Wow, great colors! Interesting shot. =)

nice perspective David. Well done again! :) and a Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones.

First, I like the two contrasting colors in this. It adds a certain gritty atmosphere that works well with the decrepit structure.

Second, did you try compositing the image? Converting it first with a white balance for the left side, then converting for the right side, then putting them together in PS? There's an obvious demarcation to help make that work.

That said, it's a really interesting image.

I feel your frustration: the image will never sit quite right with you if it doesn't match your expectation, especially after having put all that effort into it. The urge to go back and make it right at some point would gnaw at me constantly.

I second the suggestion to composite multiple exposures. This is something that I normally avoid, but if I see what I want and that's the only way to get it I would make an exception. Good luck. :)

Oops... no need for multiple exposures with raw files.

Also, just want to thank you for sharing your less than fulfilling experiences. Much more than your images, it's your journey of personal expression that draws me to your site. Your imagination and technical execution are the icing on the cake.

Great textures man.. it look very nice

Dave, How are you getting C1 Pro to work with the 20D? It appears that the Trial version, 3.5.2, doesn't support the camera. On my system, I can't even get it to see my RAW images.

Thanks...

Isn't it always the way though? (well, nearly.....)
I can't remember the last time I actually managed to take the shot in my mind's eye. (I usually achieve similar results, or something decent & unexpected, but not 'The One').
I really like this shot though :)

I agree with Alec...I think the different lighting/colors work well on this shot. It actually helps show that it's a night shot, too. Like the others, I appreciate your comments on what you're trying to do and what's coming out of the camera. Someday I hope to be following in your footsteps. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I like this a lot, it certainly doesn't look like Blackpool though, looks more like Greece! That one window in the centre seems to go straight through...

Amazing, like most of the works.
I was wondering, do you randomly pick the places to shoot, or you plan ahead? Is it a talent for randomly running into something astonishing or is it a well constructed thought process? Thanks for the pictures you give us, the are stimulating!!!

Thanks everyone.

Alec and Jerome: I think I'll leave this one alone as I did try a different white balance on the original but it didn't work out – the dramatic colour change also meant that quite a bit of detail got lost on that side of the image.

bob: I'm using v3.6 on a Mac. I think the PC version is due out some time soon.

Stuart: I'm getting better at visualising some shots, but night shots are still a bit of a mystery to me :-)

miles: it does, there's no roof.

Pavel: with night shots I tend to plan ahead – it's too cold to do otherwise ;-)

I have discovered that night photography is not nearly as easy as I initially thought. I believed it was pretty much all about having the shutter open for a long time and that's it. How wrong I was.

That said, I really like this one, mainly because of the contrast of colors between one part of the building and the other.

SHIT.

love it.

Well it looks like you're doing pretty well for yourself as far as night photography is concerned. This is fantastic. Wonderful color, and, as always, fascinating subject matter.

Wow....spectacular colors¡¡¡¡¡¡¡...very nice shot¡¡¡

I'd recommend buying a good handheld light meter for doing night stuff. A regular one and also a spot meter. Getting good readings in camera usually doesn't work. It's also tougher doing night work with digital. Film is much easier to manipulate when you're trying to get good shadow and highlights by manipulating the reciprocity.

Yes, great colors. I really like the sky. How do you go about focusing in at night? I have found it rather difficult thing and i'm looking for some tips.

Russell, the good thing about night photography is that you're leaving the shutter open for a long time so you might as well stop down your aperture. This effectively means huge depth of field. If you have a distance scale on your lens then all you do is align the infinity symbol with the correct aperture value your camera/lens is metering to (assuming you're in Manual Focus.. as you should be!) and start shooting. I usually shoot at f/11 and smaller.

If you have no distance scale and prefer to keep your lens in AF-mode then you'll need an external flash with a good AF-assist beam and/or focus on something contrasty in the scene you're shooting. An alternative method is to switch to MF, focus on infinity and then back off a notch. The bigger your aperture the more you back off from infinity.

If you're on a budget with no remote then look on eBay for some cheap knock offs :) I got a nice Adidt M1 tethered remote for $17 from China.

Another tip... bring a flash light and stop watch. It sucks reading settings off of a camera in the dark!

Sometimes a shot is good in spite of it not being what was intended. I like this and it reminds me of Stone Town :-)

Jason: thanks, a lightmeter might not be a bad idea. On reasonably bright nights though I have found that taking a reading at maximum aperture then simply doubling the length for each extra stop I close it down works quite well.

george: it's also worthwhile becoming familiar with your lenses hyperfocal distance at different apertures. There's a good calculator here:

http://bobatkins.com/photography/technical/dofcalc.html

David, you may not be happy with this one but i think it's great!

Really nice warm colors. Good composition. Atmosphere a bit scary. It almost looks unrealistic ... like it could come from Half-Life 2.

day and night exposure calculator

.../day_night_exposure_calculator.html

or make your own by seeking out Jiffy Calculator for Night Light Exposures �(author S.P. Martin) published in Popular Photography in 1964. The Jiffy Calculator is basically a cardboard slide rule.

assuming ISO 50 and f/stop at 2:
*********************************************

#1 Ice shows - 1/250
#2 Burning buildings - a bit slower than (BST) 1/250
#3 Brightly lighted stage theater acts - 1/125
#4 Neon electrin signs - (BST) 1/125
#5 Campfire groups, Bright TV - 1/60
#6 Brightly illuminated store displays - (BST) 1/60
#7 Indoor lighted Xmas tree - 1/30
#8 Broadway type brightly lighted main street - (BST) 1/30
#9 Fireworks, lightning bolts, ferris wheels - 1/15
#10 Gymnasiums, basketball games, boat shows (portraits by 150 watt table lamp - (BST) 1/15
#11 Floodlighted water fountains, dimly lighted gas stations - 1/8
#12 Medium bright artificially lighted interiors of homes - (BST)1/8
#13 Outdoor lighted Xmas trees, candlelight close-ups - 1/4
#14 Medium bright artificially lighted interiors of subway trains, busses, airlines - (BST) 1/4
#15 Medium bright street corner lamps, side streets, big city 'night moonscapes' at dusk only - 1/2
#16 Niagara Falls in white lights - (BST) 1/2
#17 Dimly light subway stations - 1 sec
#18 Dimly light night clubs - 1.5 sec
#19 Railroad stations, freight yards - 2 sec
#20 Niagara Falls in colored lights - 3 secs
#21 Manhattan type “skylines with scattering of window lights and other minute illuminations - 4 secs
#22 Dimly lighted boat yards - 6 secs
#23 Dimly lighted small towns, with a scattering of faint window lights and street lamps - 8 secs
#24 Full moonscape and icescape - 12 secs
#25 Full moon seascape and sandscape - 15 secs
#26 Full moon landscape - 22 secs

I don't know, I like this just the way it is.

Tell me about it. Just been taking a ton of shots of the sky up in Scotland. The streetlit road was 6 miles away behind a ridge of hills but in some shots it looks like there's a sunrise going on. I just wish my camera let me do 'proper' long exposures. :(