Lake @ Night

[joker]

Hello,
This snap i have taken at around 21:30 in the night when there was no natural light at all.My main aim was to capture the light's refelction in water along with the castle which is on the left side. The castle was near to be compared to the other lights which was far behind the castle.

This was my first attempt to take night photos with newly bought tripod. Any kind of suggestions is appreciated.

I struggled a lot to get a good sharpness in castle. Any good tip that is useful to focus on a particular object in night especially in this kind of situations would be great.

Here is the image
[IMG]

From Montruex_interaken photo session

[/IMG]

Settings:

Camera : Nikon D90, 18-105mm lense
Focal lenght: 34mm (51mm in 35mm film)
Exposure time: 13 s
F Stops:f/14
ISO : 500
Metering mode: Matrix
Exposure program: Manual
Exposure bias: 0
White balance: Auto

Thanks in advance for your valuable suggestions.

[dcclark]

Hello! First, you might want to post the image in this thread. I doubt that many people will give you useful feedback when they have to go through another link to see your shot. (Yeah, I know that it's annoying -- but it's a fact of the internet!)

I did go check it out, however. I couldn't view a large size, but the default size looks nice and sharp. The only advice I have about focusing at night is -- if your subject is lit well enough (as the castle is), then focus once, recompose, and put your lens into manual focus mode. That will keep the camera from trying to re-focus, and possibly ruining your setup!

Compositionally, I really like the castle and the reflections. However, the castle is WAY over to the left. Why not bring it a little farther in? It's so far to the side, that it's almost not a subject -- my eye missed it at first.

Overall, you've got a good start. I'd recommend going back and trying again at the same location, and then comparing your results.

[BK553]

I think maybe it was a little TOO dark. You may want to try again when there is still a little bit of light left in the sky (or a full moon), otherwise you just get points of light.

[joker]

Hello David,
Thanks for your suggestion on placing the image rather than the link. I did the change.

I feel that your tip on focusing really going to help me as i never use to do like that. In night also, i use to see through the view finder and used to adjust the focus manually. this way most of the times i end up taking blurred images.

Regarding placement of the castle,i also felt the same initially but i did have any choice because if i turn my camera a little bit on to the left, the bright tree branches (lit by street light) are coming to the frame. To avoid that, i had to place the castle on to the very left. I looked for a place where i get that shot, but coud not find so i had to return with this snap finally.

Thanks

[navcom]

My two cents...this is one of those situations where a centered horizon might be a good thing (reflections). Pulling the horizon closer to center might accentuate the horizon line which is really the key to making the reflections the subject. It appears the horizon is just a little too high which makes the image a bit "unbalanced". Also, I would straighten the horizon a bit. It appears it is leaning to the right.

Hope that helps!

[joker]

Hello Navcom,
As you mentioned, i did modifcations to the image a little bit.
[IMG]

From Montruex_interaken photo session

[/IMG]

I have one question: is it always (may be most of the times ) a good idea to place the horizon in the center of the frame to give a feel of symmetry in situations where you want to show the reflections in water. Because i am crazy about taking these kind of shots so it will help me in croping/editing these kind of images in future.

Before cropping this image i asked myself,,what is my primary goal to show to the viewer ? that is the reflections in water...so thinking in that lines, i thought of the giving more space to the reflections and placed the horizon at 1/3 from the top keeping rule of third in mind.

Thanks for your suggestion...

[Photologyst]

I have made two versions to try to improve the photo.

Leveled horizon, cropped to feature reflections, adjusted exposure and enhanced colours. Sharpened via Lab Mode method.





Added stars to castle lights and put in water ripples:

[dcclark]

#1 is much nicer. #2 looks very fake to me.

[navcom]

Originally Posted by joker

I have one question: is it always (may be most of the times ) a good idea to place the horizon in the center of the frame to give a feel of symmetry in situations where you want to show the reflections in water. Because i am crazy about taking these kind of shots so it will help me in croping/editing these kind of images in future.

Before cropping this image i asked myself,,what is my primary goal to show to the viewer ? that is the reflections in water...so thinking in that lines, i thought of the giving more space to the reflections and placed the horizon at 1/3 from the top keeping rule of third in mind.

Thanks for your suggestion...

There really isn't any one particular way to take a reflection photograph. There are photographic "rules" that have been defined but they are not unbreakable. Personally I think they should be referred to as "suggestions"...or even better yet, "best practices". The term "rules" makes it sound like you shouldn't break them and that is the farthest thing from the truth.

That being said, the photography "best practices" say that in landscape photography, a centered horizon is a no-no. Most of the time this is true. Not only does it make the image rather boring, it also divides the image. Our brains subconsciously divide an image at the horizon and it also tends to first look at what's in the middle of the image to determine what it is looking at. If the horizon is centered, this horizontal line becomes the main focus of the image and draws much of the viewers attention to this division. Your brain then immediately assigns this division as the main subject and then looks above and below it to "fill in the blanks". For most landscape compositions, the horizon is not meant to be the main subject and this prominent division causes the viewer to lose interest (or worse, get confused). This is why the rule of thirds is encouraged and why it is a main-stay in landscape photography.

The exception is when the subject is enhanced by a centered horizon...and symmetry is usually one of those exceptions. While the reflections in your image aren't perfectly symmetric about the horizon, they are still reflections of what's above it. By centering the horizon, you are drawing attention to the horizon and also what is above and below it making it a more prominent subject. Sometimes it works, but other times it may not. It's really up to you as the photographer to make that assumption based on your composition and what else is in the image. You are on the right track...look at the image and try to tell a story. If the reflection is what you want to enhance, centering the horizon can usually help...but not always. It depends on what else is in the image.

So the answer to your question....maybe.

[joker]

Thanks a lot Navcom. I really likes the way you answered to my question..It is going to be very helpful for me..

@photologyst: I really liked the first image..second one except the ripples in the water would have been great..Thanks a lot for showing me the different ways to improve the image during processing...I could see a lot of difference in my image and your first image...

A big thanks to all of you...