Nightscape At the beach before sunrise

[-ST-]

An hour before sunrise. I added a little grain to accentuate the gritty feel of the sand and the rocky groynes in the foreground. I'd welcome your critiques and suggestions.

• ILCE-1
• Sony FE 50mm F1.2 GM (SEL50F12GM)
• 50.0 mm
• ƒ/1.3
• 1/40 sec
• ISO 10000

Here comes the train 40 minutes before sunrise. It is approaching an overgrown pedestrian overpass.

• ILCE-7M4
• Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II (SEL70200GM2)
• 191.0 mm
• ƒ/2.8
• 1/20 sec
• ISO 25600

 

[Alan Clark]

I like the dramatic lighting in the second shot. I would try to crop it quite severely to eliminate the sky and much of the dark area, so that you only have the tunnel of light, but I don't know how well it will stand up to enlargement.

 

[-ST-]

I like the dramatic lighting in the second shot. I would try to crop it quite severely to eliminate the sky and much of the dark area, so that you only have the tunnel of light, but I don't know how well it will stand up to enlargement.

Hi, Alan,

Thanks for the ideas.

I took these photos with the people who live in the vicinity in mind. I normally like to include the tree line and a bit of the exposed shore at low tide. And while that lends context to the photo, I can see how it also detracts from the central focus.

In the version below, I've eliminated the sky and some of the dark area, as you suggested.

• ILCE-7M4
• Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II (SEL70200GM2)
• 191.0 mm
• ƒ/2.8
• 1/20 sec
• ISO 25600

Here's another shot taken a few moments later. This naturally has less of the sky as the train was moving from right to left.

• ILCE-7M4
• Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II (SEL70200GM2)
• 200.0 mm
• ƒ/2.8
• 1/50 sec
• ISO 25600

And here's a tighter crop.

• ILCE-7M4
• Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II (SEL70200GM2)
• 200.0 mm
• ƒ/2.8
• 1/50 sec
• ISO 25600

What do you think of these?

 

[Alan Clark]

I think the images would benefit from more exposure so that we can see the engine, unless you can squeeze more detail out of it. I don't think it quite works as it is, but it has potential. If you can shoot it again a little closer to sunrise, and get closer, the result could be very good. The exposure of 1/50 could also be increased to maybe 1/8 (especially with a tripod) - a small amount of motion blur would not do any harm.