Vegas!!

[NEO_studios]

Took this picture last november of the "New York hotel and casino" street view around 530am. This was my first cityscape shot so any advice is very welcomed. Thanks.

[SwissJon]

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Critique Forum Rules

[NEO_studios]

My apologies..this is my first time posting in this critique section. I would of liked to have shot this with what i know now and wished I would of slowed down my shutter speed perhaps to 2 seconds to give the cars more of a streak like view. Anybody have any suggestions at how I could of improved this photograph?

Camera: Nikon D60
aperture: f/6.3
Shutter: 1/5 sec
ISO: 400
lens: 18-55

[SwissJon]

Thanks.

I think you answered your own question.. I think if you had dropped your ISO down to 100, you'd have got a shutter speed of around 1 second, which would have been sufficient to give you light trails. Also changing the aperture to something smaller, f/11 or something, would have increased that further.. Did you have a tripod?

I think you've got too much clutter to the right hand side of the photo, and the arch on the left is cut. I would therefore have swung the camera to the left and tried putting the cluster of buildings in the right hand third instead.

Oh and perhaps lose some of the road in the front.

[BexJarratt]

I'm much a beginner myself, but I agree that a longer shutter speed would have given nice tail-light streaks, it would also have allowed you to narrow down the aperture. I hope some-one will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think F10-F16 would make for a crisper shot (deeper depth of field). I wouldn't slow it down too much though or it could get noisy. Also you might lose all the stop lights being red if it's too long.

I think there is also some lens distortion with the sides of the buildings closest the left edge of the photo leaning in as you go up. I think you can correct this in post.

Cool photo though, I'm off to Vegas in a week! First time. I'm excited, but a bit nervous about taking good photos when I'm there.

Edit: I should be quicker with my posting, then I might not repeat people so much!

[NEO_studios]

Unfortunately I did not have a tripod with me. I agree with the clutter on the right side and also losing some of the foreground (road) also, maybe if I would of shot this same image minutes after sunset to achieve that "blue" like sky i could avoided the complete dark sky.

I just finished reading Bryan Petersons book "Understanding Exposure" and looking back at many of these Vegas shots I took last november with little knowledge and experience, i can now pick up things that I wished I would of applied.

Thank you guys for your critiques and looking forward to improving my photography.

[NEO_studios]

Originally Posted by BexJarratt

I'm much a beginner myself, but I agree that a longer shutter speed would have given nice tail-light streaks, it would also have allowed you to narrow down the aperture. I hope some-one will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think F10-F16 would make for a crisper shot (deeper depth of field). I wouldn't slow it down too much though or it could get noisy. Also you might lose all the stop lights being red if it's too long.

I think there is also some lens distortion with the sides of the buildings closest the left edge of the photo leaning in as you go up. I think you can correct this in post.

Cool photo though, I'm off to Vegas in a week! First time. I'm excited, but a bit nervous about taking good photos when I'm there.

Edit: I should be quicker with my posting, then I might not repeat people so much!

I wish you luck on your vegas trip. This was not my first time to vegas but my first time shooting on the strip. Theres a lot of bridges that go over the street from casino to casino that can be prime for good shots, especially at night. I did hear that Paris hotel has that eiffel tower that you can pay like $12 to take an elevator to the very top of the tower and I heard this is a great spot for some awesome vegas shots. Looking forward to going back and finding this out for myself.

[Krusty79]

Nice shot, but I do feel the composition is unbalanced. I think it's because of all the empty sky on the right. So, I would consider cropping it out or swinging your view to the left like Jon suggested. Even if that places the Statue of Liberty right in the middle of your shot and breaks the rule of thirds.

The shutter speed has been mentioned already. I think you either need to use a faster shutter speed to freeze the action or a longer one to show the light trails. At 1/5 of a second, you're kind of in between both.

[dvtldav]

I agree with what the others have said but will add do you have LR3 or Photoshop? If so go into lens correction and straighten buildings, it will make a lot of difference in the way the photo looks.
I hope you don't mind. I took your photo put it in LR and did a lens correction. If you like I can remove it after you see it.



Dave

[Corey Thompson]

I think the shot turned out pretty nice for not using a tripod, especially for it being your first time doing a cityscape. As others have mentioned a good sturdy tripod is necessary so you can open the shutter up longer. There are lots of good photo opportunities in vegas but sometimes finding the right place to shoot from can be tricky.

Another suggestion that hasn't been mentioned yet, shoot in the golden hour. That way all the interesting colors in the sky will add to the interesting factor of the photo.