NYC shot! C&c please

NIVLEKphotography · Sep 12, 2010

Hi, I haven't posted on this site in a while i figured i would post my most recent shot to get some comments and advice on how to improve it. I am fairly new to the whole photography thing, so any professional advice would be highly appreciated. I'm using a canon rebel XT with the standard lens btw... Enjoy

zoster · Sep 12, 2010

i like it quite a lot. congrats!

NIVLEKphotography · Sep 12, 2010

zoster said:
i like it quite a lot. congrats!

Thank you:thumbup:

Mustlovedragons · Sep 12, 2010

For the most part, I love it.

michaelleggero · Sep 13, 2010

nice shot, now, everyone is saying how great you did but you are asking for how you could improve it. which leads me to assume that you aren't 100% happy wiht it. what are your concerns?
basic things i've noticed are it dosn't seem to be completely sharp focus which may be simply the upload. if you are using lightroom to edit then try using the graduated correction and add a bit more contrast to the sky only. i'm not sure if i like the railing on the side or not. if you are local to this area you might want to try to get another picture with the clouds a bit lower and then crop it as a panorama. just try to leave in alot of the water because the reflections add alot to it.

Mike
http://www.michaelleggero.com

bigtwinky · Sep 13, 2010

The composition is ok, but the technical is not nice.

The image is not sharp. Unless you are going for an artsy thing where your image is blurry, then you need to ensure that the image is sharp. Were you on a tripod? Was it a cheap tripod and it was windy? Is it a lens issue? what were your settings?

NIVLEKphotography · Sep 13, 2010

michaelleggero said:
nice shot, now, everyone is saying how great you did but you are asking for how you could improve it. which leads me to assume that you aren't 100% happy wiht it. what are your concerns?
basic things i've noticed are it dosn't seem to be completely sharp focus which may be simply the upload. if you are using lightroom to edit then try using the graduated correction and add a bit more contrast to the sky only. i'm not sure if i like the railing on the side or not. if you are local to this area you might want to try to get another picture with the clouds a bit lower and then crop it as a panorama. just try to leave in alot of the water because the reflections add alot to it.

Mike
http://www.michaelleggero.com

Perfect... This is just what I was looking for. I did take different angles (without the pole) but this is the only copy I have got to edit. I am not fond of the grainy like texture in the picture and how the picture is not as focused as it should be. Any pointers to that? Thank you for you input btw!

NIVLEKphotography · Sep 13, 2010

bigtwinky said:
The composition is ok, but the technical is not nice.

The image is not sharp. Unless you are going for an artsy thing where your image is blurry, then you need to ensure that the image is sharp. Were you on a tripod? Was it a cheap tripod and it was windy? Is it a lens issue? what were your settings?

Agreed. I feel like the picture could be more crisp/sharp. I did have a tripod (not the greatest tripod) and it was indeed windy out. May that have played a major part? Also, I shot in full manual the shutter speed was fairly slow since it was obviously dark out. Thanks

bmorrisdavies · Sep 13, 2010

Beautiful. 'The city that never sleeps'.

Maybe if you cropped the sky down a little more, as it's a bit empty there, and maybe the tight crop would work better. Try it and see.

Breaux · Sep 13, 2010

Good shot, but here are the things I notice:

1. The railing is not really part of the picture. I think it should either be more prominent, adding some graphic interest, or out of the shot, to be replaced by some other foreground element.

2. It could be darker - the points of light are big and fuzzy.

3. I prefer bridges to either be straight across the frame, or dramatically leading into the frame. This bridge looks like it's close to the first category, but not quite.

4. If it's too grainy for you, you need a lower ISO number.

5. The sky is not really adding anything; maybe tilt down to show more water, less sky.

Vautrin · Sep 13, 2010

Very nice. Bravo

LaFoto · Sep 13, 2010

When you want to bring out nicely sharp light sources in night photography, you have to choose a small aperture (i.e. high number, such as f16, for example). That will increase your depth of field, it will also very much increase the shutter speed, or decrease? ... well, you need a really, really long one (20 seconds, up to 30 seconds, depending on the amount of light around you), and you should always choose the lowest ISO you have in order to avoid noise.

That does require a sturdy tripod (the el-cheapo version may work fine when there's no wind), and if you don't have a remote control, you best set your camera on timer and thus let it take the photo all on its own, without you touching it in the process.