Tropical Island

Here is a picture from this year's first photo tour. It's the view of Dubai Marina and the Tallest Block from a tropical island somewhere in the infinite vastness of Interchange No. 5

20mm, f13, 30s, ISO 200

Steps of post-processing the RAW format image:

Lightroom

• Temperature: 2200K
• Tint: -2
• Exposure: 0,00
• Recovery: 70
• Fill Lights: 0
• Blacks: 6
• Brightness: +50
• Contrast: +35
• Clarity: +35
• Vibrance: +15
• Saturation: 0
• Export to Photoshop

Photoshop

• Apply Healing Brush (removal of lens flares and dust)
• Smart Sharpen Filter (Amount: 40%, Radius 1.3px)
• Save as TIF

CaptureNX2

• Apply U-Point to the street lights (Brightness: -30)
• Convert to sRGB with perception based rendering intent
• Save as JPG

Photoshop

• Insert watermark
• Save as JPG

Cheers,
Sebastian

White Balance

This time I would like to emphasize the importance of adjusting the color temperature of night pictures in order to create a special atmosphere. Artificial light tends to play tricks on your camera and the automatic white balance usually goes totally wrong. None the less, I do set the white balance to automatic for most of my pictures, since the RAW format allows for adjusting the color temperature during post-processing.

The picture below is a good example for the differences in color temperature of lamps. The foreground is lit up by the typical Dubai street lights with their orange glow. The construction site, however, is illuminated by industrial metal halide lights radiating a rather blueish glow. This diversity confuses a camera even more than city night lights already do. Here is what my camera gave me when I took a picture of the Dubai Pearl construction site:

4300K, Tint +5

In Lightroom I have then adjusted the white balance which resulted in the following image:

2700K, Tint +10

Note that adjusting the white balance is a powerful tool when it comes to adding that special touch to your city night photography. It's actually great fun to play around with and it is often quite surprising how the atmosphere of an image can change dramatically just by adjusting temperature and tint.

Crying for the Moon (Part 2)

After taking a few pictures from my previous post's vantage point I moved on to the Tallest Block. I arrived just in time for shooting the following picture with the full moon at its center:

14mm, f11, 30s, ISO 200

Steps of post-processing the RAW format image:

Lightroom

• Temperature: 3700K
• Tint: +26
• Exposure: 0,00
• Recovery: 10
• Fill Lights: 0
• Blacks: 6
• Brightness: +50
• Contrast: +25
• Clarity: +30
• Vibrance: +20
• Saturation: 0
• Export to Photoshop

Photoshop

• Apply Healing Brush (removal of lens flares)
• Smart Sharpen Filter (Amount: 40%, Radius 1.3px)
• Save as TIF

CaptureNX2

• Apply U-Point to the upper right corner (Brightness: +10)
• Convert to sRGB with perception based rendering intent
• Save as JPG

Photoshop

• Insert watermark
• Save as JPG

Cheers,
Sebastian

Indigo Sunset

Today's picture was taken from my office at sunset. It was a foggy morning that day so I had taken my camera to work, because I would love to get a shot of skyscrapers sticking out of the fog. Well, the skies cleared just before I reached the office so I turned to taking pictures of the sunset instead.

I recently purchased a set of Graduated Neutral Density (GND) filters from Lee Filters, specifically designed for use with my Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 wideangle lens. I look forward to using these in landscape photography, but also want to test their limits in architectural photography. I used a 0.6 GND filter in this pic and I think it worked out well.

If you have questions or would like to hear more details about GND filters and how they work please feel free to drop me a comment.


Here's the photo:

14mm, f13, 8s, ISO 400, Lee 0.6 GND filter

I only now realise I was using ISO 400. Whooops.... should have been ISO 200, of course.

