back from a winter solstice event at Muir Woods knowing that the holiday lighting would make the view special.

While I was there I also shot a multi-exposure panoramic stitch of the scene:

San Francisco at Night: Bay Bridge, The Embarcadero, and Transamerica Pyramid

San Francisco at Night: Bay Bridge, The Embarcadero, and Transamerica Pyramid. San Francisco, California. December 21, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

This is perhaps my favorite San Francisco photograph. Even though the scene is well known, this image was created it a way that permits rather large prints. I currently have one that is about 3 feet wide and it could go much larger.

keywords: san francisco,downtown, skyline, waterfront, embarcadero, bay, treasure island, holiday, christmas, lights, transamerica, building, night photography, color, california, usa, travel, urban, city, skyscrapers, boat, water