Toronto as seen on a quiet cool night

[CaptainNapalm]

Just wanted to know how you guys feel about these shots and what could be improved on for next time. This is the Toronto downtown skyline at night shot from the lake shore. Also, a couple shots of a neat pedestrian bridge a few miles west of downtown. The exposure times here varied from 20 to 45 seconds, ISO kept low, aperture at f/8. All shot with the 12-24mm Nikkor lens mounted on the D600. CC would be greatly appreciated.

 

[tevo]

Technically they are all sound, depending on what your desired effect is. Compositionally, the first two don't work for me as there is nothing to draw me into the scene and there are distracting elements in the foreground (trees). Try using a longer lens to both compress the background and isolate your subject.

I like the third, although it is not very balanced due to the buildings on the left of the frame. It also looks a bit gray to me, I would suggest playing with an S curve to add some contrast.

 

[CdTSnap]

I like #3, very cool.

 

[JeremyD]

With some of the composition issues I feel your pain, when I set up for these type of photos it is physically impossible to get the perfect composition with no trees, or buildings due to that location would be in the water

But I love these images! I like your post processing style and they came out great.

I live in Kitchener Waterloo and I am looking to take photos of the skyline in Toronto, perhaps taking a fairy over the lake to the island to do some panoramas.. Do you know of any spots?

 

[CaptainNapalm]

Technically they are all sound, depending on what your desired effect is. Compositionally, the first two don't work for me as there is nothing to draw me into the scene and there are distracting elements in the foreground (trees). Try using a longer lens to both compress the background and isolate your subject. I like the third, although it is not very balanced due to the buildings on the left of the frame. It also looks a bit gray to me, I would suggest playing with an S curve to add some contrast.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll try a longer lens next time to eliminate the surrounding trees and other distractions.

 

[CaptainNapalm]

I like #3, very cool.

Thanks. That happens to be my fav too.

 

[CaptainNapalm]

With some of the composition issues I feel your pain, when I set up for these type of photos it is physically impossible to get the perfect composition with no trees, or buildings due to that location would be in the water But I love these images! I like your post processing style and they came out great. I live in Kitchener Waterloo and I am looking to take photos of the skyline in Toronto, perhaps taking a fairy over the lake to the island to do some panoramas.. Do you know of any spots?

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah from the lake shoreline it's often difficult to avoid bushes and trees, I think as mentioned above a longer lens would help fix this so I'll give that a go next time. I'm aware of a few spots for nice pano shots. Let me check some info tonight on my home computer and ill PM you some areas which are popular for shooting the city.

 

[NancyMoranG]

Is the moon super imposed? At 20 seconds, should it be blurry? I like the shots very much.
in #1, I would like it with the 'pool' reflection being the bottom of the photo and not so much of the 'land rocks'. Just me.
looks like a beautiful night.
Nancy

 

[CaptainNapalm]

Is the moon super imposed? At 20 seconds, should it be blurry? I like the shots very much. in #1, I would like it with the 'pool' reflection being the bottom of the photo and not so much of the 'land rocks'. Just me. looks like a beautiful night. Nancy

Thanks Nancy. I'll give your edit suggestion a go when I get home tonight and repost. The moon is not superimposed. I believe some shift and bluriness would occur on a slightly longer exposure, 1 minute or longer maybe? I think that particular shot might have been 20 secs.