Wien, des Nachts

[Airy]

a.k.a. Vienna by night. Df, Noct, and Zeiss 25/2 (same setup as recently in Tokyo, BTW).

[Airy]

(next ones)

[Airy]

(final batch)

[CS]

A very nice #2 had me expecting the Austrian version of Jack the Ripper to be coming around the corner. From #5 to the last was like being there!

[beryllium10]

First one is very striking.  Looks like carefully drawn graphic art - I really like the narrow range of colours and all the geometry askew. 

Cheers,  John

[Akira]

Love the first batch.  Such a situation is indeed where the Noct shines.  You are doing justice to it.

The images by Noct look so beautiful to me that I could live very well without the 25mm (or any other lenses).   

[Nasos Kosmas]

The images by Noct look so beautiful to me that I could live very well without the 25mm (or any other lenses).   

I just thought of it
The Noct photos are alive

[Erik Lund]

Indeed the Noct has an amazing way of rendering the scene, first image is really a showcase for this and so are many of the other Noct images here!


To pair it up in a series with the Zeiss like here is like blasfemi IMHO sorry! The Zeiss is so contrasty and clinical that it stands out way too much, but ok freedom of choice


I would have pp'ed the Zeiss images to resemble the look from the Noct had it been me.

[Airy]

Right, the Noct + Zeiss pair is not the best match in the world - two different personalities. But the Nikkor 28/2 performance wide open is not as good as I'd wish, and the Sigma 24/1.4 is a bit too heavy on a biz trip.

In order to make a better "series", I could indeed have done some more post-processing. The most I did here was some de-saturation, to avoid the horrible yellow/orange cast. In a few cases (including the first pic), the Noct pictures got a slight contrast increase.

The more fundamental problem however would be the mixing of wide aperture pics with stopped-down pics. No matter the PP, they won't marry. I shoud segregate the f/1.2-f/1.4-f/2.0 pics from those above.

[Erik Lund]

You could use a 35mm AIs f/1.4 it would look very similar to the Noct Nikkor when shot wide open 

[Akira]

In order to make a better "series", I could indeed have done some more post-processing. The most I did here was some de-saturation, to avoid the horrible yellow/orange cast. In a few cases (including the first pic), the Noct pictures got a slight contrast increase.

Interesting trick.  You desaturated the color rather than adjust the color temperature to avoid the orange hue caused by the incandescent street light?  Maybe that would work better under the mixed lighting as well.

[Airy]

Indeed, it is impossible to re-balance a scene that gets flooded by sodium HP bulbs, because the dominant part of the light is nearly monochromatic.
Better go for B&W, or de-saturate the yellows (selectively). With CNX-D, even that is not possible, but some overall de-saturation helps.

Selective de-saturation is also what I use with mixed color LED lights; in most cases, it is to avoid undifferentiated reds that make photos look like Van Dongen paintings.

[Erik Lund]

Yep desaturate the appropriate color works really well for these strange hues of modern lights.


Very fine don PP in the above images with regard to this also.

[Jacques Pochoy]

Great series, getting the mood at night !

[John Geerts]

Yes, lovely. Let the dark winter come