Drogheda Bridge C & C

YourName

Havn't posted for some C & C in a while, went out tonight to get this picture. What do you think???

Atomic Pineapple

Must get up to take a pic of it myself!

Cant offer any technical C&C but in my humble opinion it is a great photo of the bridge, perhaps a little out of focus at the tip or something?

.Longshanks.

I wonder if a few cars driving past to create light trails might have added or taken from the shot?
I like it but I would have prefered if it was taken at dawn or dusk to have a nice sky in background

pullandbang

It's nicely composed but suffers from camera shake. You can see it clearly in the full size version - the lights are wavering.
The colours are good but there is an annoying light under the bridge which attracts your eye - could have been easily cloned out.
Not a bad shot though.

AnCatDubh

what was your setup? tripod?

crispness is the major issue for me here. could be camera shake as pullandbang says but also your exif suggests you were at f4. If you had a tripod available for the shot you could have closed up the aperture to achieve way better sharpness. This would have undoubtedly given longer exposure times but on a tripod / with shutter release or timer, it wouldn't have really mattered.

open apertures at night time for a night scape scene worries me in terms of resulting quality of the image.

Plus I don't know what specific lens you were shooting with but i'm guessing from your exif that you had it wide open at f4 plus i'm guessing the lens was a zoom (focal length of 86mm) - all of that together and your lens probably isn't at its best at the wide open end of the aperture - f4 if my assumptions are right - this would impact on the end product image quality. Again closing down the aperture somewhat should give better results/move your lens towards its sweet spot.

It's a bridge i've been meaning to shoot for some time also. Must make the trip one of these days.

LeoB

I think if you knew the area well somewhere on the Monasterboice side, or how do you get to the Oldcastle Rd? Is that the one that goes under it?

I remember driving under it or very close last year but have not got back to photograph it. It looks really impressive when you are heading towards Dublin and you round the bend and there it is.

FoxT

.. And I like the colours, but it appears grainy & unsharp. I cant read the exif so I dont know what your setup was. With an SLR I'd definitely use a tripod, ISO 100, and take shots at say f/8,f/11, and f/14, in Aperture priority or manual mode, & see which came out best. Some cameras have a 'long exposure noise reduction' feature, and if yours has, I would recommend trying it. I think this would give you a photo that would look relly well on the web. For printing I'd shoot RAW, if the camera supports it.

Cheers, FoxT

YourName

Thanks for all your posts so far.

I basically wanted to get the picture while the lights were on in the dark, I am from Dublin City so I went down on a previous occasion to find a good spot and I did, so I went back yesterday night to get it.

I used my Nikon D60 with a sigma 17 - 300 lens, I had my ISO on 200 (stupidly), and at F4 and 1 second shutter speed. I was playing around with my aperture and shutter speed for a while to get it how I wanted it.

I did use a tripod, and I shot with raw, I fixed the exposure in PS a little bit and I must get rid of that annoying light at the bottom sometime.

The reason for the camera shake was that I shot at ISO 200 and not 100 which meant I couldn't close down the aperture any more, also I was on the roof of the car trying to get the best angle and trying to not get power cables and other distracting things in the shot.

I will be going back again to try and get a better photo, as I am not happy with it, I will shoot at a lower ISO this time along with the advice you all gave me above. After all I am still learning and after a few months away from the camera I am happy enough with the result, but I am also looking forward to improving on it.

Keep the posts coming . . . . . .

AnimalRights

comments

YourName

Sorry "posts" then . . . . .

Tarakiwa

It is a great object to photograph - all year round and at many different times of the day.

I have tried to capture the image that you have poste but have never got it quite as good as you managed!

If you are heading from Dublin towards Belfast and take the exit immediately after the bridge - Take the 1st exit at the roundabout (road heading towards Slane) and then take the turn on your left handside heading towards Oldbridge you will get to this view ....

(Apologies to those that are bored to death with me and this bloody picture ...... but I do love it!!)

FoxT

Confused now! You say that
"The reason for the camera shake was that I shot at ISO 200 and not 100 which meant I couldn't close down the aperture any more, also I was on the roof of the car trying to get the best angle and trying to not get power cables and other distracting things in the shot."

Camera shake is related to shutter speed, and not aperture. If the camera moves while the shutter is open then the image will move relative to the sensor on the camera, and so the exposure loses sharpness. Closing down the aperture will not help.

If you were standing on your car, with the camera on a tripod, that will cause enough shake to blur a 1-second exposure, because the car will move as you shift your weight or if it is windy. You might get away with using the camera on a tripod on the roof if you stand away from the car & use a remote shutter release... but even a small puff of wind will be enough to cause some camera shake.
I'd recommend you keep the tripod on the ground, and crop the final image if you have to.

Cheers, FoxT

YourName

FoxT wrote: »

Confused now! You say that
"The reason for the camera shake was that I shot at ISO 200 and not 100 which meant I couldn't close down the aperture any more, also I was on the roof of the car trying to get the best angle and trying to not get power cables and other distracting things in the shot."

Camera shake is related to shutter speed, and not aperture. If the camera moves while the shutter is open then the image will move relative to the sensor on the camera, and so the exposure loses sharpness. Closing down the aperture will not help.

If you were standing on your car, with the camera on a tripod, that will cause enough shake to blur a 1-second exposure, because the car will move as you shift your weight or if it is windy. You might get away with using the camera on a tripod on the roof if you stand away from the car & use a remote shutter release... but even a small puff of wind will be enough to cause some camera shake.
I'd recommend you keep the tripod on the ground, and crop the final image if you have to.

