After years of colour photography I've decided to go back to black and white for a while. Here is my first B+W shot for a couple of decades so any criticism or guidance gratefully received. For a larger version:

http://www.nightfolio.co.uk/subpages/la17.html

Thanks

Interesting - tree reminds me of something out of Lord of The Rings .

Would you post the settings used?

Thanks,

Bob

Hello Bob,

No problem. The camera was a 40D with a Tokina 12-24mm @ 12mm. Exposure was 10 minutes @ f7 and 640 ISO.

Best wishes

Thanks David,


The Tokina is a great WAL. Not having tried this and with a seasonal opportunity for a lighted bridge in the neighborhood, any particular reason why ISO 640?

Did you bracket?

cheers,

Bob

Hello Bob,

I estimate exposures etc from experience. Bracketing would be great, but as I use in camera noise reduction which doubles the time I must wait for each exposure, I have to estimate one exposure and go with it, otherwise the light I am shooting would have gone - thats the big problem with low light photography with very long exposures. Seems to me that the usual "expose to the right" use of the histogram doesn't work so well with night shots which are often meant to be reasonably dark to retain atmosphere, that's just my view.

With my 40D I wanted an ISO higher than say 400, but by 1000 in my judgment the images are too noisy, ISO 640 seems to me a reasonable compromise with this camera. Its a matter of personal taste really.

If your bridge is directly lit I would definitely go with bracketing because your exposure time would probably be much shorter than mine!

I like the position of the horizon. Its a great tree subject.

It is tilted. I think the picture would be better with the tree a little off centred. I like the road leading into the picture.

I think less sky and more tree off centred would be better.

Scott

I like this very much--the fractal look of the tree is particularly interesting. Were it my photo I'd probably crop a bit from the bottom and extend the exposure time to get longer star trails.

Bob