Suggestions for night shot?

[tahmail]

 

[gmarquez]

Perhaps try backing off on the exposure time (currently 117.2 sec) by increasing the ISO (currently 200). Maybe try out 800 ISO for 29 seconds? I like where you are going with the photo, but it seems distractingly noisy.



- gmarquez
www.luxphotographia.com

 

[Trenton Romulox]

Yeah, the noise is also bothering me, maybe cropping out some of the sky too.

 

[LaFoto]

Upping the ISO will definitely increase noise, of course, so going from 200 ISO (GOOD!) to 800 will add a lot more noise to the photo.

I like the blueness of the sky which I assume was already all black to the eye given by this very long bulb exposure, but I feel the vantage point does not really give you an area of town where there is much to look at. And what there is, i.e. the house with this brightly lit turquoise area around it, is just so little... I sit here and wish for "zoom eyes" so I can zoom on on that building and see more...

I don't know the original of this photo and how much cropping it would allow for, but maybe a tighter crop could serve as non-existing "zoom eyes"? That might also help to get rid of the very black lower righthand corner. Maybe?

For exposure seems ok on that big house and its turquoise surroundings, but the rest of the town is still way too dark.

 

[gmarquez]

LaFoto, do you know what the tradeoff in noise is for higher ISO vs. higher exposure times? I had thought that longer exposure times also introduce noise, and that finding the minimum amount of noise on long exposures is a balancing act between ISO sensitivity and exposure time. I'm new to digital photography, so please excuse me if my understanding is not correct. Thanks!

 

[tahmail]

Some good comments here - I'll be interested to see the reply on ISO vs exposure time - great question. Here is a cropped version as suggested above. It does help to get rid of some of the bland space left and right of the office building near the bottom of the shot.

 

[xfloggingkylex]

your second picture is much better because you used a larger aperture (f/11 as oppssed to your first one with f/20) this meant shorter shutter speeds and therefore less noise. Also you dont need a small aperture for shots like these because you just focus the lens to infinity and you are set. of course some stops above wide open give excellent clarity.

 

[gmarquez]

xfloggingkylex, I believe that you are correct about the f-stop...I had forgotten to look at what his/her setting was, and "opening up" would be a better bet than dialing up the ISO. Tahmail is shoot on a Nikon D80, and those tend to do well on high ISOs; however, why risk the noise when you can get more light in by opening up the aperture, right?