Night time shooting with floodlights?

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Andrew
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Folks,

I am working this coming weekend demolishing an old Motorway Bridge. The work is likely to present quite a few photo opportunities for me, but I was concerned about the best approach whilst working at night under surrounding floodlighting?

Are there any techniques, or things I should be aware of for successful shooting under these conditions? I presume I want to try and avoid flare/glare from the lighting rigs, but wanted to make sure there was enough light to get the detail of the activities being undertaken?

Any thoughts or assistance greatly appreciated.

Andy.
 
There is nothing you can do about the lights, apart from cut them out of the image. They are massively bright and will inevitably create flare spots no matter what you do.

Do NOT use a filter of any kind, and use a lens hood. However, it is quite likely that even the best lens hood will not be 100% efficient when fitted to a zoom lens so practise shading the lens - a piece of back card is best, but your hand will be better than nothing.

To see what difference shading makes, find yourself a very bright light (eg security light or car headlight) and position it just outside the image area. Then move the card/hand over so that it casts a shadow over the lens and see what a difference it makes! :eek:
 
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Which bridge is it? Is it the one on the M56 at Bowden?
 
It will be an interesting shoot. Is ALL the light coming from these spots? If it is then they should all be a similar temp so that shouldn't be an issue. Make sure you come back and put a link to the pics :)
 
Looking forward to seeing your shots,keep us posted bud.:thumbs:
 
Thanks for the advice folks, much appreciated. Looks like i will need to try and use the available light, but tey and keep the floodlight heads out of any shots, unless I want the flare.

Simon, it is indeed the one at Bowdon. I presume you have seen all the works going on recently.

The plan is to get the old bridge down one weekend and wheel the new one we have built in the field into place the next weekend.

The weekend closure that was planned for this weekend was postponed by the client and we understand at present that this will be re-scheduled for a couple of weekends time.
 
Here is a photo I took during the recent bridge deck construction:-



It made it into a works photo competition for corporate literature backgrounds, but would appreciate any C+C you would have.
 
It's under exposed quite a lot, one stop or even two on my monitor. And maybe it would be nice to get it sharp all the way - I notice you used f/14 but maybe f/16 and hyperfocal distance focusing would have pulled it all in. With 1/125sec at ISO100, you have got both shutter speed and ISO in hand.

And I think you should have made something of that guy in the distance - he would look great in the foregound left, maybe with a dash of fill flash which would really make his jacket pop.

Nice composition though :)

Edit: hyperfocal distance is 1.1m at f/16 and 18mm. Giving sharp focus from 0.55m to infinity.
 
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Hi folks, bridge work nearing completion this weekend and I was asked by the MEN to provide some photos for their use.

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1358962_1800_tonne_bridge_moved_into_place_on_m56

The detailed night time shots are mine and the MEN Press tog are the daytime distance ones.

First time I have ever had any of my work published! The joys of being a bridge engineer and having photograhy as a hobby. I got the chance to photograph some my design work being constructed.

Any c & c would be welcome.
 
Edit to above ^

The photos are available on the gallery link on the above page to the upper right of the story.
 
Good result :thumbs:
 
Thanks folks. Looks like other media outlets are also interested in using the photos as well. Lets see where they pop up next.
 
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