How I got the Shot: Smithfield St Bridge Portal

I follow countless other pro and amateur photographers. Each one is unique in their writing and photography style. However, one thing I seem to do, is want to know how’d they get that shot! I love those posts. It’s not about gear, or about what lens or camera body you have. It’s technique and workflow. Having fun! So, noticing that I love those posts so much. I’ve decided for 2013, to start my own “How I got the shot!” I hope you enjoy and please, sound off in the comments with any neat tips and tricks you have!

So let me start off with a shot of the Smithfield Street Bridge Portal. Someone over on Google plus said it looks like you are entering a castle, and it’s true! The portal does look like an entrance to a castle. First thing is first, I envisioned the shot in my head. I knew I had to get to the middle of the road at the beginning of the bridge. No other angle would do. There is a huge median that is easy enough to stand on, so crossing over to get to it, I had to make sure there was no incoming traffic. I couldn’t setup my tripod and camera on the median, so I setup on the sidewalk and carried it in one piece over the to the median. I then placed the tripod exactly where I wanted it, right down the center. I wanted to capture the entire portal and get a glimpse of the city in the background.

Onto the shoot. The photo is a long exposure night-time HDR shot. I metered the scene for the brightest spot on the bridge which was right where the city seal is. With the lights illuminating the seal, combined with the yellow of the bridge. It was easily the brightest spot. I like shooting night scenes with my white balance set to tungsten. Feel free to experiment with your own white balance choices. My ISO was dialed in at 125. This is because of the brightness of the scene. I took 4 exposures and doubled each one 6 seconds, 12 seconds, 18 seconds, and 24 seconds. This captures the passing cars in both directions, giving me nice streaky red and white light trails. It also captures the mist from the rain and the lights on top of the city buildings. There were some challenges with this shot. Even though I use a carbon fibre tripod, the vibration on the bridge were heavy. Remember I was standing in the middle on top of the large median. Every time a bus or SUV passed, I felt it. If I felt it, I know the tripod did too. The other challenge was the lighting. Yes, I metered on a consistent spot, but the found that the highlights from the oncoming cars threw off the camera’s light meter. So this ment when setting my exposures I had to be careful and make sure that I locked my exposure exactly where I wanted it. This got me a few times before I noticed it.

Later on in post processing I merged the photos Nik’s HDR Efex Pro 2. I don’t do anything special in here. I like Nik’s alignment capabilities. With all of the vibrations from the passing vehicles on the bridge, I checked the option to align images. I also like Nik’s preset options, they do a good job a representing the feel of the photo. From there the photo goes into Lightroom 4. Here is where I will bring out the highlights and shadows. I will bump up the contrast and clarity in Lightroom as well. Then I export for my blog or favorite social media outlet. That’s it! That’s how I got the shot.