first try in paris

[jhthomasii]

this is my first post here as well as one of my first shots with my first camera on my first night in paris (whew). any critisism/advice would be awesome.


canon 450d
18-55 lense
fl-18mm
iso-800
aperture-f/13
exp-.8

i just got a copy PS cs2 but dont know how to use it so i havent yet. any pointers on what needs to be done on there woild be great too.

[SwissJon]

Several comments on this..

The hotel is over exposed and blown out in places, it's difficult getting the light right for night shots when your main subject is lit up like this.. You need to expose for the building, not the street.
There seems to be a lack of story and purpose.. Ok, so it's a photo of a hotel at night.. But why? As an uninformed observer, I'm not sure what the signifcance of the hotel is.. From my (admittedly poor) knowledge of Paris, the Eiffel tower is directly behind the hotel (The laser beams that shoot from the top of the tower seem to be shining on the right hand side near the top floor) it would have been a good idea to adjust your position so that you included that top of the tower in the photo.. This would have told the observer that you're in Paris, rather than in any town in a French speaking country
The post on the bottom left of the screen is a bit annoying.
The photo seems to be slightly out of focus.. Your camera seems to have focussed on the post.
The lines in the Zebra crossing, and the car tail lights lead my eye past the hotel and down the road.

Please don't be put off by this.. Your photo isn't bad, you just need to think about composition a bit more.. Night time photos can be tricky, but you really need to think of them in exactly the same way as day time shots when it comes to composition etc.

[jhthomasii]

thanks. thats exactly what i was hoping for. is that post something that i should crop out? then it leaves the lense flare from the lamp with no context. the tower would be a few miles to the left of the frame. the building on the left is the louvre. the sign on the hotel is too blown out to read that it says hotel de louvre.

i found that all my night shots came out looking kind of dull and grayish. can that be fixed in photoshop?

thanks for the critisisms.

[cousinmacho]

I like a lot of things about this shot, particularly the low angle you seem to have taken it from, which really adds interest.

I'd echo most of SwissJon's comments regarding ways to improve it slightly.

Another tip for night photography - don't actually shoot at night proper if you can avoid it; try and get your shots around twilight, where the sky is darkening but it's not completely pitch black yet.

That way, you get more definition around the edge of buildings (especially on the roof, which doesn't tend to be lit up) due to the contrast with the sky. You'll also be less likely to get blown-out highlights.

As a bonus, your camera will probably pick up all kinds of wild colours that the naked eye can't see if you shoot around twilight.

Without wanting to seem like a self-publicising idiot, this shot of mine was taken around twilight, and illustrates what I'm talking about pretty well:


Minato Mirai Skyline, Yokohama by cousinmacho, on Flickr

It's not perfect by any means, but you can see how the buildings still stand out against the sky because it hasn't gone completely dark yet.

Hope that helps!