Caotong Water Gate reflection
- f11
- 10s
- 24mm
- 100
- f11
- 10s
- 24mm
- 100
The Caogang City Water Gate is a replica of the original water gate, that was used to deflect and control drinking water from the Caogang river into the suburbs. The bridge spanning across features one main gate with a artificial water curtain and 6 smaller ones. On the top of the bridge resides a building in the classical Chinese style.
The watergate is fantasically illuminated at night, you need to find wait for the colors to change to look the way you like it best.
The watergate is fantasically illuminated at night, you need to find wait for the colors to change to look the way you like it best.
The following equipment was used to produce this image:
Canon EOS R5 (*)
GITZO GT3543XLS (*)
Links with (*) are affiliate links. If you follow those links and make a purchase on the opening website, a small commission fee will be transferred to me. This money is used to keep operating this website and ensure I'm able to create additional content. Thank you so much for your support.
- Shooting
The water gate is a little far out, so it's not the classical Shanghai tourist spot. Expect not too many visitors. Therefore you can walk around and over the bridge to find your favorite position easily. It is also a good spot for taking drone pictures, there are no wires or other obstacles near by, and you get a very different perspective from above. - Subject
I am a big fan of water reflections, so the slow flowing Caogong river is a perfect mirror. I set up the tripd on the east side of the river, shooting towards the north and tried to get as low as possible. The area around the gate is a park with metal guardrails around the river, so you cannot get much closer down without obstructing the view. - Exposure
I arrived 1 hour after sunset at a hazy day, so the sky was already pitch black with not too many details. The reflecting lights from the city gave a little illumination, but I think with better weather conditions it could be even more fascinating
The picture itself was taken with a 10sec exposure. I was satisfied with the smoothness of the reflection so I didn't use an ND filter to go for more. - Editing
I did not need to edit too much in this picture. After straightending the image, I adjusted the white balance to go more into the blues.
I needed to decrease the highlights to make the brighter colors less prominent. I finally added clarity to have the structures pop out more and increase the overall dynamic a little bit, to get the purple color of the LEDs a more vivid look. 
- Finally, the picture needed a little retouching. There were some disturbing reflections in the water I stamped out and I took out the remainder of the lamp pole on the left of the screen. Other than that, the image was left pretty much untouched.