Night photos C&C

[DARK505]

Hey all recently got a D3000 and have been playing with settings trying to figure it out, have mainly taken pics of sunsets, my son and random backyard pics... Please let me know what you think and any suggestions to improve. thanks

 

[RobNZ]

Woah you must have been stoked to get that lightning shot!!!

Composition wise I am not sure the having the ground in the shot is adding to it as there is too much empty space from the lightning to the ground, so I would crop it tighter on the lightning itself which is the star of the show. The ground adds little to the shot in this case IMO.

The other one I found to be of interest is the one with the pond, but it has some blown out areas and looks to be a bit soft or slightly OOF and my guess is the whitebalance is off as well, but the patterns are cool. So the idea is good, just need the practice, reshoot is the best way if you can.


2, 3 and 4 seem fairly soft as well, camera shake and or out of focus perhaps, long exposures demand 100% camera stability, I always use mirror lock up for those and also remote release or timer to ensure the camera does not move at all.

No1 is a keeper in my books, the rest not so.

 

[DARK505]

Thank you for your feedback, greatly appreciated. As far as the shots being out of focus what i noticed was the clouds were moving so the clouds are a bit fuzzy. they were night shots and it seems with the distance between objects i wasnt able to be focused on everything, so 3 and 4 for example the house or the tree was what i used as a focus point, behind that may be a little out out of focus due to the distance...?

Yes i was very stoked with the lightening shot, ive been waiting months for a lightening storm, this was the first good one since i got the camera several months ago. I deleted probably 20+ shots where the lightening wasnt in focus

 

[JClishe]

I really like the sky in pics 2 and 3, did you do anything in PP to get that effect or is this straight out of the camera? Overall I don't really care for those 2 pics as I'm not sure what the subject is supposed to be, but the sky is great. The 3rd could have been better if the barn and fence weren't in the foreground.

 

[DARK505]

Thanks! All feedback and input is greatly appreciated!

That is straight from the camera, no alterations. I agree, i wish the fence wasnt in the shot as well, but when the sky is the best is usually when im trying to get dinner ready after work so its just pics from my backyard when i was able to sneak out for a minute or two... the lightening pic i was able to get out to the mesa behind our house to snap. The only real subject i was trying to capture was the awesome sky and clouds.

Ive found it hard to capture all the pinks and deep blues that are so beautiful in our New Mexico skies, not sure if what im missing or what setting i should be using to capture them...