Night Photography- What did I do wrongly?

[cyracles]

Hello guys,I am less than three months into photography. To be honest, this website has moved me from clueless to informed though i still suffer from some pitfalls of technique and composition. I took these photographs from an overhead bridge in Abuja, Nigeria. Based on what i've learnt from books and websites, i used aperture priority mode, a tripod and some long exposure time as prescribed by the camera.


The view is a naturally beautiful scene at night due to the arrangement of streetlights and my elevated point of view. I thought i could do nothing wrong, c'mon. I have the almighty Canon 1000d camera , i have a newly-purchased tripod and a few chapters ringing in my head. Fellows, i was wrong. While i like some of the pictures(optimism bias), they dont quite look like i expected them to.

Specs:
Camera: Canon Rebel 1000D
Lens: 18-55 IS, Kit lens.
Tripod.



I need you to tell me the things you felt i did wrong and suggest corrections(which i will promptly go and try).



However, i saved so much to even get this entry-level camera so buying a camera now is way way out of my league. Same applies to lens. A kind mentor of mine advised me to forget about better equipment for now, that i should master what is have for now...other things will follow naturally.

Here are the photos:
Flickr: Ife Martins.'s Photostream


Flickr advice and post-processing tips will also be hugely appreciated.
Thanks a lot.

[MitchellProut]

I agree with your friend in that it doesn't take the best of the best equipment to learn photography. You can learn with what you have. I started with a rebel XS and 18-135mm kit lens. I've recently moved up to some more serious equipment, but that only helped the quality of the pictures. What you take pictures of is the most important thing to learn!

Second of all, 3 months in, I would try a different genre of pictures than night photos! I'm not saying don't try, how else would you learn...but maybe focus on other, more basic styles that you can really zero in on developing the skill and knowledge needed to move forward.


My first thought in looking at your pictures is that you need to look into reading about subject and composition and really focus on what is interesting about the picture to you before you take it. With all the technical stuff to learn, it may seem like the first thing to study, but you will get the hang of that via trial and error, and with some research too....but the most important (and basic) facet of the picture is the subject/composition.

The horizon level is also an important part of the picture, don't neglect that aspect. For example, you set the horizon very low in several of the pictures but the subject/composition you chose (lights on a highway) will not allow for the proper exposure to let the stars into the picture. To get stars, you really need at least 30sec exposure. If you did that with this subject, the rest of the picture would be completely washed out. If you wanted to photograph the foreground, perhaps set your horizon higher in the picture and de-emphasize the sky which won't have any detail.

Just some thoughts, Best of luck !

[Krusty79]

I see some car headlights on the bridge, but no red tail lights. I was thinking some car tail light trails might add some interest and color to the shots.

You might play around with your white balance setting. If you shot RAW, you can adjust your white balance before converting to jpg. A lot of the shots have a yellowish cast.

I am assuming you downsized the files for uploading. I hope you're not really shooting at 800x600 resolution.

Some of the images have a lot of sky. I don't see much going on in the sky, so I wouldn't include so much of it in some of the shots. On a few shots, I see some kind of light trail in the sky - not sure what is causing that.

I would also say you should master the equipment you have now before upgrading.

[cyracles]

@Mitchell, thanks for the compositional advice.
@Krusty, I scaled down the image. I dont shoot at 800 x 600.
Then generally folks, i have not been shooting raw because since i'm still practising, i feel i should shoot jpeg straing and copy to computer for viewing. Should i shoot raw, even for practice. Yes or No, why do you think so?

[Krusty79]

Yes, always shoot RAW if you want to get the best out of your images. Memory is cheap these days. Your camera should have come with the Canon software that lets you edit your RAW files. I think it's called Digital Photo Professional.

RAW vs JPG explain it to me one more time

[MitchellProut]

I agree with him in that memory is cheap. However, if you are just practicing, and have no intention of selling your shots anytime soon. I don't see anything wrong with shooting in large jpeg for practice.

It's good experience to work with RAW, but it also can be a lot of unnecessary work to edit them while you are just learning.

I still shoot in jpeg alot when i'm "learning/practicing/playing around" ......but maybe I'm wrong too...

[milosh]

@ cyracles: I wanted to see the exif of your photos but you disabled that option. Never mind...

I think your biggest problem here is over exposure. Maybe the photos are not over exposed if strictly technically speaking, but they would benefit from less exposure. In night conditions, it is best to shoot in Manual mode and adjust the shutter speed and aperture by checking the results on your LCD. You had plenty of light here, that's why you were able to use Aperture priority mode. Often, in less lit night scenes, your light meter won't be of much help to you.


Regarding your composition...like Krusty said, there's a lot of sky in many of your photos, and yet the sky has no details (it's not interesting). In these situations, you should limit the amount of sky and focus more on your subject. Pointing your camera down would give you more dynamic and interesting shots.

[cyracles]

Big thanks for your encouraging input all, as usual. About shooting RAW, let me tell you something about myself and my interests. I do not really like event photography. I am more interested in taking fantastic shots that i can sell or input for competitions. I love photographing people but not in the fashion sense. I am more concerned about showing people's plight in the part of the world where i live(Nigeria). I however do not want to limit my abilities there. I wanna be decent all round but focus on shooting people in their habitat(usually below standard) to the world/exhibitions. So about RAW, i am patient enough to work on an image but for some emergency or quick momentary shots, i may be doing jpeg.

The next issue is this: if i shoot in raw like i did some images i'm attaching in this post(some of my colleagues and the sunset). How do i know if to touch an image or not or what kind of adjustments i need to put and where do i stop? It's quite gigantic. I just shot the following this evening, any thoughts?
Same usual 1000d and 18-55kit lens.

TV mode
Shutter speed=1/6
18mm focal length
3.5 f/stop

Flash was bounced off the ceiling at an angle i cant explain since i use an old model (settings-lacking) vivitar 728afc flash)- the nissin and canon models are a bit expensive here.

(Did i get the lingo right too?)
Waiting.
Thanks again.

[Krusty79]

It's hard to make a general statement about all of the new images you posted. You will develop a feel for when images are too bright/dark. You should become familiar with the histogram function in your camera. Your shots look pretty good, if not slightly underexposed. If you read the thread I posted, one of the main advantages of RAW is that you can make a lot of adjustments (white balance, saturation, brightness, sharpness, curves) at the RAW level before you convert to jpgs. You have a lot more leeway adjusting your RAW files before they get noisy compared to jpgs. Eventually, I believe you will appreciate that.

That doesn't mean you have to spend a lot of time editing RAW files. On a lot of my shots, I just adjust the image type from Neutral to Standard/Landscape/Portrait, adjust the brightness and sharpen. It only takes a minute. I can then convert it to a jpg and do any final editing.