Post-Sunset Sunday

One of the great things about the Canon 5D (and it's successor, the 5D mark II) is the phenomenally low ISO available - 50. Not perhaps the setting most people would think of when taking a night shot, but it's what I used for this one nevertheless. Absolutely incredibly smooth image with fantastic detail - and no detectable grain whatsoever.

Most people tend to be impatient and want their shot done as quickly as possible. But once you've set up on the tripod for a long exposure, why not make the most of it and use the lowest ISO available?...

Well, the longer the exposure, the more you have to worry about some rogue wind puffing by, or in this case, a wave hitting the pier, or some stranger deciding to walk out on the pier while in the middle of the exposure. Any of these would have created vibrations on the pier, which would have been transfered through the tripod to the camera, which would leave everything looking at best, unsharp, and at worst an unrecognizable blur.

This is a 25 second exposure, which came out remarkably well considering in addition to the aforementioned problems I had another guy standing beside me, a fellow photographer with no gear who just stopped to chat, and we both basically had to hold our breaths and stand completely still until the shutter had closed.

Oh. This is the Knight St. bridge, of course, looking west. The bright line along the top of the bridge is from the headlights of cars driving at 80Kmph across it. I have no idea what the two dark spots are in the foreground of the image.

I've posted a larger version (click on the picture) than usual so that you can get a bit better of an idea of how clear the full-size image is.

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