nights shots: pro/con of WB & shadow/highlight adjusting

[hiero]

Hi all,

just a few days ago I created a gallery with night shots taken in the old medieval core of my hometown Deventer, in the Netherlands.
Although it is not very difficult to take reasonable pictures (given that you use a tripod), the processing raises technical and artistic questions:

1) Most areas have natural light (moon) as well as tungsten and halogen light. Even when shooting with WB set on tungsten the result is pictures with very warm tones. Although the actual light that one experiences when walking these streets is quite warm, the pictures tend to get a heavy yellowish teint. I experimented with different color temperature adjustments in PS, but am still unconvinced which is best.

2) The historic core has standard lanterns but also special light beams to expose historic buildings. This produces quite strong contrasts between light and dark areas. In some case I have tried to get some detail in the darker areas (especially the nice brickwork walls) using a fair amount shadow/highlight adjustment in PS. This however creates some noise and some might deem the resultst also unrealistic.

I very much like to hear your thoughts on these issues. Please examine the pictures below, or better even the originals in my Deventer night shots gallery (You can also click the images to see the originals)

Your comments are very welcome (here or with the pictures themselves)
Kind regards,
Jeroen

Corrected to 3300 Kelvin, is this one still too warm?


Almost white out on the church, buildings on the left too dark? (4095 Kelvin, brightness taken down: -0,50)


Color temperature set to 4095 Kelvin (average tungsten) and a fair amount of shadow/highlight adjustment (15%) on this one, does it take away some of the atmosphere?


Again, I took the Kelvin down quite a bit and again a lot (35%) of shadow/highlight adjustment. The result is noise. Does that distract too much?

[ivinghoe]

I think for most of the photos here you could try shooting in RAW (if you dont already) and processing two shots from the same picture one to keep detail in the highlights and another to retain more detail where you would like it and merge the results. If you prefer not to shoot raw take bracket your shots and again merge them later.
The warmer light certainly gives more atmosphere to the images and by using raw you are free to finely tune the WB. I would back this up by trying some selective colour adjustments in an adjustment layer and masking off areas that dont need adjustment.
I personally dont find the small amount of noise intrusive at all in night shots and sometimes add feeling them.
Only one other suggestion if you have the opportunity to retake is to try take the shots whilst there is some colour left in the sky as those shots with the rich blue sky in your gallery are certainly more eyecatching imho.
For more info on night shots I recomend a look over Sean Mchugh`s website and cambridge gallery
Al

[ianko]

Im with ivinghoe on this, Bracketing and blending be that with RAW or otherwise is the way to go.

I would also suggest you look at bracketing for a correct exposure then -1 and -2 or half stops if you prefere, rather than -1 then 0 then +1.

This should give you all the shadow detail you need and give back progressively more detail in the highlights with each subsequent bracket. otherwise you run the risk of making the final shot look almost like daylight.

Re Seans work, visit at your own risk!!!!! his Gallery is outstanding and i almost felt like giving up right there and then. His website is packed with info which will only start to mean anything once you have done a ton of reading up. Im kind of joking obviously you will find it very informative.

for links to other night photographers have a look here

http://www.nightfolio.co.uk/night_photo ... links.html

Have fun.