Las Vegas - bellagio from Paris

[buzzrk]

From

This is my first critique post. I read the rules section and am trying to be careful but please excuse me if I have not posted this correctly.

This was my first trip after I bought my first DSLR.
I had read about all the modes, exposure fundamentals etc. I played around with AV and TV modes. But no flash mode worked wonderfully compared to AV, TV modes.

I took this shot from top of Paris just before sunset. I shot this in no flash mode. All my shots when fountains were running did not come out well. Fountains were either shaky or Bellagio was underexposed.
So I chose this picture which was taken with some ambient light.


Exposure: 1/30 sec
Aperture: 3.5
Focal Length: 18mm
Flash Used: No

The complete exif in included along with the image.
I process some PP in LR3 (recovery, blacks, noise reduction).

Because this image will have so many faults, please critique everything including basics like composition, focus, etc.

Also can you share any tips to capture city scape lik3 this with moving objects like fountains, lights?

[leviathan]

Congratulations on your first critique post! Looks like a beautiful evening in Vegas! I imagine there were countless images to capture with your new DSLR. A couple thoughts related to your shot.

I like the contrast between the deep blue color of the water with the earth tones in the buildings. Also, what a unique perspective by being so high up in the Paris. I think there are a lot of beautiful lights in your image that could be emphasized even more by lowering the exposure. This will bring out richer colors that are all throughout your shot. Finally, in terms of the composition, I think the image would be more aesthetically pleasing if your subject (the Bellagio) was framed in the upper left or right third intersection of the image.

Keep 'em coming! Good job.

[buzzrk]

Here is my 2nd attempt

From Critique

Thank you for the feedback.
You sure know how to sandwich constructive criticism between encouraging words much like an oreo cookie.

I took your feedback and did some LR3 processing and I lowered exposure and applied -ve Exposure graduated filters on left, right and center that bring focus on Bellagio.
However top 1/10th portion of picture has some haze to it. Not sure what to do about it.

Is this better looking?

I also noticed I shot this at ISO3200 (my max ISO was set to 3200 for shots previous night).
Would using lower ISO help this picture?

[Krusty79]

Actually, I think the first looked fine. The second one looks way underexposed to me. Nice shot for a new DSLR user. In order for your flash to work, the light has to leave the flash, bounce off your subject and come back to the lens. So, your built-in flash only has a range of about 10-20 feet, therefore, it will not make any difference when your subject is hundreds of yards away. When I was in Hawaii, I was secretly laughing at the other tourists who were using their flash when taking shots of the sunrise at Haleakala. They were asking the light from their flash to travel 93 million miles to the sun and back. Not going to happen. But I digress.

In order to maximize the sharpness, you'll want to use the lowest ISO you can, as that will minimize grain. Most lenses are sharpest around f/8, so I would start with that. I know that will increase your shutter speed, but you're using a tripod and the Bellagio is not moving, so that won't matter, right? If not, you should be. Also, using a remote shutter release will help minimize vibrations. If you're using a tripod, you should also turn off the image stabilization on your lens. I hope this helps. Keep shooting!

[buzzrk]

Agree with the flash.

Somehow noflash mode worked very well compared to AV mode.
AV mode would use longer exposure every time.
No flash mode would use the right exposure.
TV mode needed lot of tweaking based on subject and lighting so I stopped using it (we only have so many hours in Vegas- why spend it on tweaking??.

We were shooting by hand mostly and hence I had set max ISO to 3200.

I think I did not use tripod.
Even on this shot if I used lower ISO not sure I could have kept the camera stable (lot of people around).

I think using tripod/gorillapod and using lower ISO and let the camera do its job is the right thing to do in low light situations like this.

[leviathan]

Looks really great!! Well done.

[Krusty79]

Well, that came out well for a hand-held shot. I know you won't always have a tripod with you, but it does make photography easier when you don't have to worry about holding the camera steady. In addition, you can use your lowest ISO setting to minimize grain and you can bracket your shots to give yourself more leeway. Another way to give yourself more leeway is to shoot RAW or RAW + jpg, as you can do more processing of the RAW files with less noise compared to jpgs.

[buzzrk]

@Krusty79
Agree about using low ISO and the tripod.
We were actually lugging teh tripod along the Las Vegas boulevard. We were asked to pack up tripod in some casinos so we enever tried to use one on their property (used it plenty outside but left camera on high ISO to minimize motion due to presence of too many moving lights and objects).
I guess I will ask myself next time - can I use tripod and low shutter speed? What will that do to moving objects? More than anything I think I should just shoot some with various settings and pick the best one lookign at noise, sharpness, etc.

There were restrictions on carrying it to top of Paris due to lack of space. I am buying a Gorillapod for situations like this.

@Kristy79 - are you borin in 1979? I was too.