Library,early eve

[jjbacoomba]

This is a photo of The Landa Library here in San Antonio,Texas.Taken early evening. I cropped and lightened using Paintshop Pro X2. The original was much darker. I could not see the fence on the left, nor the detail of the columns or the floor tiles, or the background behind the trees. The far right side was almost total black and created a negative space, so I cropped most of it out.This was my first time using a tripod. I didnt have a cable release.I now wonder if I should have used bulb mode instead of aperture priority.Maybe opened the aperture more?Higher ISO? I didnt see any shake. I would appreciate any comments you have on this photo and any tips for taking longer exposures.A cable release is on the way. Thanks, Joe




EXIF:
Exposure: 5 sec.
Aperture: f/8.0
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 18mm
auto white balance
flash: off
Aperture Priority Mode

[SwissJon]

This appears quite well exposed for a night shot. If you increased the exposure in Post Processing to compensate, then you could always do the same on the camera, perhaps by increasing the exposure time from 5 sec to 10, 20 or more.. Increasing the ISO would reduce the necesary exposure time to achieve the same exposure level in the picture.

The only thing I'd be tempted to do is rotate the picture so that the line that leads from the foreground to the centre column is vertical, and perhaps tighten the crop to leave out the bright recangle on the left that I find distracting.

[jjbacoomba]

Thanks Jon. I will try again with the different exposure times and ISO. I tried to rotate the photo but had a hard time with it. I was thinking that my tripod might not have been as level as I thought. My first crop of this photo excluded the rectangle,but I left it in to show more of the floor. The rectangle is distracting the more I look at it. I will change that. Thanks. Joe