Insomnia 4/1/11

    The light that envelops the world at night is a thing of beauty in itself. When you add clouds and rain, the additional diffusion and texture that occurs only enhances the dream-like setting. On a rainy night most people are indoors. However, over the past few weeks I've found that rainy nights are just another opportunity to be seized.
    The following long exposure images vary in shutter speed from 30 seconds, to 5 minutes 30 seconds. Consequently, you face many problems at such long shutter speeds. The first problem is noise. Nikon has a noise-reduction setting on their cameras that works well, but elongates your already lengthy shutter speed. The noise reduction software in Adobe Photoshop's Camera Raw, seems to works the best.
    The second problem you encounter is focusing. In such low light, even a 57-point auto-focus cannot function properly. I've added a high powered flashlight to my camera bag because the iPhone flash light app is only properly suited for finding your keys.
    Exposure is the third problem you will face when using long shutter speeds in low light. The light meter I have is a Sekonic L-758 dr. It is a wonderful product, but I have had a few situations where it is incapable of taking a reading. In those situations I was left to trial and error.
    The following images all have multiple lighting elements, some that are situational and some that I added. I worked with off camera flash, and also painting with light to create the mood and feeling of insomnia.