Each time when I see a tram or buses passing in front of over something interesting, I try to catch a nice long exposure where I blur them. And of course I tried the same also in Porto in Portugal. Took me few tries to catch this night tram, but I got one :)
This is a blend of two exposures, one main with tram, and one darker for the lights. Edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.
Recently I got the Nisi Filter holder for the Laowa 12mm lens, and also the Nisi V5 Pro holder for all my other lenses (have not doe my fist impressions on that, but will get to it soon :)) and while ordering those, the Natural Night filter from Nisi caught my eye. As I do a lot of night photos, and the cities in Europe, especially the old towns, are lit by crazy strong yellow lights, I thought this might be useful.
I only had it for few days now, but I managed to go out and try it out. I’m far from reaching a conclusion on it, and I’m not yet sure if it’s worth the price. I tried to edit the unfiltered images so they look like the filtered ones, and I got quite close. But I do have to say, I liked the results with the filter more, especially the blue of the sky. I plan to use it in Dubai in two weeks, so after that it would be easier to judge.
For now, here are few test shots. Each one I took with and without the filter. In some, there can be a bit of zooming out or in, as each time I was putting on or removing the filter, I managed to move the camera really slightly.
Each pair of photos here, is a photo without the filter used, and a photo with the filter used. You can also download the source RAW files here of all these photos, if you want to compare for yourself. I included also DNG versions, in case you can’t open CR2 files from the 5D mark IV. Each time I used the same settings (the photo with the filter is darker, as one looses around half a stop of light by using it), and with auto white balance. The only edit done is that, few of them are brightened, but it’s the same amount with and without filter.
Btw. the redness in the light in the filtered ones, can be very easily removed by tweaking the Red Primary slider under Camera calibration in Lightroom.
No filter
Night light filter
No filter
Night light filter
No filter
Night light filterAs I reinstalled my PC recently, I though I will recalibrate my screen. And of course immediately I started having problem with inconsistent color between Photoshop and everywhere else. This thing can drive a person crazy. So now, I had to delete everything, and will start tomorrow from the start again. What fun :/
So as mentioned, I have no idea how the colors in this photo will look like in your browser. I hope at least a bit like I want them to.
I took this photo in December, while I was on a ship in Amsterdam. In the morning I noticed the sun from the lounge window, so I ran up on the deck to grab few photos.
This is a two shot panorama. I then used another 4 shots to darken the sun. I left the overall photo a bit darker, to bring more attention to the sun overall. Combined and edited in Photoshop. I could not combine in Lightroom, as for some reason I used different focal lengths for each side, so Lightroom would not combine them into a panorama.
The great thing about Plotagraphs, is that you can go back into your library of older photos and edit anyone you want. Like this you can bring new life into it. Same with this photo of blue hour in Prague, which I already took years ago.
I played here a bit with the light on the left, to make it pulsating. You can see exactly how I did it. Look at the attached screenshot of all the points and animation points I used in Plotagraph Pro.
You can check out my Plotagraph Pro review here, and a guide how to create them here.
(if you use an older web browser, you may only see a static image, if you are on a mobile, please hit the play button to see the Plotagraph in motion)
