Pic of The Day: Night San Diego Skyline

[zippyjuan]

I enjoy night shots. This one is very sharp. You can see lights on the Star of India. Having a clear sky helps on ones like this too. You need a tripod or something to hold your camera steady for long exposures like this. i didn't have mine with me so I just used a wall along the ebmarcadero (over towards the airport side). So if you don't have one, just find a post or something.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/JeffryZ/San_Diego_Skyline_Night_Large.jpg

[Napoleon54]

That's a beautiful picture, as usual! It reminds me of one I saw somewhere of Chinese junks at anchor in a harbor.

[KIISQueen]

What a beautiful shot Zip! I love how the lights reflect on the water

[Sirrich3]

nice pic of the city...

[Dazzling]

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing

[starkiis]

Very beautiful shot.. I love the night pics like that it makes it looks so much peaceful

[Cheesypuff]

WOW...i've never seen a night picture this sharp! well...at least my night pictures are never this sharp. How long did you have the shutter open?

[zippyjuan]

Here is the EXIF info for the shot:
Date/Time 07-Dec-2006 18:46:04
Make Nikon
Model NIKON D80
Flash Used No
Focal Length 28 mm
Exposure Time 5.00 sec
Aperture f/8
ISO Equivalent 100
Exposure Bias -1 2/3
White Balance
Metering Mode matrix (5)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Program aperture priority (3)
Focus Distance

The matrix metering on the camera has a tendency to overexpose so I usually add an adjustment of -0.7 EV and in this case I upped it to -1.7 to keet the sky darker (a light meter wants to make things grey). On a long exposure like this (five seconds) the boats on the water can be blury if there are any waves on the water which can cause them to move during the exposure. I was lucky it was calm tonight. I was amazed at how much detail I got- especially on the boats. I added some sharpening in the post- processing. Got this one as my desktop for now.

[Paniolo]

Perfectly shot....Thanks for all the data.

[surfer]

Nice!

[brainsmile]

where's the link to the big file?

[JackHammer]

Next weekend when I have time I'm going to try to take a pic of the NYC skyline from the Brooklyn Promenade. I'll keep your tips in mind Zippy on making it come out good.

[zippyjuan]

Keeping the camera still is the most important thing. Other than that, if you are shooting digital. review each shot and see what if any modifications you need to make in the exposure. In my case, I thought that the sky was lightening too much so I adjusted the exposure factor so that the sky came out darker. I was shooting at aperature priority and f/8 since that is one of the sharper settings for my lens. I tried f/22 and it did not seem as sharp. I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

I think this one is a little bigger: http://www.pbase.com/jeffryz/image/71435589/original

[jaja]

It's a wow. Pretty! Thanks for sharing.