Eye at night..

[IMpalace]

Hi all,

First post on here. Only bought my Canon 1000d a few months ago and haven't put it down since. Still getting my head around it all but this site has provided endless hours of help and now I'm going to try and squeeze out a bit more.

Any tips/feedback would on the attached image be appreciated, although in particular any advice on composition would be much appreciated.

I'm not happy with the picture and plan on going back to take it again with a few adjustments, but any additional feedback before I revisit would be great.

Thanks!

Settings used:
Camera: Canon EOS 1000d
Lens Type: 18-55m kit lens
Exposure: 30 seconds
Aperture: f/22
ISO: 100

[Hill Country Hack]

I do like this shot a lot! My eye was drawn to the Ferris wheel, I am assuming this is your subject? If so, then you maintained the rule of thirds and good for you.

First- only the pier in the foreground is in focus. If you used auto focus, consider set the auto focus then turn off the auto focus so the lens will not continue to attempt focussing just before releasing the shutter. No camera shake so kudos on the tripod or other stable platform. I find night shots easier to take with getting the camera mirror locked in up position and setting the auto timer for at least 2 seconds to allow for the camera to stop moving after you press the shutter release if you don't have a cable/electronic shutter release.

Second- I generally like the composition with the exception of the horizon splitting the middle of the frame. Move the horizon just a touch higher or lower.

When you go back, take a look at the canal made by the two piers on the left part of the frame. It appears to have a curve in it and would make a cool image to shoot along that canal at maybe a lower prospective.

Otherwise I like it. Hopefully others with a better eye for this provide you some input.

[IMpalace]

Originally Posted by Hill Country Hack

I do like this shot a lot! My eye was drawn to the Ferris wheel, I am assuming this is your subject? If so, then you maintained the rule of thirds and good for you.

First- only the pier in the foreground is in focus. If you used auto focus, consider set the auto focus then turn off the auto focus so the lens will not continue to attempt focussing just before releasing the shutter. No camera shake so kudos on the tripod or other stable platform. I find night shots easier to take with getting the camera mirror locked in up position and setting the auto timer for at least 2 seconds to allow for the camera to stop moving after you press the shutter release if you don't have a cable/electronic shutter release.

Second- I generally like the composition with the exception of the horizon splitting the middle of the frame. Move the horizon just a touch higher or lower.

When you go back, take a look at the canal made by the two piers on the left part of the frame. It appears to have a curve in it and would make a cool image to shoot along that canal at maybe a lower prospective.

Otherwise I like it. Hopefully others with a better eye for this provide you some input.

Thanks very much for that! The ferris wheel (London Eye) was indeed my main subject, so very happy to hear you were drawn to that.

It was only when I got home that I realised that only the pier in the foreground was in focus. One thing I struggled with in general on this trip was managing to focus well in such dark conditions, got some reading to do on that one.

Will have a play with the horizon and see what I come up with and I never really noticed the canal on the left but will definitely be taking a few shots of that when I'm back!

Thanks very much again, and any more comments would be much appreciated

[RLucas]

I really like it too! It doesn't seem so much of a focus issue, but some camera shake. If it were me, I would stop up to f/8 or f/11, and increase the shutter speed to about 15 seconds. It should give you about the same effect you were going for here. There is just enough movement to cause blur here. Another option would be to sandbag your tripod, and get it as solid as you can. This may help too.

The only other nit pick for me is the framing. What you might want to try next time is back up a little, or go to a wider focal length if you can, and set the horizon on one of the horizontal thirds. Since the Eye is your subject, I would put the horizon on the bottom third, which would give more weight to the Eye. Right now you have the pier and the Eye equally competing for attention. It's still a really good shot though!

Hope this helps!

[IMpalace]

Originally Posted by RLucas

I really like it too! It doesn't seem so much of a focus issue, but some camera shake. If it were me, I would stop up to f/8 or f/11, and increase the shutter speed to about 15 seconds. It should give you about the same effect you were going for here. There is just enough movement to cause blur here. Another option would be to sandbag your tripod, and get it as solid as you can. This may help too.

The only other nit pick for me is the framing. What you might want to try next time is back up a little, or go to a wider focal length if you can, and set the horizon on one of the horizontal thirds. Since the Eye is your subject, I would put the horizon on the bottom third, which would give more weight to the Eye. Right now you have the pier and the Eye equally competing for attention. It's still a really good shot though!

Hope this helps!

Thanks very much for the feedback. Was thinking of stopping down to see if that had helped. I have read that the image stabilisation can cause a slightly blurry image if left on when a tripod is used as it tries to correct for movement that isn't there?

Thanks for the composition tip, will have a look. I can't be sure but I think this was shot at 18mm, unfortunately the widest I have at the moment. Would love to have and be able to experiment with a wider lens, but bit out of my price range at the moment.

Again thanks very much for the tips

[Jinks]

I agree almost exactly with Rlucas, particularly with regards to composition. You've pretty much nailed the exposure and the colours and details are great. If you zoom in on the lights on the building centre left you'll see there is some definite camera shake which is probably giving the softer/slightly out of focus look to the rest of it. As has been said, either use a delay on the shutter release or weigh the tripod down.

Great capture.

[IMpalace]

Originally Posted by Jinks

I agree almost exactly with Rlucas, particularly with regards to composition. You've pretty much nailed the exposure and the colours and details are great. If you zoom in on the lights on the building centre left you'll see there is some definite camera shake which is probably giving the softer/slightly out of focus look to the rest of it. As has been said, either use a delay on the shutter release or weigh the tripod down.

Great capture.

Thanks for the feedback. I was using a 2 second delay on the shutter release, so I assume that the shake must have been either due to the tripod not being stable, or the effect of keeping image stabilisation on when the camera was on a tripod?

Have already jotted down all the tips and will give the picture another go in the next couple of weeks, hopefully with improved results

[RLucas]

Originally Posted by IMpalace

Thanks for the feedback. I was using a 2 second delay on the shutter release, so I assume that the shake must have been either due to the tripod not being stable, or the effect of keeping image stabilisation on when the camera was on a tripod?

Have already jotted down all the tips and will give the picture another go in the next couple of weeks, hopefully with improved results

Could be IS as well. It's always a good idea to turn it off when on a tripod. It can create it's on blur.

[IMpalace]

Originally Posted by RLucas

Could be IS as well. It's always a good idea to turn it off when on a tripod. It can create it's on blur.

Yes, unfortunately I didn't learn about this potential effect till after I had taken the shot. Have been turning it off whenever using a Tripod since!

[Doug Sundseth]

A couple of minor notes:

1) When you are shooting a 30" exposure, vibration caused by mirror slap and shutter release press, which will normally stop in around 0.1", isn't normally much of an issue. If you can't see people moving through the field of view (as you normally can't on a long exposure), a transitory vibration won't be noticeable.

There can be an exception for very bright point sources that blow out completely in the long exposure, since the correct exposure time for them is so small a portion of the full long exposure.

Shots in the 0.05" to 2" range are much more susceptible to motion/vibration at the shutter press.

2) If you don't need the long exposure to smooth out motion or give you a special effect, you might consider opening up your aperture and using a much shorter exposure. At 18mm, on that camera, even at f/4 your hyperfocal distance is only 14 feet (4.28m). You can probably hold focus throughout the field with a much wider aperture and get the same exposure in a fraction of the time with less long-exposure noise. And remember that that lens is probably sharpest around f/8, so you get that gain as well.

HTH