Cityscape By Nite

[HarrySingh]

Any advice on how to improve on this image would be awesome.

I have tried to take this picture from across the San Francisco Bay from Alameda a # of times. Here are the challenges I face:

Distance (about 3 to 5 miles)
Almost always some elements of wind or a strong breeze

I do have a 300MM lens and a D90 (Nikon)

I feel the Tungsten White Balance is appropriate but if there are other suggestions they are welcome.

I call my self just an enthusiast but would love to become really good some day..

Thank you for any advice...

[Peely22]

I would raise the Fstop to as high as you can, use a tripod, and go long exposure.
It's very noisy, surprisingly no reflections, and distorted horizon(or is that an optical illusion?).
Dont be afraid to go wider, and crop down.

[EMansfield]

In terms of composition, I'd say it's nicely done. But I think it would look better if there were reflections of the light in the water to make it interesting and hold one's attention.

Cheers!

Eric Mansfield

[offwhitedog]

Hi, and welcome!

For me, the composition works just fine without reflections, because you have colours balancing throughout the frame : lights in the city and light in the sky; blue water below the city and blue sky above.

I'd say the main problems are noise and the horizontals. Noise can be overcome easily enough - you don't give us the EXIF data but I assume the ISO is quite high here and could be reduced for less noise (therefore using tripod as already suggested). And/or reduce the noise in post-processing.

The horizontals will be harder, though, because you have the converging lines of the waterfront and the bridge. This wiil give the optical illusion that something is not straight even when you have got the shot technically level. Not sure how to fix that, other than just try different a few subtly different angles of making the waterline level or very slightly tilted and see what works best. If in doubt, just level the waterline and resign yourself to the effect of the optical illusion