Neon Lights


This post is by Platypod Ultra user Joe Pellicone

I had been noticing the beautiful neon colors of some diners for years. I kept saying to myself one of these days I’m going to stop and shoot photos of them. I mentioned this to a friend and she encouraged me to just go and do it so I did.



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I started the Neon at Night project in the fall of 2018. Since then I have accumulated over 125 diners and other brightly lit buildings located on Long Island and in New York City. The collection started with diners and now includes gas stations, banks, a fire house, a bowling alley, a super market, movie theater, some eating establishments and even a hardware store.



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The challenge for me was to take something that we see daily and really don’t give a second thought to, and create art from it.

When I started off with this project I encountered some problems. Things like excessive numbers of cars in the way because I chose a weekend rather than a weekday to shoot. I arrived at some diners after closing and their lights were off. So I created a list of diners that I wanted to photograph by doing a Google search and looking at street view to see if they look nice. I then created a spread sheet with names, addresses, hours of operation and more to help figure the best times to arrive. I used Mapquest to create the most efficient routes.



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I did my first diners with a tripod and quickly learned that it took too long to set up at each location. I had several encounters with diner employees or owners who came out while I was opening and placing my tripod. Some challenged me and me and questioned why I was taking photos. One was angry and threatened to call the police. I didn’t want to deal with the confrontation, I determined that I needed to shorten my setup time so I could be in and out quickly. One thing that helped me with that was ditching the tripod and switching to a Platypod Ultra.



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Using the Platypod, turned out to be beneficial in several ways:

1: - Before I leave my house I mount my camera on the Platypod. I adjust my cameras settings so I am ready to shoot. I place the entire assembled rig on my passenger seat.

2: - When arriving at my shoot location I park the car jump out and place the Platypod on the ground to take the photos. There is no set up time required and Im not fiddling with a tripod at each stop. I get my shots fast and I’m gone before anyone realises.

3: - Placing the rig on the ground adds an unusual perspective to my photos which I believe is an extra added bonus. Shooting low down gives the focus to the buildings, flattening out the ground in front of them and giving them a ‘hero’ look.

The look is achieved by shooting in Aperture Priority at F22 and ISO 100. It provides me with starbursts on lights and gives a nice clear photo. These usually end up as long exposures running from 5 seconds to a minute.



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Post processing is started in Lightroom where clarity and saturation are pumped up. Then over to Photoshop where Stars and sometimes a Moon are added. Then back into Lightroom for some final tweaks. Some images are then run through Topaz Studios “Basic Adjustment Filter” for some extra pop.

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