Another Nighttime Photo thread

edwin814 · Feb 19, 2013

My first proper attempt. Critiques and comments welcome.

Photos were shot with Nikon D5100 either with 17-55mm f2.8 lens or 24-120 f4 lens

On the "rocket" photo, I can't figure out why there are "spots". Are they just light reflecting on specks of dust on lens or something?

CourtneyCollins · Feb 19, 2013

I love them all, I do find the lights reflecting off the water from the bridge in the first two are kind of distracting to me.. & The lens flare, I believe that's what that is, in photo 3 is a little much! but other than that I find them wonderful!

DorkSterr · Feb 19, 2013

I like it, I think the lights reflecting off the water add to the detail of the photo. It would look really bland without it IMHO.

JeremyD · Feb 19, 2013

I personally love the glare of the lights on the river on long exposed shots at night, its my favourite part of shots like these. I like these shots too, with the shot with "spots" I'm pretty sure its lens flare, I would take the shot with the light behind the rocket, so it outlines the object. 1 and 4 were my favourite of the shots.

bc_steve · Feb 19, 2013

edwin814 said:
On the "rocket" photo, I can't figure out why there are "spots". Are they just light reflecting on specks of dust on lens or something?

dust on the lens or sensor is most visible when you are shooting at a small aperture (looks like you were by how the streetlight looks in that pic)

good time of day in the first pic, it's nice the sky is still blue. it would be nice if those boats weren't there though

eswebster · Feb 19, 2013

The last two are my favorites, nice work.

edwin814 · Feb 19, 2013

Thanks all for your comments. Yeah, that rocket picture was taken at f22.

manaheim · Feb 20, 2013

Looks like you missed focus on a couple, and I'd say to try to bring up your exposures a touch... Just a hair.. On some of them.

Focus in the dark is tough. I usually focus manually, take a test shot, and zoom way in on the preview to make sure I nailed it. If your subject is far away manually focus to infinity.

Also.. F22. Not a great idea. You generally want to be around f8 or so. That's going to get you near to as sharp as possible on most lenses as well as give you some nice star formations in the lights.

If you haven't seen it search for my ultimate night photography thread. Lots of advice there.

edwin814 · Feb 20, 2013

manaheim said:
Looks like you missed focus on a couple, and I'd say to try to bring up your exposures a touch... Just a hair.. On some of them.

Focus in the dark is tough. I usually focus manually, take a test shot, and zoom way in on the preview to make sure I nailed it. If your subject is far away manually focus to infinity.

Also.. F22. Not a great idea. You generally want to be around f8 or so. That's going to get you near to as sharp as possible on most lenses as well as give you some nice star formations in the lights.

If you haven't seen it search for my ultimate night photography thread. Lots of advice there.

Thanks for the comments. Actually only the rocket pic was shot in f22 (shouldn't have left it there), rest were shot in f8. I left the lens in auto focus (M/A) mode, thinking that it would automatically focus to infinity. I'll set it to manual next time to be certain.

I was just reading your thread yesterday; very helpful!

Nikon's live view sucks when shooting at night (at least on D5100)! The screen is so damn dark, worse than looking through the viewfinder:x

Motiv176 · Feb 21, 2013

I think the light reflections are great! Just an idea in shot #5, if you had bracketed another shot to expose the pillars in the water more and blended that in during post processing it would have gave them some great detail and pop for your foreground. Could be awesome hdr shot as well.

PropilotBW · Feb 21, 2013

I like the 5th composition best. Nice work.

edwin814 · Feb 21, 2013

Motiv176 said:
I think the light reflections are great! Just an idea in shot #5, if you had bracketed another shot to expose the pillars in the water more and blended that in during post processing it would have gave them some great detail and pop for your foreground. Could be awesome hdr shot as well.

Thanks for the tip. I'll be sure to try that next time