Edinburgh at Night

I recently spent the weekend in Edinburgh staying with my son who is also into photography.  We had been planning to indulge in some night photography around the city and, as it was the Christmas Market and Fair, it seemed  a good opportunity.  All of the images were taken using a tripod, mirror lock up and electronic release.

I took this image just about Grassmarket at sunset.  I deliberately exposed for the sky to show the rich colours and also to reduce the buildings to a silhouette.

The castle.  I exposed for the castle and then, in Lightroom 4, used an ND Grad to bring out some detail in the shy but used the shadows slider to recover a little detail in the foreground.

I liked the contrast in temperature here with the cool colours of the floodlit castle contrasting with the warm lighting on the fountain in the foreground.

A sunset shot of Victoria Street above Grassmarket.  Here I took 3 images exposing for sky, shadows and midtones and then blended them in post processing.

Again I liked the contrast between cool and warm colours.  The window of opportunity to get the deep blue in the sky at twilight was about 10 minutes.

Another image taken at the same location as above.  Here I converted it to monochrome and then sepia toned it and added a little grain.

Light trails from traffic in Victoria Street.

Again another image at the same location converted to black and white and sepia toned in Lightroom.

Christmas in Princess Street Gardens.  Perhaps a little distant and too many black areas.

I zoomed in somewhat to concentrate on the action.  I had to time the shot carefully to catch the decisive moment when the carousel and big wheel were both stationary.

A fun shot zooming during the exposure.

The casltle from Calton Hill.

Princess Street from Calton Hill.  This time I opted to expose while the big wheel was truning to poduce a circle of light.