Cheers, FoxT

No I understand that but all I am saying that if I had shot at a lower ISO then I would have been able to get a faster shutter speed and hopefully eliminate camera shake, and I was trying to take into account that, as a previous poster said, that I should try my best to close down the aperture to get some more detail.

I have a remote shutter release so I will give that a shot the next time, the reason why I wanted to be up so high was because I had to take the picture over a building site, if I took it from the ground I wouldn't have got all the bridge in, I would have got too much of the building site in, and croping would be pointless.

I have found another location where I could get the picture probably a bit easier, but it is further away, but I could do as you say and crop it a little tighter.

Hope that clears things up . . . . . .

AnCatDubh

YourName wrote: »

if I had shot at a lower ISO then I would have been able to get a faster shutter speed and hopefully eliminate camera shake

The higher the ISO the better shutter speeds you will be able to obtain *warning* - the more noise you will get on your images.

What you are doing when you increase the ISO is increasing the sensitivity of the sensor to light (this is the theory) thus requiring less time for the composition to be exposed. This less time exposed = faster shutter speeds.

The best way to test this out is to go into manual mode and choose fixed values for aperture and shutter speed (perhaps something like f11, 1/90). Then start increasing and decreasing the ISO and watch the effect on the meter through the viewfinder. At 1/90 and f11 depending on available light you may have to increase ISO significantly to gain a proper exposed image or if light isn't an issue then you'll be ok with lower ISO's like 100 - 200.

This is also one of the reasons why people crave after camera's with better ISO performance. It enables better shooting (through better shutter speeds) in low light scenarios. (other factors are usually there too like full frame sensor = less pixel density on the sensor = less susceptible to noise).

BUT, whether increased ISO would be appropriate to your scene above or not would be debatable. Remember the warning above - more ISO = more noise. Noise 'lives' in the shadows of an image and if you have a scene which is predominately dark then you will find the noise far more noticeable than if you were shooting a scene of light. There is a trade off and it may not be appropriate.

So in your particular example, if you reduced the ISO from 200 to 100 then you would need to reduce the shutter speed further (to allow more light through to the sensor) to compensate and ensure a proper exposure.

I think that's the gist of it.

Freddie59

This one:

http://images.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://www.transport21.ie/Projects/upload/Image/Suir_Bridge_May_09.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.transport21.ie/Projects/Roads/N25_Rosslare_to_Waterford.html&usg=__Gqmm0Sqco-MS0UHNUXLMB-9aotc=&h=512&w=768&sz=33&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=YmG3TDN9tWNSMM:&tbnh=95&tbnw=142&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsuir%2Bbridge%2Bwaterford%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

Will be the longest cable stayed bridge in the country. Opening on Tuesday next for traffic. Looks impressive in the flesh.

YourName

AnCatDubh wrote: »

The higher the ISO the better shutter speeds you will be able to obtain *warning* - the more noise you will get on your images.

What you are doing when you increase the ISO is increasing the sensitivity of the sensor to light (this is the theory) thus requiring less time for the composition to be exposed. This less time exposed = faster shutter speeds.

The best way to test this out is to go into manual mode and choose fixed values for aperture and shutter speed (perhaps something like f11, 1/90). Then start increasing and decreasing the ISO and watch the effect on the meter through the viewfinder. At 1/90 and f11 depending on available light you may have to increase ISO significantly to gain a proper exposed image or if light isn't an issue then you'll be ok with lower ISO's like 100 - 200.

This is also one of the reasons why people crave after camera's with better ISO performance. It enables better shooting (through better shutter speeds) in low light scenarios. (other factors are usually there too like full frame sensor = less pixel density on the sensor = less susceptible to noise).

BUT, whether increased ISO would be appropriate to your scene above or not would be debatable. Remember the warning above - more ISO = more noise. Noise 'lives' in the shadows of an image and if you have a scene which is predominately dark then you will find the noise far more noticeable than if you were shooting a scene of light. There is a trade off and it may not be appropriate.

So in your particular example, if you reduced the ISO from 200 to 100 then you would need to reduce the shutter speed further (to allow more light through to the sensor) to compensate and ensure a proper exposure.

I think that's the gist of it.

Oh right, now I get ya, the problem is that with a D60, I don't have much room to play with my ISO. However now I understand the whole concept as I have been puzzled by it for a good while now. Noise is something that I was worried about the most in this shot, and could really ruin it.

Thanks for that comment, it is very helpful.

CabanSail

YourName wrote: »

No I understand that but all I am saying that if I had shot at a lower ISO then I would have been able to get a faster shutter speed and hopefully eliminate camera shake, and I was trying to take into account that, as a previous poster said, that I should try my best to close down the aperture to get some more detail.

Using a lower ISO will increase the Shutter Speed, as will closing down the Aperture.

The term for the amount of light used in Photography is "Stops" this come from the F Stop.

Changing the Aperture by one F Stop will double or halve the light. eg. Changing from F4 to F5.6 will be half the light.

To change the light by one f Stop using the Shutter speed means doubling or halving the time, so 1/250th is one stop more than 1/500th.

Changing the ISO does not vary the amount of light, it is a standard that specifies how sensitive a film or sensor is to light. A Sensor set to ISO100 will require one stop more light to expose correctly than a Sensor set to ISO200.

So using a Lower ISO would result in a longer shutter speed.