Westminster - BigBen at night - advice

[PhotoMindfulness]

Hi All,

I am a complete novice, owner of a Nikon D750 and interested in night time photography. I took this picture on my first night time outing, I am sure there are many things wrong with this and welcome and comment, my question is really how do have the shutter open long enough to get light trails but not blow out the dial on Big Ben?

Take a look at my photo:

Westminster 2016

My ideal would be to get this right in the camera and use post processing as a 2nd option.

Many thanks for your contribution, Steven

 

[Desi]

It's a cool shot.

I think Big Ben is a bit over exposed, including the dial. You could use a lower ISO and smaller aperture to bring down your exposure and keep the shutter open, but then you're light trails and bridge would be darker. You could use a graduated neutral density filter to even out the two sides of the photo. Or, expose to keep the dial from blowing out and then do the rest in post. Not sure that you can do it all in camera. Just my 2 cents.

 

[tirediron]

Strictly speaking, that's the clock in Elizabeth Tower; "Big Ben" is the great bell inside the tower. It would greatly help your question to host your images on 'sites which show the images and not pages full of ads. You can host ad-free right here on TPF!

 

[PersistentNomad]

I would meter for the clockface, with a smaller aperture and longer exposure time. That should allow you some good light trails, a properly exposed face and the subtle glow on the base of the tower. It's similar to how you shoot stars in motion. You meter for the stars, and you get the other things by default of the long exposure.