Post-processing included the following steps:

Lightroom

• Temperature: 4200K
• Tint: +7
• Exposure: 0.00
• Recovery: 0
• Fill Lights: 20
• Blacks: 7
• Brightness: +50
• Contrast: +25
• Clarity: +20
• Vibrance: +10
• Saturation: 0
• Export to Photoshop

Photoshop

• Apply Lens Correction Filter: Custom --> Vertical Perspective +2
• Apply Spot Healing Brush
• Apply Smart-Sharpen Filter: Amount 40%, Radius 1.3px
• Save as TIF

CaptureNX2

• Apply U-Points: Slightly increase the saturation of bronze glow on medium left tower and of green lights at the base of central tower
• Convert to sRGB with perception based rendering intent
• Save as JPG

Photoshop

• Insert watermark
• Save as JPG

Cheers,
Sebastian

Al Qasr View

Having mentioned the Madinat Jumeirah in my previous post I thought it might be a good idea to show you an image I recently took from there. I'm sure you will recognise how beautifully this place has been designed and landscaped. The Madinat is definitely one of my favourite hangouts in Dubai.

"Madinat" is the Arabic word for "Town" and I do think you can truly call this place a town within the city. Three luxurious hotel resorts are spread out in a dreamy setting of lush greenery, lovely waterways and an apparently traditional Souk. One thing which really astonishes me is how they've managed to create an atmosphere of tradition, heritage and serenity - in spite of the fact that every square inch of this place is artificial and a blend of various architecural stlyes. You would expect a place like this to be prone to being cheesy and just terrible. But strolling through the Madinat is actually a truly wonderful experience!

I took the following picture from the terasse behind the main entrance lobby of the Al Qasr Hotel. In my opinion they serve the best Mojito in town, so if you visit make sure you don't miss out on that! I received some strange looks by the staff for setting up my tripod there, but oh well... where in Dubai would it ever be possible to use a tripod without being told that professional cameras are not allowed. Any tourist can happily fill their SD cards with thousands of images throughout the day, but if you dare taking long exposures at night - for which you obviously need a tripod - you will instantly find someone telling you that "professional cameras" are not allowed. Come on, I am just taking the same snapshot as those dozens of people earlier today! The only difference is that I need to use a tripod to compensate for the long exposure time!

There must be some sort of mental thing going on in these people's heads, triggered by the view of a tripod.

Well, back on track. I was just happy to be left alone for once and didn't care about the looks I received. After all, I'm there to take pictures. And, of course, to have a Mojito or three.

I shot this picture with my Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 lens on the D700.

24mm, f11, 30s, ISO 200

Post-processing included the following steps:

Lightroom

• Temperature: 2750K
• Tint: +8
• Exposure: -0.30
• Recovery: 40
• Fill Light: 0
• Blacks: 5
• Brightness: +50
• Contrast: +25
• Clarity: +20
• Vibrance: +14
• Saturation: 0
• Export to Photoshop

Photoshop

• Apply Spot Healing Brush
• Slightly crop the original
• Apply Smart-Sharpen Filter: Amount 60%, Radius 1.3px
• Save as TIF

CaptureNX2

• Convert to sRGB with perception based rendering intent
• Save as JPG

Photoshop

• Insert watermark
• Save as JPG

Cheers,
Sebastian

Boat Parking

In order to get this Blog moving I will start with posting a photo I took yesterday at Dubai Marina. It was a wonderfully clear night and also the temperatures here in Dubai are slowly coming down to an acceptable level. It was some amicable 29°C last night. Yay...

The image below was taken with my Nikon D700 and a Nikon 14-24mm f2,8 wideangle lens. What a marvellous piece of glass that is... expensive, but simply perfect quality.

In order to avoid any geometric distortion I pointed the camera straight at the horizon (so that the horizon is in the middle of the picture). I then slightly cropped the upper and the lower parts of the image which gives it this Panorama look.

14mm, f13, 30s, ISO 200

Post-processing included the following steps:

Lightroom

• Temperature: 2900K
• Tint: +10
• Exposure: 0,00
• Recovery: 40
• Fill Light: 15
• Blacks: 6
• Brightness: 50
• Contrast: 25
• Clarity: 25
• Vibrance: 0
• Saturation: 0
• Export to Photoshop

Photoshop

• Apply Spot Healing Brush
• Crop Image
• Apply Smart-Sharpen Filter (Amount 60%, Radius 1,3px)
• Save as TIF

CaptureNX2

• Apply U-point to central part of the image, slightly darken this very light area: Brightness -10
• Convert to sRGB with perception based rendering intent
• Save as JPG

Photoshop

• Insert watermark
• Save as JPG

May be this gives you some new ideas for your own post-processing. If you have any questions always feel free to ask!