Pro photographer Drew Hopper explains how he captured this postcard-perfect picture of Sydney at twilight.
Visiting Sydney last year I took a walk up to Observatory Hill with my camera. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect for this shot. Twilight was setting in and the blue light over the Sydney Harbour Bridge combined with the coloured lines of the cars below to create a romantic view of this iconic city. Romance was certainly in the air as I witnessed four couples getting their wedding photos taken from this lookout while I was there. Who could blame them? It’s a stunning backdrop.
The shot was taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mk II with a Canon 24-70 f/2.8L series lens. I used an aperture of f/14 for maximum depth of field, an ISO of 100 for minimal noise, and a a long shutter speed of 45 seconds to capture the movement of the cars on the street. This was the first time I’d used the 24-70mm lens since I bought it. I would normally have used my ultra-wide-angle lens, however the zoom on my wide angle wasn’t quite long enough to eliminate the fence in the bottom of the frame. Zooming in enabled me to get rid of this distraction and focus on the important details in the street.
Not a great deal of post-production was done to this image. Shooting RAW gave me the freedom to get the white balance right later on in my editing workflow. I sometimes get lucky and what was captured on camera was true to my vision and the scene I witnessed this evening. The main adjustments I made were to contrast and saturation to give the image more life. Not that it needed more life, it’s just an issue of personal taste more than anything else.
Shooting from this perspective gave me a fresh view of an inspiring city. People say, ‘nowhere is the contrast between old and new more visible than in Sydney', and I think that’s evident in this photo, which showcases the architecture that makes Sydney one of the world’s most iconic cities.
CANON EOS 5D MK II, CANON 24-70MM F/2.8L, F/14 @ 45S, ISO 100, TRIPOD, CABLE RELEASE.
Photo by Drew Hopper.
Article first published in Australian Photography + digital, May 2013.
