My first night shot! Please C&C

[clee27]

 

[Rachelsne]

nice, however for future composition I would personally choose a skyline with no trees as it looks like empty black space, apart from that nice pic!

 

[clee27]

nice, however for future composition I would personally choose a skyline with no trees as it looks like empty black space, apart from that nice pic!

awww yeah i didn't really have a choice....only place i could go on top of was the top of my buildings parking garage =*( thanks though!

 

[manaheim]

ooo... night shots! My favorite!

It's a little hard to tell from this smaller resolution. Can you give me a section of 100% crop or post like 1/2 of the image on a larger size so I can see better?

One tip- brighten it up. You want to see some of the detail on the buildings. Ideally you would like to be able to make out the actual buildings themselves- dark, but visible- without over-brightening the sky.

Also, it looks like you did F22... going for the star effect I assume? However, for most lenses you can get that effect even around F9-11, and the more open your lens the clearer your picture (to a certain extent- this also varies from lens to lens)

Looks like a neat skyline, though! Thanks for posting. Night shots are my little addiction, so I'm always excited to see these.

 

[clee27]

ooo... night shots! My favorite!

It's a little hard to tell from this smaller resolution. Can you give me a section of 100% crop or post like 1/2 of the image on a larger size so I can see better?

One tip- brighten it up. You want to see some of the detail on the buildings. Ideally you would like to be able to make out the actual buildings themselves- dark, but visible- without over-brightening the sky.

Also, it looks like you did F22... going for the star effect I assume? However, for most lenses you can get that effect even around F9-11, and the more open your lens the clearer your picture (to a certain extent- this also varies from lens to lens)

Looks like a neat skyline, though! Thanks for posting. Night shots are my little addiction, so I'm always excited to see these.

awww thanks for the comments!!! makes me even more excited to try again tonight! the one problem i had was i didn't know whether or not to do it at f9-11 then i couldn't see or like i didn't know how long i should expose it....as for the size and resolution of the picture i did upload the full size but stupid photobucket won't let me do high rez and it keeps shrinking my file size I don't really know how to upload the picture in higher rez =*(

well all i really wanted was crisp little light balls on the buildings....i don't think i could get stars...my lens might not be able to do that lolol

if you have any ideas on where to upload the bigger size picture or any more tips i'd love to hear em!

 

[manaheim]

awww thanks for the comments!!! makes me even more excited to try again tonight! the one problem i had was i didn't know whether or not to do it at f9-11 then i couldn't see or like i didn't know how long i should expose it....as for the size and resolution of the picture i did upload the full size but stupid photobucket won't let me do high rez and it keeps shrinking my file size I don't really know how to upload the picture in higher rez =*(

well all i really wanted was crisp little light balls on the buildings....i don't think i could get stars...my lens might not be able to do that lolol

if you have any ideas on where to upload the bigger size picture or any more tips i'd love to hear em!

Hey, happy to help. Night photography is one of my favorite things. I recently noticed that like 7 of my 12 favorite pics are all night shots.

On the exposure times... you should be able to use your light meter to give you a sense of exposure, but in general I find I have to overexpose it (as far as what the meter is saying). It's a bit hard to tell... bracket like crazy, but err on the side of over-exposure. Again, remember you want to be able to SEE those buildings. You can always tweak it later to get the sky more black and such.

Generally I find I'm varying my exposures between 15s and 45s. My sweet spot seems to be 30s at F11/13. Again... bracket! Easier than going back.

It's a VERY good idea to take night shots in RAW... this gives you a lot of flexibility in color and exposure management.

On the stars... most lenses will give you SOME kind of stars. How nice they are varies a lot depending on your lens. My Sigma 10-20 gives these beautiful sharp 6 pointers.

Also, a buddy of mine recently discovered that his UV filter was causing issues with his nighttime exposures... no stars, kinda fuzzy. Dunno. Was really odd. I haven't confirmed this and I have NO issue with my UV filter, but who knows... just something to keep in the back of your head.

By the way, if you're interested you can see a number of my nighttime shots in this thread:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=135723

Good luck and be sure to post up your new shots so we can see 'em!

 

[ShakeyBlakey]

Its a little dark for me, but I'm sure theres a beautiful photograph in there. try different shutter speeds(longer exposure) and aperture settings, looking forward to seeing your next installment