Wet Is Good

The cityscape comes alive when the roads are wet and reflective. Most cameras can take a little drizzle and it is the best time for night photography. You can take shelter but some raindrops will still get onto your glass when you point it upwards. Use a UV filter and stand by a tissue or cloth to dab at intervals.

During the rain tonight, I chose the Panasonic 7-14mm lens so as to take in the Twin Towers from close range. The ultrawide lens has a very big front element and no filter thread. As such, I didn’t want to wipe the bare glass as much. I just worked the droplets into the scene for added realism.

Wet Is Good

Single Lens

I was in Chinatown earlier tonight and had only one lens with me. If you are to take only one fixed-focal lens (non-zoom), which will it be? It is a personal choice but I like the 50 mm (25mm in m43). It is neither too wide or too tight and as such is great for street use. Because it is a bright f1.4, the lighted signboards provided sufficient illumination and speed was a manageable 1/60th of a second, even at ISO 200.

Only limitation is the narrow plane of focus and you have to decide which you want to keep in sharp focus. Here, I focused on the lady. Pana-Leica Summilux paired with the Olympus OMD make a perfect night street photography combo.

Single Lens