window photography

[fluffy penguin]

I saw this as walking around after dark. And thought what a fun looking window.
I do not seem to have captured the fun bit of the window.

also further along was another window with this most amazing clock.
but they both seem to have come out awful
could anyone please give me advice?

thank you.

[Tinka]

Re: window photography

I saw this as walking around after dark. And thought what a fun looking window.
I do not seem to have captured the fun bit of the window.

also further along was another window with this most amazing clock.
but they both seem to have come out awful
could anyone please give me advice?

thank you.

Hi Fp,
I see what attracted you to photograph the window display, It sure does look like a fun display,
first off, you have taken the image useing the available artificial light, This is not always bad as it can maintain the atmosphere, in fact I like the color cast, however you have also cropped off the feet of the birds at the bottom of the image, this should, if at all possible, be avoided, also some of the window display is cropped at the edges also, "is this a crop" of a larger image?
The light color ballance can be controlled "if you wish to" by adjusting the white ballance in camera before takeing the shot, or after, useing image software. I would advocate trying to include the whole window frame as well if this is possible, it can always be cropped off afterwards if need be. I also note that there is a blue light reflection in the window, this looks like a flash gun? which has failed to effect the shot, resulting in under exposure, when photographing through glass it is always adviseable to turn off the flash.
Night photography is difficult and I always have problems, however I am sure the pro's on here will give you some very good pointers. Good luck.

[fluffy penguin]

Re: window photography

thank you for your advise
still learning with this camera as do not get out often enough.
got to learn how to shut the flash gun off.

[Patrick]

Re: window photography

thank you for your advise
still learning with this camera as do not get out often enough.
got to learn how to shut the flash gun off.

Had a play, and corrected the best I can the colour balance, not seeing the original scene its difficult to know how accurate it is. Also straightened the uprights, this has resulted in an even tighter crop.

A word about what effects night photography.
Different lights give different colours, tungsten has the orange cast you have on your picture, florescent is more green, other light sources give variotions on these.
This type of colour cast is known as colour temperature and measured in Degrees Kelvin, when using a film camera filters can be put over the lens to correct the effect. Digital cameras use white balance to correct, your instruction book should tell you how to set it up. Some control over colour temperature can be applied in your editing software particularly if RAW is used, its my guess you used JPG.
I believe the flash you used was not powerful enough to overcome the tungsten light, perhaps too great a distance away and you used the zoom to get closer? If this is the case the on camera flash doesn't zoom, Flash light is subject to the inverse square law , for every unit, for example a meter the light travel from camera it spreads itself 4 times so a quarter of the light hits the subject, so it very soon can loose it power.
Colour correction can also be set manually in camera but a knowledge of temperatures is required.
Daylight itself varies according to the time of day, morning is a warm light towards red, midday cold towards blue, evening is again warm, hence beautiful sunsets on good days. Cloud can also effect the colour.
The eyes don't necessarily register these differences as the human brain corrects for itself, for example walk from one room with tungsten light and then into the next with florescent lights and things will look very much the same, take photographs and they will look very different unless white balance has been set correctly for the two conditions, auto white balance should make things look fairly natural.


If you already know all this I apologize, the tone of your post suggests you don't.

Patrick

[fluffy penguin]

Re: window photography

please do not apologise,
your right I did not.

when I get chance I will go back and have a go, but will print of your comment so I have them with me.

[devilgas]

Re: window photography

lightroom will also allow you to apply mods to jpg images, so fixing colour casts in jpg only images is a breeze.

i'm currently re-visiting thousands of jpg underwater shots from a few years ago and going through this very process.