The Still of the Night

Experimenting with really long time exposures (many minutes) via the remote release is giving mixed results as the camera does not give any meter readings when on 'bulb' and whilst one could work these out with higher calculations drawn from readings taken with much higher iso's and set shutter speeds, it all gets quite haphazard anyway.

This one is around four & a half minutes and is of a favourite viewpoint of mine, the tree being a cherry, so is picturesque both in spring and autumn, the fence giving a nice foreground. A sluice noisily has water gushing through it just out of frame on the left and yesterday's Blip was taken just there, so I hadn't gone far from where I live. Strangely, this location is often chosen by the choosy homeless (why not have a "room" with a view, instead of a doorway?) and I've often walked past a sleeping bag with (presumably) somebody rolled up inside it and so I thought myself lucky to find my viewpoint unhindered tonight!

Lots of depth of field (f16) with the Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 at its widest to keep everything sharp, which also gave the starbursts. In editing I had to open up the shadows, a lot; the tree and foreground even more so and I cropped some from the left. The overwhelming streetlamp glow looked its typically muddy browny orange so a black and white copy PSD made . That looked OK, but I then tried adding a blue photo filter in Photoshop and a little green, too. Whilst still monochrome, I think it gives it a mysterious, romantic feel that helps.