Portland by night

[Scrumhalf]

Portland, Oregon skyline from across the Willamette River last night, about an hour after sunset.

I love photographing cityscapes in the blue hour, just before sunrise or just after sunset!

[Bouncer]

beautiful. how much post processing is that? that can't just be a natural pic?

[Scrumhalf]

No post processing, except for tweaking brightness, adjusting contrast, etc. It is a totally natural picture. Single exposure, no blending multiple exposures, etc.

[Bouncer]

No post processing, except for tweaking brightness, adjusting contrast, etc. It is a totally natural picture. Single exposure, no blending multiple exposures, etc.

the water has that smooth effect i see in pics that looks amazing but I feel like it's not how it looks to the eye if i was actually there.

know what i mean? what is that smooth effect I'm seeing?

[Scrumhalf]

It's because it is a 30-second exposure. It smooths out the ripples and gives it that smooth look. You have to obviously stick the camera on a tripod. I also take precautions to make sure the camera doesn't wobble by choosing a 10-second shutter delay after I press the button, to allow the vibrations from my finger to die down. But mainly, it is the long exposure that does the trick.

[Scrumhalf]

You can also do the same thing during the daytime. There are filters you can get that basically cuts out the light by a factor of up to a 1000. So, a normal 1/100 second exposure in sunlight becomes a 10 second exposure. This can give interesting effects, especially with water.

Here is a photo I took a few years ago of a beach in India. Same idea - the long exposure, 4 seconds int this case, smoothed out the waves and gave the photo a different feel.

[Bouncer]

ahh i get it. yea i never understood why every water picture on like a 4k wallpaper site the water looks nice but unnatural to my eye.