I was hoping to catch the Hong Kong Peak in the daytime, and with the period of time where the Sky is going dark, but not complete Black just yet. Usually you get a Dark Blue period, and was hoping that would give the image more punch.
Unfortunately, the weather was terrible. Foggy like crazy, and freezing cold...
I braved the weather and took the shots anyway...
Stood up there at the Peak for 2hrs waiting for the Light to drop, then fought my way through the crowd and probably upset a few people in the process... and then snatched the shot. With no Tripod, I had to hold the camera tight, on the railing... I bracketed the shots with 3 Exposures, incase I wanted to try HDR as I did find the Grass areas on the bottom corners too dark and too distracting...
My first attempt at HDR wasn't too bad... but it was a quick try... I will do properly when I'm back by my proper computer with proper editing power... waiting for this laptop to render each change is ridiculous!
With HDR, you always get a dirty vibe from the image... sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't... this I feel is undecided...
My biggest peeve with this shot is the misty white sky, but that's due to the epic fog...
I brought the Whites down as much as I could, and brought the Highlights down via Lightroom 4... It's probably worth mentioning the HDR was Merged with Photoshop CS5.1... Which currently doesn't support D800 RAW...
So I did these via the JPGs exported from Lightroom...
I'm sure a Better Result can be attained, maybe even if I tweak the JPGs before merging...
But I feel this edit shows good promise!
My main intention for flying to HK was to get this shot... so I will be working hard on it! My intention was to print it and mount on my wall... I would like to have more of my shots as Canvasses around my walls... This will be my first, if I can get it right...
If not, I think I might have to fly back later this year specifically for this shot and just hope the weather is clear...
I also broke away from my family today... They wanted to go shopping, and I wanted to go shooting... So with different intentions, we did our own thing...
Flew solo and depended on Taxi's... Taxi's are pretty cheap here in HK compared to London... so I didn't mind paying... Taxi's keeping me mobile around HK totalled to about £17 once currency was converted... That's to the City Plaza, HK Peak, IFC Building and back to the hotel... not bad in my opinion... in London that £17 is one Cab ride around the corner!
Plus, I'm lugging around camera gear and not familiar with the Metro system, and only here for a shot period of time, not much point trying to learn right now in my opinion. Keep it as easy as poss...
I wanted to snatch a shot of the building that Batman jumped off in, in the infamous Dark Knight!
Unfortunately there was all this Construction work going on around below the frame... Hence why I cropped it slightly higher from the Road... I think the image would've been stronger with some Car Lights streaking across the bottom, but with the horrid looking construction Zone, I had to crop it out...
Hong Kong is an amazing place to shoot... My style began with long exposures at night, and Hong Kong is like heaven for me with this...
Although in the daytime, around the Market Places, it's just as amazing... I can't explain it, and you won't know until you get here... it's just interesting to look around and shoot... I've seen shots of HK before, and seen Street Photographers go around here, and I completely understand why... It feels like there's never a dull moment...
I have more shots to go through... I will sort them out when I'm back in the UK and upload to my FB Page as always...
I should really use FlickR, 500px, or Tumblr... but FB Page seems more convenient, even though their compression system sucks!
In regards to the D800, it's performing very well... the above shot of the IFC Building was done hand held... ISO Performance is very good... Clean files are coming out of it...
Zoomed in 1:1 will probably reveal just as much noise as my D7000, but then when you resize the image to 1000px wide/high, it more or less makes the noise invisible...
I wouldn't send the file for Print I don't think, but def good for screen...
A more in-depth review of the D800 is to come...
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I'll be in HK for the first time next week. Will be visiting the peak too but not decided if I'll do morning or eve- never really tried city scapes at night.
ReplyDeleteI like the 2nd one more as it feels less typical, I think the bridge adds a nice touch too