Dublin Docklands Exibition/Confrence Centre at night

[DavidWicks]

February 28, 2009 at 1:31 am

I used a Polarizing filter on this shot to allow be to slow the shutter speed right down and remove as much rush hour traffic as possible from the front of the buildings. why polarizing? my ND ones haven’t arrived yet and figured it was worth a try :) it’s a 60sec exposure and the photo i’m most pleased with in the 3 weeks i’ve had my DSLR. can anyone explain the starburst effect from the lights? it varies depending on the length of the exposure and is not because of the filter as my friend got them on his photos and he has no filters…

[jb7]

February 28, 2009 at 9:09 am

Hi David-

I can’t help feeling that this could have been framed better-
that the reflections in the river are more important than the black sky, for example-

Those stars are caused by diffraction at the junctions of the aperture blades, among other things-
Using an iris diaphragm with a large number of rounded blades can help to eliminate the effect.

http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/starburst-effects.html

j

[DavidWicks]

February 28, 2009 at 3:02 pm

Criticism, WooHoo!!! :) i’m in the right place, “no more that’s lovely”, “oh, i like that” and so on :) yes it’s my favorite pic, but it’s great to finally get honest opinions. For now i’ll crop and repost the new image, and later when my ND filters arrive i’ll go down and retake it. The main reason i kept the buildings low is i’m coming from a landscape painting background and having buildings in the sky felt unnatural to me :P but it’s time to break the bad habits before they take hold too much.

Thanks J, and cheers for explaining the starburst effect.

[randomway]

February 28, 2009 at 3:09 pm

That’s lovely. Nice image. I like that.

[jb7]

February 28, 2009 at 5:12 pm

Well, not the usual reaction…

We prefer to take the edge off it here by calling it critique, but really, it’s just a comment or an observation-
Since you’re coming from a landscape background,
getting there around dusk might put some tone back into the sky,
if you’re going to go there again-

Keeping the camera level will keep the buildings plumb-
there’s usually a centre spot in the viewfinder,
which you can use to find the corresponding height across the river if you’re not using spirit levels-

It looks like this one has been tilted up slightly-

j