I've gotten a lot of interest in this series over the last month and three people from Philly Blog have shown interest in this photo. This series are in editions of 45 and since they are not represented by a gallery I'm not limited to sizes. They start at 8" x 8" and most will enlarge to 20" x 20" and some to 24" x 24". 15" x 15" seems to be the most popular size most likely because proper framing gets very expensive as the size goes up.

www.michaelpennphotography.com

I just did this one tonight for someone.

I'm surprised nobody has said anything yet about these photos yet... So I will!

I really like the first one a lot! The overcast sky really looks neat. The usually undesirable orange color from the street lighting makes the mood. Totally different feel than during the day; props for using the color to your advantage!

I hate fighting the yellow-orange color cast from the street lamps. I've been thinking of helping my DSLR out with an 80A filter (as opposed to fighting it in a graphics editing program). What do you think, is that a crazy idea? Would it just make everything look brown?

I've been meaning to take photos of that awesome looking old power plant for ages, but simply haven't gotten around to it. I will do it, though!

Thanks for posting these...

Thanks ContraB.

If you set the white balance in you camera to "Tungsten" most of the orange glow will be neutralized.

Sorry, I should've mentioned I already tried that. The colors are still just predominantly orange.

(Just for reference, I'm no pro; but I'm well past leaving my camera on "fully automatic". I'm comfortable taking properly exposed shots on my fully manual Pentax K1000, for example.)

Maybe I'd be better off setting a custom white balance with a white or gray card under that light. Save it, and just call up the custom balance in the future? It would be best of all if Canon added a built-in WB for that extremely common lighting situation.

Or, I could quit fighting it and use it to my advantage, as you did.

Cool refinery shot! I really like taking night and low-light photography. The colors are so different. Digital sure makes it easier, with no reciprocity failure to deal with. (Of course, then you get noise... That's an easy trade-off to accept, in my experience.)

Keep 'em coming!

Sometimes the orange can help and sometimes it can hurt. A photographer friend of mine in NYC has been doing night shots of the city in color for the last year and a half. Check them out, they are under " Conluence New York"

http://www.robertvizzini.com/main.php

You didn't mention what brand of DSLR you're using. If you're shooting with Nikon gear, you may want to try shooting in RAW format (Nikon . NEF) and tweaking the white balance. For Nikon shooters, you can download a free 30-day trial of Capture NX from their website to see if it works for you. You may want to hold off on installing it until you have suitable photos to work with. The trial starts immediately on installation, not when you first use the application.

Most of the time I kind of like the orange color cast. Sure there are times when it's just not appropriate, but it often works for city street scenes, especially since we're used to seeing it for so many years since the city installed the sodium vapor street lamps.

BTW: I agree that the refinery shot is excellent Mike. Great color and light, and the vapor trails give it a great look too.

__________________
Brian B

I have a Canon DSLR. I do shoot RAW under certain circumstances (usually when there's weird lighting, like low-light). I've found that the orange color cast from the sodium vapor lamps is difficult to deal with.

I think I mostly need to acknowledge that it isn't the same look as what you get with, say, moonlight and quit fighting it. Or, shoot fast B&W film with a tripod to get a totally different look altogether. (As I did the other night... A different thing altogether...)