A quiet evening in Rome…
Twilight is one of my most favorite times to photograph – the sky is often the most beautiful blue. The light was balanced between the night sky and all the city lights for just a few minutes. The water under the bridge seemed to soak up the most amazing reflections, creating a very painterly image. Early morning and late evening is the perfect time to walk along this section of the pedestrian bridge. The view is always impressive. Long exposures at twilight paint the water with golden light, giving it an entirely different texture and color than during the day.
I used an inexpensive but sturdy tripod called a Joby Gorillapod to make this picture. It easily holds a heavy camera and lens still during exposure. A cable release or self timer works well to reduce vibration that could be transferred to the camera during exposure. Placing the tripod directly on the widest part of the ledge on the bridge allowed for the best angle.
Another thought is consider white balance settings. A setting of Automatic created a very cool look, while Sunny, which was used here warmed things up bit and made the scene more inviting. If you have Live View on your camera, you can scroll through the various white balance settings to see which one gives you the look that will complement your visual story. Finishing touches from Nik Viveza 2 made it easy to quickly brighten and dark selected areas without complex masking. Your coupon code for anything Nik is DSANDIDGE. Have fun shooting! Ciao…
PS.. If you want to learn more about twilight and night photography, please join me at Florida’s Birding & Photofest in St. Augustine this April. I’ll be covering, twilight photography, HDR, infrared and everything creative!
Exquisite image, Deb! I applaud the way you captured the slender reflections poised for their next cue to glide across their whole ice-smooth watery stage. Bravo!
Hi Julie, you have a wonderful way with words. Very poetic! Thank you so much for your lovely comments this morning!
That’s a gorgeous shot and I love the way the reflected light is painted across the water..
Thank you very much Ray! Rome is most beautiful..
Beautiful shot Deb! As always!
In regards to the white balance, you could use a PhotoVision 14
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=photovision+14&N=0&InitialSearch=yes
and then use the custom white balance settings. For the few color shots I take, the colors come out just as I see them.
All this time in Rome. Do you speak Italian? 🙂
(sorry if this is a duplicate…my web browser was not happy with me this morning)
Nice shot Deb! As always! It’s such a serene, dreamy image.
If you don’t mind carrying around another piece of equipment, I would suggest a PhotoVision 14 to set the correct white balance. You take an image of the black/grey/white stripes in your current light and use that image as a custom white balance for that shooting session. For the few color images I take, the colors come out just as I see them.
Hi Gary, Thank you for your wonderful comments this morning! Thanks for the link too, I appreciate that! It was cold, and the picture looked it. I wanted to convey a warmer more inviting feel to the image. The white balance was on target in camera, often for twilight, sunris & sunset I like to enhance the color a bit through the camera or fine tune it later in ACR. In other words, the “correct” white balance wasn’t what I had in mind when I made the picture, this was a more artistic choice.
I can say hello, good evening and bye in Italian, thankfully many Italians speak English!! Oh, and grazie! 🙂
This photo of Rome is stunning. (Your other images are very good, too. Love the bikes).
Hi Lory, thank you for your lovely comments! It was wonderful to have the opportunity to photograph in Italy. I can’t wait to go back one day!