Night Pictures

[yusia]

Hi all!
This is my very first post in this forum. :blushing:
I am completely new to photography, bought my camera about a month ago.
(Well, we don't count for occasional snapshots, do we?)
So I know that my pictures are far from perfect, but I don't know, what I did wrong. What I could do to get them better?
Both of them were done at f/8, 30 sec, ISO 400, and I don't have a telephoto yet.
Do you mind to give me some feedback?
I am sorry for posting links. I tried to insert imadge, it didn't work for me.

 

[LaFoto]

Hi yusia, and welcome to TPF.
I hope you don't mind if I help you to show your photo directly.
You use Photobucket, so direct linking is no big problem if you go to the THIRD line under your photos, where it says [IMG ]bla-bla-bla.name-of-photo.jpg [/IMG ] and copy THAT into here. Then the photo is automatically linked. If you don't have that, look at the icons above this communication box, one shows a yellow picture with mountains and a sun (?). If you click on that one, another little communication box opens and you can insert your link in there. That automatically wraps the [IMG ]-thingies round your pictures. See?

And in Critique we usually only show ONE photo at a time, it is easier to critique just one. Therefore I only made the first visible for the time being.

And I must say: for a 30 sec exposure, well, quite well. A bit on the red side, but well. But I rather let others give you some serious critique here.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

As LaFoto says - use the tags. I've edited your post and put them in for you.

At this point I say - you should only post one image at a time in here. Multiple posts aren't allowed except when for purposes of comparison. Please remember next time

 

[pursuer]

Welcome to the forum, first off you might want to try a lower ISO for night shots, generally the lower the better. The first shot could definatly use a white balance adjustment or you could have used a cooling filter when you took the shot. Is this film or digital? I like the composition of the first but that orange metal halide lighting is hard on the eyes. It looks like the tripod got bumped on the second shot.

I would try the first shaot again at a lower ISO.

 

[manaheim]

I've tinkered a lot with night shots and they can be very grouchy.

First off, I think the first shot is actually very cool. I expect Freddie to hop out of that image and slash my face off. However, if that's not what you're going for... If you are using a digital camera you may want to either set the white balance to incandescent to avoid the orangy effect, or set it to raw so you can process the image on your own when you are back home.

The second shot looks like you had a tripod shake? Maybe a windy night? Also looked like maybe a tough composition as the trees are a bit distracting IMO and the sky wasn't quite dark (though perhaps that would be a neat effect without the trees... not sure)

 

[yusia]

And I must say: for a 30 sec exposure, well, quite well. A bit on the red side, but well. But I rather let others give you some serious critique here.

Thanks, LaFoto! I, acrually, tried to insert the image through the image icon, but or I did something wrong, or my computer wasn't up to it.
I am so sorry for breaking the rules with the first post!

 

[yusia]

Is this film or digital?

Thank you! It's film, so, I guess, I should work on it in Photoshop (I still have to figure out how ). Lower ISO - like 200? With the same slow shutter speed?

 

[yusia]

I expect Freddie to hop out of that image and slash my face off.

Maybe a windy night?

It was really windy. I didn't think then that it may shake the tripod. Well, I know it know. Thank you, manaheim!

 

[pursuer]

Thank you! It's film, so, I guess, I should work on it in Photoshop (I still have to figure out how ). Lower ISO - like 200? With the same slow shutter speed?

My experience is with digital but from what I understand it should be the same with film, maybe someone could clarify this. The lower the ISO the better when doing night shots like this, I would say try 100 but others use lower. You may need to increase the exposure time but in the end you should get better results.

 

[jadin]

If you're doing landscape night photography (basically anything that doesn't have a moving subject) then as low ISO as possible will produce a cleaner grain-free image. As long as you have a tripod it shouldn't be a problem.

For starters if you have a remote cable use it. If you don't use your camera's timer. This allows the shutter to release without you bumping the camera, which is probably the biggest spoiler of shots like this.

30-second shots are more than you need. I think the longest night shot I've ever kept is about 25 seconds. Try to take shots without a bright streetlight in the actual frame. Usually they will be so bright it over-exposes wherever they are. Try to stand underneath the street light or something like that. Then you get all the light without having it ruin your shot.

Unfortanately the in-camera metering is generally worthless. If your camera has a 'full frame average' metering mode use that. I've found that generally the camera over-exposes night shots by a few stops. So you adjust the shutter a few stops faster than the camera tells you to it should work ok.

Digital is definately easier when it comes to getting the exposure right, simply cause you can adjust on-the-fly. If you have a friend with a digital camera who wants to come with or will loan it to you, use that to figure out the exposure you want, and then set you camera to the settings you like when you shoot your film.

That's all I can think of for now. If you have more specific questions that will help get more specific answers. Have fun!

(there's some examples of night-photography on my website [see sig], although I don't know how they will help you learn anything)