LakeCity

[Avijeet]

I am very new to photography and got my hands on D5100 just 2 weeks back.
This is in my town Raipur (India)



I shot this one evening recently. I wanted the small vehicle trails so exposed it for long. But had no tripod so took it somehow keeping the camera on a bag that too on a bike.

How could I have made the shot better? Please suggest..

Exif- f/10 10s ISO100 (focal length 40mm)
----------------------------------------------------------
Nikon D5100 18-55mmVR
----------------------------------------------------------

[paiges]

The horizon should be level.

[navcom]

Hi and welcome!

The exposure looks fairly decent but a tripod would definitely have helped. For long exposures it's a necessity. And Paiges is right...the horizon is very crooked. Easy to fix in post processing though.

I think what you need to do most to improve shots like this is think more about the composition versus just capturing a picture. Placement of elements in a scene like this is critical.

A couple books I would recommend to learn more about landscape composition and how to "think" like a photographer...

Developing Vision and Style by Charlie Waite
Mastering Photographic Composition by Alain Briot
Visual Flow by Ian Plant

Hope that helps!

Jeff

[Darren C]

Well done with the makeshift 'bikepod'! Whilst ideally the horizon should be level, I'm wondering if a clockwise rotation to level it may make the buildings slant?
I'd give it a bit of a crop. Take some of the black sky off the top to put the horizon on the top third (see Rule of Thirds composition tutorials for details), a little off the bottom, cut off the large poster on the left & a similar amount on the right where the very bright buildings draw the eye to the edge of the image.
Good luck!

[Krusty79]

If your goal was to show us the light trails, you'll need to get closer because they are lost in this image. When you compose skyline shots, it helps if there is a building that stands out that can act as your subject or focal point. Without that, the eye doesn't have any place to settle and it doesn't hold the viewer's interest.

[dcassat]

I like this image quite a bit. The reflections are interesting and pleasing. My only suggestion is to crop it so that you don't have 1/2 buildings or signs at the ends. I wish the sign were whole as the ability to read it would give the shot more character.

Of course, level it, that's a good thing.

Then my best advice is to shoot like crazy taking time to critique your photos and what you like and don't. That exercise will take you far.

Oh yeah, read, ... lots.

Michael Freeman's The Photographer's Eye is wonderful for composition basics and several things that most of us don't really think about.

[Avijeet]

About the crooked horizon, i want to say that actually its because of the perspective. I was not exactly in front of it. I tried in post processing but it actuallly made the reflections non-vertical that would make it even weird. So I just thought to keep the reflections perfectly vertical because according to physics it comes first. One end is nearer and other is little far away. Moreover the road has a slight inclination too...
I felt the same first but it wasnt possible keeping the reflections in mind
But I would try my best to improve it next time.
Thanks for all your suggestions