Stage door - c&c and general hints and tips for nightime street photos very welcome

[Max von MeiselMaus]

Not a planned photo but, as I was in the West End after dark, I thought I would have a go at capturing its seedy glamour. I had hoped to take some photos in Soho, only Soho isn't really Soho anymore. Someone has been past with a broom and cleaned it all out. Only one, small section of Rupert Street that still has a couple of strip clubs and "massage" parlours. London has lost something as a result.

So, I took this instead.

I had a tentative try at nighttime, lit exteriors in the summer and struggled. I do now have some useful tips for trying those again. However, they won't apply to street shots, because tripods, long exposures and moving people don't go well together. So, any hints? As I hadn't planned this, I didn't have the ideal lens with me. I do have a fast, vintage Helios and I have read that using something like that wide open is the solution. However, would that shrink the depth of field to something unusable?

So, this was 1/250 (my default for when I am shooting a moving object. As I don't do that often, I am prepared to accept I can go slower), f/4.5 (seems I could have gone wider with this focal length on my zoom, but too busy framing the shot to check) and maxed out at ISO 6400 on auto ISO on a Fujifilm X-E1 (which has IS).

There was quite a lot of noise, and removing it and brightening the image softened the whole thing quite a bit.



I also tried a monochrome conversion, as I need the practice and the subject matter seemed to suit it. I might even prefer this version.



So, any C&C or general hints for this sort of thing would be very welcomed.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Max, I prefer the color version as the colors suit the night scene very well. I would clone the yellow line at the bottom left corner though. I like the exposure and the composition

[Shadowman]

I too prefer the shadowy color version. Nicely captured.

[Mike Buckley]

I also prefer the color version but mostly because your post-processing of it seems to have a bit more contrast. This is the kind of scene that for me should either be fairly gritty or present a soft ambiance. Yours does the latter quite nicely.

[rpcrowe]

Both are very nice but I also like the color version better.

[Max von MeiselMaus]

Now, that's interesting. Goes to show how difficult it can be to be objective with your own stuff!

Binnur, yes, I see what you mean. It does take the eye off that bottom edge of the page. I will clone it out.

Thanks all. Any ideas generally for doing this sort of stuff?

[Dave Humphries]

I'm another vote for the colour one Max - and very nicely processed it is too.

[Manfred M]

Max - I like the shot and would agree that the colour version is much better than the B&W. The only part of the image I don't particularly care for is the top right side. It looks a bit strange and almost foggy, but frankly there may not be much you can do with it. If it were my shot, I might have been a bit more aggressive and cropped some of the top and bottom to bring the man into more prominence.

[Mike Buckley]

It looks a bit strange and almost foggy

I think that's flare caused by a light source that is beyond the frame but I could be wrong. If the rest of the image didn't have such a nice soft look, I probably wouldn't like it. Considering the ambiance of the rest of the image, it doesn't bother me.

[Shadowman]

So, this was 1/250 (my default for when I am shooting a moving object. As I don't do that often, I am prepared to accept I can go slower), f/4.5 (seems I could have gone wider with this focal length on my zoom, but too busy framing the shot to check) and maxed out at ISO 6400 on auto ISO on a Fujifilm X-E1 (which has IS).

There was quite a lot of noise, and removing it and brightening the image softened the whole thing quite a bit.



So, any C&C or general hints for this sort of thing would be very welcomed.

And if you can get this much of an exposure and sharpness at 1/250sec then lucky you. Were you positioned in front of another lamppost? Doing so would give you a bit more usable light.

[Max von MeiselMaus]

Yes, that fog in the top right is flare from the streetlight in front of him and my attempt to subdue it. However, it was a whole lot worse than this before I got to work on it. Most of my processing time was involved in calming down that flare with luminance masks. I did do a crop with the streetlight in it, but ended up preferring the tighter crop.



John, the very handy thing was that, just as I was taking this, a car came down the street perpendicular to this one. That is the flash of light across the bottom of the wall. It also gave the chap a bit more illumination. The shots I took without the car headlights illumination weren't nearly as dramatic.

[Shadowman]

Yes, that fog in the top right is flare from the streetlight in front of him and my attempt to subdue it. However, it was a whole lot worse than this before I got to work on it. Most of my processing time was involved in calming down that flare with luminance masks. I did do a crop with the streetlight in it, but ended up preferring the tighter crop.



John, the very handy thing was that, just as I was taking this, a car came down the street perpendicular to this one. That is the flash of light across the bottom of the wall. It also gave the chap a bit more illumination. The shots I took without the car headlights illumination weren't nearly as dramatic.

Max,

Well good timing on the shot and handling of the processing.

[Max von MeiselMaus]

It was. I caught Ziggy Stardust for the 21st century.

[Manfred M]

Yes, that fog in the top right is flare from the streetlight in front of him and my attempt to subdue it. However, it was a whole lot worse than this before I got to work on it. Most of my processing time was involved in calming down that flare with luminance masks. I did do a crop with the streetlight in it, but ended up preferring the tighter crop.

Thanks - that certainly explains it and why things looked somehow "wrong" to me in that part of the image.

Tough call and I think I understand why you cropped the way that you did, but the downside is that this introduced an artifact that confused me (not all that hard to do some days).

[Max von MeiselMaus]

Ha! You and me both.

I did the crop and then just posted. I didn't look over the new image and I suspect there is something more I could do with that distracting fog which makes more sense in the full crop, even if it is just darkening that area generally, to take it back a bit.

I am increasingly aware that one should really put pictures away and return to them with a fresh eye before committing them. But I am far too impatient for that. I takes it, I shows it.