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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge # 186 – Low Light

Navarro Street Bridge on the San Antonio River Walk

This week, Sofia challenges us to tweak the ISO, slow down that shutter speed, and change our lenses to focus on low light. She writes, “This week we are inviting you to share your experiences, good or bad, with this challenging type of photography.” You can read her entire challenge post and check out her beautiful selection of low-light photos here.

For my response to this challenge, I picked two images captured on the San Antonio River Walk to lead off my post. The opening image was captured in the hour just before sunset. Captured with my cell phone in automatic exposure mode, the f/1.7 lens opening let in plenty enough light at 1/17th second, ISO 200. I decided to try to make it look more like a blue-hour shot in post, and apply a filter to give it a bit more “painterly” look. I lowered the exposure of the entire image in Lightroom, I then applied a radial filter around the street lamps since they were already on. Raising the exposure in the center of the filter, the image brightened around the lamp post and the tree in the background.

Statue of Saint Anthony captured along the San Antonio River Walk

This image, captured with my Sony RX-100 v.5 was captured with the available light on the River Walk. Even at ISO-6400, the noise level in the image is quite low. Shot at f/4.5, 1/25 sec. In afterthought, I could have lowered the ISO and opened the lens to give the background some bokeh.

Zoolights display at Phoenix Zoo

Every Christmas, the Phoenix Zoo has a holiday lights display. I have many photos from there so I picked one of my favorites, starlike lights hanging from a tree. The Sony at ISO-5000, f/2.8, and 1/30 sec focused sharply on the lights and left lots of detail in the tree and hedge in the background. I expected more bokeh at that lens opening.

The Manhattan Room on the Norwegian Bliss cruise ship

I recently shared this image of a “through-the-transom” shot of one of the main dining rooms on the Norwegian Bliss on one of my Cellpic Sunday posts. Captured on an evening walk around the deck, I happened upon the scene quite by accident. The windows at the stern of the ship angled down to allow views of the sky from within the restaurant. They were covered with a sunblock screen that is left on them all of the time. Looking in from the outside, that screen added a mystical appearance to the geometrical design left by the tables and chairs.

This image was captured at f/1.8, 1/10 sec, ISO-2000 on my Samsung S20U cell phone.

The Atlantic Ocean by Moonlight

While on the topic of cruising and moonlit walks on the promenade deck, on a bright moonlit night, I used my cell phone to capture this view of the Atlantic Ocean, about 75 miles (120 km) northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was captured at ISO-1000, f/1.9, 1/8 sec.

Home by moonlight/Fisherman at Yelapa, Mexico

Sometimes you can fake low light. I did this one just for fun one day. When I converted the image to black-and-white, I was struck by how much it looked like a moonlit night. I cropped the image to focus more on the fisherman, then lowered the exposure a tweak, and presto! I had a night shot.

I am intrigued by Sofia’s light painting. I am going to have to give that a try sometime. It looks like it would be a fun exercise. As usual, all of the images in this post are available for pixel-peeping in HD on my Flickr site. You can find them in the album here. Join Anne next week for her photo challenge #187.

John Steiner

38 comments

  3. That shot ofthe Atlantic by moonlight is lovely! But my favourite is the fisherman in Yelapa. Your edit has turned a good but fairly standard holiday shot into something much more impactful and effective. Great work!

    Reply

    • Thanks, Sarah! We are fortunate to live in a time when powerful tools are available to completely change the mood of a photograph without spending hours in a dark room. Now we just spend those hours in front of Lightroom. (Pun intended >grin<)

      Reply

    • When I went there, I was at “work” on a volunteer job, so my wife didn’t go along. I do want to go back and visit when she has the opportunity to take that river cruise and dine at the restaurants along the canal.

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      • I was there going to a conference for work. My husband came along. We didn’t do too much sightseeing because of the limited time being there. We only went out at night.

  10. I was in San Antonio in 2000 for my son’s swearing in ceremony for the A.F. My biggest regret is not going on the River Walk…I saw it…across from The Alamo. But we were short on time.

    Reply

  11. Brilliant editing on the boat and fisherman. I am usually partial to color, but the black and white really does tell a different story, doesn’t it? A moonlit night indeed.

    I have always wanted to exploreSan Antonio and the Riverwalk. A great sunset capture, but I love your tweaks with the lighting. Kid of a Kincade look, isn’t it?

    And finally, I initially thought the purple diamonds were an abstract painting, only to read that it was a dining area. So beautiful so have dinner there, I am sure. Donna

    Reply

    • Proof positive that you canโ€™t always believe a photo!
      I hadnโ€™t thought about Kincaid, but I see what you mean.
      We didnโ€™t happen to dine in that restaurant on that cruise, but we are scheduled to be on that ship in July. I will be sure to check it out. Thanks!

      Reply

  12. Fine choices as always John – particularly impressed with your “night shot”! As for the statue, I don’t think bokeh would have made much of a difference on that one, it’s terrific as it is. And your tables are a really fun capture.

    Reply

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