Tony Sweet (tonysweet.com) is a professional photographer, author, lecturer, and workshop instructor living in Eldersburg, Maryland. He and Susan Milestone own and operate Visual Artistry Photography Workshops, teaching throughout the US and Canada. Tony's photography is published worldwide in every medium and is represented by Getty Images. His iPhone photography is represented by Aurora Photos. Tony has authored five books on the art of photography, including Fine Art Flower Photography (2005).
Tony: "This is one of my favorite NYC images and was completely spontaneous."
"After we photographed the more traditional Times Square shots (marquees, panning cabs, etc.), we were crossing the street onto the median in front of Father Duffy Park (the red steps). The red light bathing the scene immediately caught my attention right before noticing all of the red tables and chairs."
"First, I walked around to find a good foreground table/chairs, but without people. I also wanted to get a strong perspective for the composition. To avoid people beginning to leave and/or turning away, I set up the 14-24mm facing the opposite direction. I then swung the camera around, quickly recomposed, and shot a five image HDR series. I wasn’t really worrying about any of the people moving, as I thought it would add a sense of movement and visual urgency (notice the blurred vehicles on the right and left sides of the frame). For processing, I merged the five images in Nik’s HDR Efex Pro, then touched up using Viveza to tone down the bright marquees and Color Efex Pro/tonal contrast to enhance detail. The final result reminded me of a scene out of the movie Bladerunner."
TONY'S EQUIPMENT FOR THE SHOT
Camera: Nikon D3X camera
Lens: Nikkor 14-24 mm
Settings: ISO 400, f/16, 30 seconds
Other: Nik HDR Efex Pro, Viveza, Color Efex Pro
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