How was this photo taken?

[Chris71]

I'm always intrigued as to how people manage to get such a broad range of exposure in night and low-light photos. Can I ask the pros here: How would you take this shot?



Is that HDR, post processing from a single shot or just clever exposure? How would I go about replicating it (minus the Trabants perhaps)?

[GetCarter]

Lightroom is your friend.

[rottie102]

I'd underexpose about 1 stop, maybe a tad more and then bring the shadows up to required effect.

[Simpo Two]

Much of that effect comes from the vignette. It's not an effect I use much but when I do I apply it using a very big, very soft brush in PS, set to low opacity so I can paint it on to taste.

[Havoc856]

Circular vignette, graduated grey filter - probably taken with a full frame and pulled up the car section using a brush to bring up shadow, white, black and highlights.

[K12beano]

Chris71 said:

How would you take this shot?

....

How would I go about replicating it?

I'd use a camera.

They're quite good apparently.....

[RobDickinson]

Its hard to be 100% certain without being there but.

Looks pretty easy from a glance, shoot for the (sky)hilites and push the shadows if needed in post a bit.

Low ISO, stopped down to f16ish for the stars on the lights.

Note because its a static scene they could easily have taken a separate exposure for the sky and blended that in - (actually doesnt even need to be the genuine sky..)


And the vignetting is added in post because it wouldnt be natural.

[Chris71]

So is it fair to assume it wasn't actually as dark as it appears when the shot was taken?

[tim-b]

Chris71 said:

So is it fair to assume it wasn't actually as dark as it appears when the shot was taken?

It must have been fairly dark as the headlights are lighting the ground a little, which you wouldn't notice unless the daylight is really fading. Also the low sun which is mostly covered in cloud would make me think it's pretty close to how you would perceive it if you were there (at least in the centre of the frame, before the vignette).

[Petrolhead_Rich]

Looks like the cars were moving, so must be high speed, therefore its either a big lens with a wide open aperture or considerably lighter than it looks in the picture and under exposed IMO, but then I'm an amateur, so as above some editing may have occurred?!

[RobDickinson]

not sure they are moving tbh at least not much

[Zad]

If it helps, there is a 3500x2333 version of that image, in the press pack download of all the related photos: http://tichomori.transtrabant.cz/

Scroll down to Press / Downloads, it is in the 124MB file. The image you want is named Transtrabant2012-foto-Jakub_Nahodil-Zdenek_Kratky-Radoslaw_Jona-45.jpg

Annoyingly, the other pack images have retained their EXIF data, but not in this selection.

The organiser of the Transtrabant projects appears to be this chap, so if you want the definitive answer, you can try sending him a Facebook message: https://www.facebook.com/dan.priban

If you have a decent fast connection, it is worth downloading them all to have a nose around in, it definitely looks like something someone off here would do!