Kanazawa Castle Park at night

[Manfred M]

The castle and park in Kanazawa City are lit up at night. This is a hand=held shot of the castle gardens.



I'm not sure what is creating the strange circular patterns. I had removed the protective filter on the lens before taking this shot.

[Kris V]

But I like it - looks like coloured spotlights and I find it very attractive.

[Wandjina]

Manfred, this is a nicely exposed and sharp photograph, but it is very busy. I find my eye is distracted by all the lights in the trees. I would like the focus of the photo to be the beautifully lit Japanese bridge and reflection in the water. To that end, I would crop the photo and crop it hard. I would crop out the illuminated walls, leaving the bridge and the reflection. I would tone down the intensity of the lights in any remaining the trees with Photoshop or Lightroom so that the bridge and reflection "pop out" of the photo.
It is a wonderful photo considering it was taken with a hand held camera. Well done.

[csa mt]

Manfred, it is beautiful! I love it, just the way it is. It definitely makes the viewer want to visit this special place at night!

[IzzieK]

Like Carol, I love it the way it is...it tells how really beautiful Japanese gardens are, and to be shot at night is a rarity for me to see...thanks for sharing part of your trip...

[Manfred M]

Manfred, this is a nicely exposed and sharp photograph, but it is very busy. I find my eye is distracted by all the lights in the trees. I would like the focus of the photo to be the beautifully lit Japanese bridge and reflection in the water. To that end, I would crop the photo and crop it hard. I would crop out the illuminated walls, leaving the bridge and the reflection. I would tone down the intensity of the lights in any remaining the trees with Photoshop or Lightroom so that the bridge and reflection "pop out" of the photo.
It is a wonderful photo considering it was taken with a hand held camera. Well done.

Unfortunately, being away from home, I have very limited tools to work this image, but that being said, I would not do what you are suggesting as the whole scene as brightly lit and busy, and as an establishing shot, this really does give a good overview of what the scene looked like.

Cropping a shot taken at ISO 6400 is going to take a marginal image (from a noise standpoint) and make it totally unusable. In ideal conditions, I would be shooting off a heavy-duty tripod, but I just did not have enough space in the luggage to drag it along with me, so it is at home.

What I do is work the scene, and while I do have a decent shot of the bridge, I really can't make out what to do on my laptop display (nicely said, it is terrible), I know I have some work to do one the castle walls.

[Marie Hass]

Dear Manfred,

Like Izzie, i am drawn to the bridge. I found, as I scrolled down, that the lower 2 thirds shows the bridge in what could be highlighted in an unconstrained crop.

Marie

[Rebel]

I have to agree its too busy, I can't focus on anything.

How the bloody hell did you take this handheld, steady hands!