Chain Bridge, Budapest, Hungary, Another View

Budapest Chain BridgeThe vistas of the Danube in Budapest are listed as a Unesco World Heritage site, and who am I to argue? Kris and I spent hours walking though old Pest (and also got over to the Buda side for various attractions) and never got tired of looking at the river and its sights. It's a beautiful city, especially as the sun sets and the lights come on. Here's another view taken five days earlier, from the south. This is from the north.

I took this picture by setting the Nikon D800E on top of my gloves on a capstan on the river bank. (I've got to stop being so lazy and carry my tripod.) But, sometimes you have to improvise, no? Made a two second exposure at f/5.6, ISO 100, which smoothed the surface of the water beautifully. I increased the clarity and the contrast a bit, and lightened the sky just a hair to show the evening star, Venus, above the National Gallery on the hill. I then imported the image into Silver Efex 2 into the High Structure Smooth preset. From there, all I did was lower the color temp to -2, just to make it seem a bit colder. It was cold, btw. By this time, about -4 C.

And because I think the color version was nice, here it is, too.

Budapest Chain Bridge Color

For more info about the equipment and software I use, see this page.



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8 thoughts on “Chain Bridge, Budapest, Hungary, Another View”

    • Yes, Corinne. It was a two second exposure, which is about right here, I think. I was just guessing, and it was so cold with the wind rushing down the river that I didn’t feel like making too many exposures because my hands were about frozen.

      Reply
  1. Absolutely beautiful! Postcard-perfect!!!

    You’re killing me! I have a friend living in Budapest and you’re making me want to GO!

    Reply
    • Yes, there are some times when I wish I had a flip out screen. But the D800 does have a mode that allows you to put the image on the rear screen instead of looking through the viewfinder. In fact, I used that here because the camera was set on a capstan at about shin level and getting down on the ground to look through the viewfinder was a pain. This instance was actually when I wish I could take off the prism head, like on old Nikon F cameras, and look directly down on the ground glass.

      Reply
  2. Beautiful photo! Way better than the ones I took with my iPhone, which was in the throes of a nervous breakdown. Fortunately, it held up for the entire trip.

    Reply
    • Don’t diss the iPhone. I’ve taken a lot of nice photos with mine. This one would have been hard though, because I intentionally used a long shutter speed. Sometimes you just need all the control a DSLR will give you.

      Reply

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