Odaiba at Night

[hambino]

From Odaiba Light Festival

EXIF
Model: PENTAX *ist DS
ISO: 800
Exposure: 1/8 sec
Aperture: 4.0
Focal Length: 28mm
Flash Used: No

Super newbie and I love taking night shots because it seems like Japan comes alive at night. Unfortunately, I suck at taking them I really, really like the colors and the boats in the picture but the lights are too blurry and its not very sharp and I don't know how to fix it. I don't have Photoshop (I only have Picasa) and I'm really just looking for any advice on better settings/composition/etc and some very BASIC post-processing I could do. Thanks, guys/gals!

[BigFuzzy]

You say you suck, I say you're not so bad. You'd be surprised at how many people take night shots here with those incredibly boring completely black skies. At least you left color in them and made a very interesting image.

The issue you have with sharpness is that your shutter speed is waaay slow to take images like this. I'd go up to Iso 1000 or 1600. Noise in newer cameras isn't as bad, and eventually if you get something like LightRoom (and you should! ) it has amazing noise reduction capabilities.

All in all it's a nice shot, a bit centered compositionally, but since I've been in that exact spot I know there wasn't more you could do compositionally. Just try to ensure you have a fast shutter speed to reduce the blurryness or, us a tripod (I guess I should have said that first actually! )

god I miss Japan.

[hambino]

Thank you so much! ISO1600 on my camera kinda blows but maybe with a quicker shutter speed I can get it to look better. I'll try and give it a shot tonight on my way home tonight and see if I can't make it better .

I lived in Japan for 6 years when I was younger, missed it for the next 10 years, and am already having anxiety about the thought of having to leave in another 2 haha

[LeeR]

I rather like this shot. The things that need to be sharp are sharp, like the bridge and the buildings behind. A little softness in the boats is not such a bad thing. I also love the colors in the sky; this is one of my favorite times of day to get great images. Nice work.

[hambino]

Thanks, Lee! Must say your comment made me a little giddy haha Something about this photo is just a little off to me. When I first saw it I loved it, and then the more I looked at it it just didn't seem right. Hmmm....

[KansaiGreenie]

Hi hambino,

Great image! Great colors, wonderful subject, good timing. An very good image.

it seems like Japan comes alive at night.

I agree. Especially with this heat wave we are having!

I'm going to agree with everyone. I agree with BigFuzzy that I'm drawn to the bridge towers/supports and they are right in the middle of the frame. I would prefer them more to the side. But I also understand that it may not be possible. And I agree with LeeR, that the buildings and the bridge are reasonably sharp and the boats are soft (because they were moving) but that's OK.

The real trick to getting good sharpness with night shots (or any shot really) is to use a tripod. You didn't say if you used on or not, but I guess that you didn't. One of the great things about being in Japan is that photographers almost never get hassled. Set up a tripod in New York -- get arrested. Set up a tripod in Tokyo -- most people won't notice and even if they do, they most likely won't say anything.

Speaking of which... I was shooting a lantern festival in Nara last week (images on my blog) and a security guard asked me to put my tripod away. Actually what he said was please be careful and when it gets busier later please put it away, but that was only because it was a festival. I made my shots without any problems.

Anyway...

This is a nice image. Well done. And I'd love to see more of your night shots. Are they posted anywhere online?

KG

[hambino]

Thank you, Kansai! You are correct, I did not use a tripod because, well, I don't have one lol (suppose that'll be my next purchase ). I was trying to get all of my night shots into one folder but I have a REALLY old browser at work and it isn't playing nice But, here are some links to a few of my albums if you care to skim through them

Odaiba Light Festival

Friendship Day

Misawa/Hachinohe

Summer Fun (Note: I took the Summer Fun shots before I started learning about ISO/shutter speed/etc so the ISO is cranked up to 3200 and I never changed it so a lot of otherwise really awesome shots of fuji are uber-grainy ) I'll try to organize my photos better when I get home...

Nara park is my FAVORITE park in the whole world! I could stay and play with the deer all stinkin' day! I'm trying to look at your blog but again, work browser is not being nice but I will DEFINITELY give it a peek when I get home tonight

Thank you, again, for your tips/comments and best wishes in this heat! I love everything about Japan except this miserable summer weather!!!

[Jamfke]

This is a gorgeous capture. The only thing that throws me off, and only just a little, is that the horizon appears to be off a tad. If you don't mind, I will show you what I mean with an edited version. I will attach it to this post if it's all right with you.


ETA: I just used a straightening tool to line up the horizon a bit. Also ETA, this would make a great addition to the Night Time Photographer group over at flickr!

[hambino]

Jamfke I would really appreciate it! Edit away!

[Jamfke]

Edit in previous post!