Downtown Dallas at Night

MikkiStreak · Jul 7, 2008

I live in a place where Satan would ask for an air conditioner. Between May and October, I become very nocturnal. I prefer to venture out in the middle of the night when it cools off to about 80 degrees or so.

I went to college for photography back in the early 90's and learned during the film age. After college, I detoured into the dot com technology explosion, and put the camera down. (bad move, on my part) I just picked it back up almost one year ago and am trying to redevelop my eye, refresh the technical foundation I learned in college, and figure out what direction I want to take this passion that never went away.

I would love comments/input of any and all nature. At the bottom of the photos, I've included some questions you can use as a guide, if you feel inclined to comment.... Many times when I'm considering an image for the purpose of a critique, I'm at a loss for how to conduct the evaluation.

Thanks for viewing!

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#1: San Jacinto Street
I actually was shooting a Baptist church across the street from this parking garage, but the security guard wasn't too happy with that idea. So I swung the camera around, adjusted the tripod angle, and went with this shot instead.

#2: Modern Advertising
This was hanging from the side of a business building (about 10 stories tall).

#3: World Aquarium & The West End

#4: Methodist Church

Questions to Consider:
A) What does your eye see first? What do you think was the intended 'subject' in the image?

B) Is the use of color appropriate? Does the use of color enhance the image, or would it have been better to use B&W, selective color, or alternative processing methods (infrared, etc...)?

C) Is the photo properly exposed? Are the shadows, highlights and midtones properly exposed?

D) Is the image in focus? Is depth of field appropriate? Are there distracting objects in the image that would have been better if a shallower depth of field were used?

E) Overall, what could use improvement? What do you think was done well in the image?

Yemme · Jul 7, 2008

Hi, I'm a beginner so I can't answer your questions. I love architectural photography though and wanted to say I like your images… I really love number 1 and 3, number 3 looks fantastic with the cars cut off at the bottom. With it cut off though you loose that nice curvature you have. The church is also beautiful.

Senor Hound · Jul 7, 2008

Your shots are pretty. There was always this one really intriguing building that caught my eye as my family would drive through Dallas on our way to Austin. I don't know what it was, but I always would have them wake me up so I could stare at it as they maneuvered through town at 2 a.m.

It could be worse than Dallas. I've never been there, but I hear places like Houston and New Orleans are sometimes 90+ degrees with a heat index of 105 on some days. And dry heat is almost always better than that humid, right-on-the-gulf stuff.

LaFoto · Jul 7, 2008

OK, one immediate thought on the first photo considering your question A).
My eye first sees that the one building would have a "tip", something that disappears to the outside of your frame, while on the other hand there is a lot of empty street to be seen at the bottom. And I feel a desire building up inside me that says "Oh, why wasn't the camera raised just so much more that this tip were included?"

Other than that: fascinating nighttime photography, the green-lined building seems to be a total Dallas landmark, my daughter (who drew a two-point perspective of downtown Dallas for art_class) was fascinated by that building, too! For in order to get her drawing right, she also looked at other photos of downtown Dallas, of course.

With regards to choice of f-stop (small aperture giving you starlike light sources!) you did well. The presence of the well-lit superlarge advertisement in 2 tricked exposure into being a little dark on the other buildings (such as the green-lined one), but they are not too dark to be considered "wrongly exposed", I think.

The sky in the last makes me wonder: is it real or was it added later? Though I tend to believe it was there as is shown.

And to add to all my ramblings, here's a Welcome to ThePhotoForum! Good to see that you have rediscovered your all-time passion!

ernie · Jul 7, 2008

about color in your images: i find (that's just me, not a general photography-rule) that color does help a nighttime photo. i always try to get lots of lights in a nighttime street picture, wether it be street lights or office buildings, whatever. then add some saturation and mess with colors a bit in PS afterwards. can really make a picture pop.
that doesn't mean that an occasional nighttime photo can't be pretty in b&w though.
as for for daytime street-photos, i have found that black & white works best. don't know why but for some reason i find concrete, buildings and city architecture best portraited in b&w if you shoot during the day.

rjackjames · Jul 7, 2008

Stunning pictures from Dallas, I live 3hrs south from Dallas maybe i get to take some shots when I return.

MikkiStreak · Jul 10, 2008

Yemme said:
Hi, I'm a beginner so I can't answer your questions. I love architectural photography though and wanted to say I like your images I really love number 1 and 3, number 3 looks fantastic with the cars cut off at the bottom. With it cut off though you loose that nice curvature you have. The church is also beautiful.

Senor Hound said:
Your shots are pretty. There was always this one really intriguing building that caught my eye as my family would drive through Dallas on our way to Austin. I don't know what it was, but I always would have them wake me up so I could stare at it as they maneuvered through town at 2 a.m.

It could be worse than Dallas. I've never been there, but I hear places like Houston and New Orleans are sometimes 90+ degrees with a heat index of 105 on some days. And dry heat is almost always better than that humid, right-on-the-gulf stuff.

Thank you both! And even tho Dallas sucks for temps this time of year- it definitely is better than Houston. I grew up with that kind of humidity where, even at 3:00am, I'd be dripping sweat if I set foot outside.... *shudder* So glad it's drier up here (even tho it means flat with not much landscape)...

LaFoto said:
OK, one immediate thought on the first photo considering your question A).
My eye first sees that the one building would have a "tip", something that disappears to the outside of your frame, while on the other hand there is a lot of empty street to be seen at the bottom. And I feel a desire building up inside me that says "Oh, why wasn't the camera raised just so much more that this tip were included?"

Other than that: fascinating nighttime photography, the green-lined building seems to be a total Dallas landmark, my daughter (who drew a two-point perspective of downtown Dallas for art_class) was fascinated by that building, too! For in order to get her drawing right, she also looked at other photos of downtown Dallas, of course.

With regards to choice of f-stop (small aperture giving you starlike light sources!) you did well. The presence of the well-lit superlarge advertisement in 2 tricked exposure into being a little dark on the other buildings (such as the green-lined one), but they are not too dark to be considered "wrongly exposed", I think.

The sky in the last makes me wonder: is it real or was it added later? Though I tend to believe it was there as is shown.

And to add to all my ramblings, here's a Welcome to ThePhotoForum! Good to see that you have rediscovered your all-time passion!

Thanks! Your daughter did an excellent job with her drawing! I showed it to my husband and both of us could pinpoint where we would have to stand downtown, in order to have the view she represented (Victory Park/American Airlines Center area). We even recognized the buildings she drew because they were very accurately depicted...

And, yes, the sky was real. There had been a storm earlier in the evening, and some of the storm clouds were still hovering over downtown. I thought it was unusual to see that shade of red in the sky too, and was glad it came out very realistic...

ernie said:
about color in your images: i find (that's just me, not a general photography-rule) that color does help a nighttime photo. i always try to get lots of lights in a nighttime street picture, wether it be street lights or office buildings, whatever. then add some saturation and mess with colors a bit in PS afterwards. can really make a picture pop.
that doesn't mean that an occasional nighttime photo can't be pretty in b&w though.
as for for daytime street-photos, i have found that black & white works best. don't know why but for some reason i find concrete, buildings and city architecture best portraited in b&w if you shoot during the day.

I agree.... I spent a lot of time in college shooting in B&W, and really have just started getting more interested in color and am developing a better sense of what works/doesn't work with colors...