Enchanted Tiki Room Blue Hour – Anaheim, California

I have one more of the Enchanted Tiki Room, which I talked about a week ago. Here, we get a better view of the architecture, with the glow of lights adding some drama. I called this a blue hour shot, but I’m actually lying. I took this several hours later. But, the deep blue sky does a good impersonation.

In the olden days, a picture like this would’ve required HDR, the blending of multiple exposures to capture the dynamic range. But, with the improvement of camera and post-processing technology, the technique is rarely needed. This is great because a tripod and extra time were needed for HDR.

I made this picture with the Fujifilm X-T10 and shot at 1/4 of a second handheld. Even at ISO 1250, the noise is well-controlled, despite the extensive post-processing. There must have been extra light in the night sky, and along with the processing, it brought out the remnants of the remaining blue. Usually, by this time, the sky would appear black. The blue and the boosted color give a rich but still natural appearance. Most likely superior to the results from HDR.

Note: I just sent out my April Newsletter an hour ago. I talked about my new creative experiment, in addition to many things I don’t cover on the blog. Signup for the free Newsletter to get next month’s issue.