2014

Thanks for the comments. I'm pleased so many liked this photo.

Regarding the 0.6s exposure: I started with lower ISO/longer exposures, but the water was too blurry and didn't have the impact I was looking for. I turned on the flash and increased the ISO until I had the look I wanted for the water. The buildings were a bit dark, but post-processing brought back the detail.

Regarding the John Han!+$%, the tallest building shown: I need to do more work on selective editing. I'd like to tone down the bright lights from the observation deck. For tilt-shift, you can achieve a similar result in LR using LensCorrections (Manual) > Transform > Vertical. (Thanks Michelle for pointing out this feature during an earlier week.) I didn't think of it before posting, but tried it now and -7 makes it better. Interestingly, a notable architectural feature of the Han!+$% is that the sides do angle in as the floors are progressively smaller as the building rises.

Thanks for the comments. I'm pleased so many liked this photo.

Regarding the 0.6s exposure: I have shots with lower ISO/longer exposures, but the water was blurry and didn't have the same impact. I added flash and kept increasing the ISO until the shutter speed was fast enough to capture water without too much blur. The buildings were a little dark, but post-processing brought back the detail.

Regarding the John Han!+$%, the tallest building: I need to spend time learning about selective editing. I would like to tone down the bright lights from the observation deck. As an alternative to tilt-shift, I just edited the image in LR using the Lens Correction > Transform > Vertical tool (which Michelle told me about earlier in the challenge) and that helped. However, a notable architectural feature of the Han!+$% is that the sides are at an angle; the floors are progressively smaller as the building rises.

Thank you for your comments. Regarding the 0.6s exposure: I tried lower ISO/longer exposure, but the waves and water flowing from the concrete were too blurred to have the effect I wanted. Between higher ISO and using flash, I achieved the faster shutter speed I wanted.

Regarding the John Han!+$% Building, the tallest tower: I need to work on selective editing. The too-bright lights of the observation deck is the one thing I would like to fix. Interestingly, that building narrows from bottom to top so the angle is fairly accurate.

I'll just add to the accolades ;-)

Trying to be critical, I'd just ask if there was anything that could be done about the too-bright light on the top of the tallest tower.

Then as someone starting to be interested in tilt-shift lenses, I'd ask if this is the kind of image that would benefit from a TS lens by making the vertical sides of the buildings (especially the tallest tower) remain parallel to each other?

Great dusk shot Kent - I love the colour of the sky and the water really adds to the image!

Wow Kent! I love this! Chicago lights at dusk looks so inviting.

wonderful

Love this image Kent! Great job!

Wow. 0.6s exposure, amazing skyline view.

It happened to be a windy evening when I went out with a number of waves crashing onto the concrete along the lake. I used flash to better capture the flowing water. Image was enhanced using the Tonal Contrast preset in Color Efex.