Powerplant, Railroad Avenue - Mare Island Naval Shipyard

Powerplant, Railroad Avenue - Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Mare Island, Vallejo, California. February 27, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell - all rights reserved.

Night panoramic photograph of the powerplant building and other structures along Railroad Avenue at the historic Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

(larger)

This is a bit of a first for me - a night photography stitched panorama. This image is composed of two separate exposures which were aligned and "stitched" into a single image in post. (As such, it could be a very large print!) Shooting from an elevated position, I shot almost directly north (as you can tell from the star trails in the larger version). The view looks up Railroad Avenue past the iconic power plant building with its smokestack that is visible from all over Mare Island.

I'm usually a bit casual about exposure time with long exposure night photographs. It isn't that I don't care - it is just that one has a ton of leeway when it comes to the very long exposures I typically use. For example, on a 3 minute exposure you would have to be off by three minutes to overexpose by one stop! So rather than use a stopwatch or an automatic timer I just count to myself. I'm usually will within a 10% error, and that is good enough. However, when stitching "good enough" often isn't. The separate component frames really need to be quite similar, so in this case I resorted to using my watch to get relatively accurate 90 second exposures.

Another interesting factor in night photography is illustrated in this photo, namely the wildly varied colors of the light sources we deal with. There are three dominant sources in this image. The overall illumination comes from the full moon, which is quite similar to day light in terms of white balance. On the near wall of the brick power plant there is very "hot" and saturated yellow/red tinted light, probably from sodium vapor lamps. Near the left end of the image is an old wooden building that is illuminated by very green light, which I believe comes from mercury vapor lamps. I often chuckle a bit when people speak of "white balancing" the color in a scene like this. If you pick one source for your white balance you'll throw the others even more out of line. My philosophy is usually to just go with what looks right!

Finally, the idea of making the stitched panorama came from the recently started Panocturnists web site, begun by people connected with The Nocturnes, the San Francisco Bay Area night photography group. I was intrigued by the idea of creating panoramic night photography, and I've done a few images along these lines on my two most recent visits to Mare Island.

(More of my Mare Island photographs)

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:Canon EOS 5D Mark IICanon EF 50mm f/1.4 USMISO 200, f/8, 90 seconds

Taken on: February 27, 2010

Tags:

powerplant

building

railroad

avenue

street

track

asphalt

sky

dark

night

photography

star

trail

color

light

yellow

red

blue

smoke

stack

cyclone

fence

brick

glow

panorama

panocturnes

minsy

san francisco bay area

window

antenna

vallejo

california

usa

north america

mare

island

naval

shipyard

stock

induro

nocturnes100227

panocturnist « less

Sets appears in: • Architecture • Northern California more » • Structures • Street/Urban • Night Photography « less

Groups appears in: • nighthawks • Silicon Valley Photographers more » • Picturing California • SF Bay Area Shooters (sfbas) • Nocturnes - Night Photography • Mare Island • Nocturnes 020307 and beyond • Nocturnes Alumni Mare Island 2007 • CaliforniaPhotoForum.com • Northern California Photographers • Mare Island Nocturnes • California Photographer • California Landscapes and Desert • California Pictorial • California Photo Trekkers • The Panocturnists • Northern California Photography • Bay Area Night Photography • Celebrate California • The Nocturnes « less

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/8.0, 91 sec, 50mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens:	EF50mm f/1.4 USM
Aperture:	f/8.0
Exposure Time:	91
Focal Length:	50mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Unknown (9)
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS4 Macintosh
Show full info

Stats: 3,298 views / 4 comments

Link to this photo view:
Link to this photo large view: