night « Ingo Meckmann Photography

Shooting New York City at night in 30 minutes

By Ingo, on September 5th, 2011%

I shot all images in that album while walking back from a +Rick Sammon workshop at the Explorer’s Club to Grand Central Terminal within 30 minutes. All pictures were shot handhold and using fairly slow lenses – the Canon 24-105 f/4 and the Canon 16-35 f/2.8 – I probably shouldn’t call an f/2.8 a slow lens, I know…

The weather was absolutely fantastic as it stopped raining just a few minutes after I left the Explorer’s club giving me awesome, wet reflective roads.

I was using poles and dumpsters as tripods and all are single exposures = no HDR.

Check the original post over at Google+ for more pictures.

If you don’t have a Google+ invite yet, drop me a comment and I’ll get you one.

30 minutes of NYC at night

Golden Alley in Blue Hour

By Ingo, on July 5th, 2011%

This picture would not have been possible without HDR. The road was heavily lit by the street lamps while everything else was almost pitch dark. You can even see the stars in the sky.

Exif Info:

Date Taken: 2011-07-04 22:21:22
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Exposure Time: 8 exposures between 1/8 and 30 seconds
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 24mm

Speeeeed

By Ingo, on June 28th, 2011%

A quick one for today – shot yesterday at the local train-station with the lovely Canon 24mm f/1.4.

Exif Info:

Date Taken: 2011-06-27 22:14:58
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Exposure Time: 0.4s
Aperture: f/8
ISO: 1600
Focal Length: 24mm

How to motion-blur

By Ingo, on May 25th, 2011%

Shooting at night with a fast lens is so much fun. I took this photograph with the same lens I talked about yesterday – the Canon 24mm f/1.4.

I didn’t have the tripod with me that night but I wanted to get a slight motion blur of the passing train. The rule of thumb I apply for motion blur is to shoot with the same shutter-speed than the moving subject is passing by in mph…hmmm – I hope you are very confused now because I would be. Here is what I mean:

I your subject moves with a speed of 20mph, you shoot it with a shutter-speed of 1/20th. You obviously need to guess the speed if you do not have a radar gun with you but that shouldn’t be too hard. The train in the photograph was not driving by in full-speed but was rather breaking to stop at the station.

Exif Info:

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Exposure Time: 0.05s (1/20)
Aperture: f/2
ISO: 3200
Focal Length: 24mm

The Dumpster Pod

By Ingo, on May 16th, 2011%

You should always carry a tripod when shooting night-scenes like the one below. Well, let’s be realistic, carrying a heavy, sturdy tripod while walking through a city like New York sucks but luckily there are some “natural” tripods available (almost) wherever you go.

I was using some dumpsters to keep my camera steady – you can see parts of them in the lower left corner (shouldn’t tell you that, I know).
It’s not the perfect solution but for a 1/2 second exposure like this it was quite convenient. Alternatively, I could have used a higher ISO instead to shorten the shutter speed but I wanted the motion blur and light-trails of the passing cars in the frame.

Exif Info:

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Exposure Time: 0.5s (1/2)
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 24mm

When the sky goes dark, brighten up and shoot

By Ingo, on May 13th, 2011%

This is an 8-exposure HDR of the Goldau train-station shot right before the sky turned black.

Exif Info:

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Exposure Times: 1/5th – 25s
Aperture: f/10
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 20mm

Tiny World in Europa Park

By Ingo, on April 29th, 2011%

Europa Park in Rust/Germany is the second most popular theme park in Europe after Disney World in Paris. It has awesome photo locations and is very photography friendly. I was shooting around in several theme hotels at night with my tripod and wasn’t approached by a single security guard.

I was not using a tripod for this particular picture.

Exif Info:

Date Taken: 2010-09-03 21:32:46
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Exposure Time: 0.0666s (1/15)
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 3200
Focal Length: 16mm (16mm in 35mm)

Open 24 hours

By Ingo, on April 22nd, 2011%

The 5th Ave Apple Store in New York City is an awesome example of modern architecture. It looks great during the day but it really shines at night

The Wet Rock at Night

By Ingo, on April 20th, 2011%

New York City is one of my all-time favorite photography locations. I’ve lived in the area for around a year and spent many weekends in the city walking around with my camera. One of the most photographed buildings – besides Time Square and the Empire State Building – is Rockefeller Center. When you google for “Rockefeller Center” and choose the ‘image’ tab on the left, you get over 2,000,000 hits. The majority of the images show the Christmas tree or the Ice skating rink.

While there might be lots of pictures shot from the location I chose, I haven’t seen many good pictures which were shot at night while it was raining. I anyway think that you get the best possible light when shooting New York at twilight during rainy weather.

Here is my take at Rockefeller Center with the Atlas Statue at night in the rain.

Exif Info:

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Exposure Time: 0.4s (handhold)

Aperture: f/4

ISO: 100

Focal Length: 24mm (24mm in 35mm)

The reason for choosing a very low ISO of 100 was that I wanted to get light-trails of the passing cars in the frame. I was leaning against a lamp post to stabilize myself and the camera. Using that method you can shoot rather long exposures without a tripod and still get a sharp image.

Supermoonlight

By Ingo, on March 21st, 2011%

While the weather prevented super moon photography on Saturday here in Central Switzerland, it cleared up on Sunday and even though it was just 98.54% full, the light was still spectacular. Just to make it clear, I have not shot a single exposure with the moon in the frame, I only used the moon as a reflector of the sunlight for my photographs.

All but the last picture shown here were shot in Brunnen at Lake Lucerne. The last picture shows Lake Lauerz with Rigi in the background.

I created a gallery on my Portfolio site with more supermoonlight photographs.

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Shooting New York City at night in 30 minutes

Golden Alley in Blue Hour

Speeeeed

How to motion-blur

The Dumpster Pod

When the sky goes dark, brighten up and shoot

Tiny World in Europa Park

Open 24 hours

The Wet Rock at Night

Supermoonlight