Advice Needed on this picture please!

[Lonnie1212]

Hi Folks,

I took this picture early this morning. It was taken from my apartment window. Normally the city lights are vibrant and appealing at night. But there is something dull and lifeless about this picture. I have taken some awesome and breathtaking cityscape pictures with other lenses. But this time something is different. The picture seems to lack the burst of life. There is something different about this lens. The picture was taken with a Nikon D750 with the 105mm F/2 DC lens. I would say it is a sharp and clear picture. But the color is not jumping out. The picture bores me. Cityscape pictures taken at night should not bore people. Any opinions? Could it just be the lens? I don't have this problem with other lenses, especially the 18-35mm Nikon lens. Two pictures attached.

Thank you,

Lonnie

 

[AlanKlein]

Can you post a similar picture taken with a different lens that jumps out? The second picture seems blurry apparently from hand holding or too low shutter speed. The lettering isn't sharp. Maybe that's part of the problem with the first shot.

 

[Hardus Nameous]

Could it be the sky is overcast rather than seeing stars?

 

[RAZKY]

I don't believe the the problem is with the equipment or lighting.

 

[480sparky]

Could it be the sky is overcast rather than seeing stars?

I doubt you would be able to record stars.

 

[Lonnie1212]

I would like to thank everyone for their input. I asked for advice and I got good responses. After having looking at another photo taken in the general area, I have determined that I need more experience with the 105mm F/2 lens. Upon your advice I uploaded another picture taken with a 50mm 1.8 G lens. I will practice more with the lens.

Thanks again,

Lonnie

 

[SquarePeg]

Night photos are too contrasty if you’ve got city lights and full dark or overcast sky. Blue hour is best.

 

[Lonnie1212]

Night photos are too contrasty if you’ve got city lights and full dark or overcast sky. Blue hour is best.

Thank you for your input Square Peg. It is good to hear from everyone.

 

[smoke665]

took this picture early this morning. It was taken from my apartment window.

Since you profile is marked not okay to edit, I won't post the results, but I did download and look at it in LR. You have a few things going on here, that are easily corrected post. First you say you took the shot early in the morning from a window. Shooting through a window, it looks like you might have picked up some contamination from the window itself, (fog, dirt, etc.). There was a haze in in the image that was easily corrected with the dehaze slider. 2nd in looking at the histogram, there's a lot of information in shadow areas, but very little in the midtones and up. Increasing the exposure by ,94 brought out more of the midtone data, and decreasing the highlight slider kept the image from blowing. 3rd the white point and black point needed to be set. 4th there was probable a little camera movement with a 1/40th shutter speed. Sharpening with a mask helped. 5th the high ISO and lack of exposure contributed to noise, which was easy to clean up post.

 

[Lonnie1212]

Since you profile is marked not okay to edit, I won't post the results, but I did download and look at it in LR. You have a few things going on here, that are easily corrected post. First you say you took the shot early in the morning from a window. Shooting through a window, it looks like you might have picked up some contamination from the window itself, (fog, dirt, etc.). There was a haze in in the image that was easily corrected with the dehaze slider. 2nd in looking at the histogram, there's a lot of information in shadow areas, but very little in the midtones and up. Increasing the exposure by ,94 brought out more of the midtone data, and decreasing the highlight slider kept the image from blowing. 3rd the white point and black point needed to be set. 4th there was probable a little camera movement with a 1/40th shutter speed. Sharpening with a mask helped. 5th the high ISO and lack of exposure contributed to noise, which was easy to clean up post.

Thank you very much.