@bestlight · 2mo ago
Went up Saturday and got maybe 18 usable minutes before the sky went flat black. The spot page says blue until 7:32pm and that matched almost exactly, but the first half was still too bright to balance against the CBD lights. For anyone shooting there: the window that actually works is roughly 7:15 to 7:32. Before that the sky wins, after that the buildings win. Wind was strong enough that I hung my bag off the centre column and still got movement at 4s.
This matches what I get. The thing that changed it for me was stopping treating blue hour as one window — the sky and the buildings peak about ten minutes apart. I shoot the sky first at around 7:15 and the lit towers last, then blend if I care enough. On the wind: hanging the bag helps less than people think if the bag can swing. Tie it against a leg so it cannot move.
When you say blend — layers in Photoshop or something simpler? Still learning.
@mich.tan Two layers and a soft brush on a mask, nothing fancier. Ten minutes the first time, two once you have done it twice.
Snapseed's double-exposure does the same job on a phone, for anyone without a laptop.
Centre column up on a windy rooftop is the whole problem. Drop it, splay the legs wider, shoot lower. You lose the eye-level framing and gain every frame being sharp.
Tried both of these on Tuesday. Legs splayed, column down, bag strapped rather than hanging — 6s frames came out clean. Eighteen minutes is still eighteen minutes but at least I am not throwing half of them away now.