Long exposure overpass

[krenka]

Took this one last night from an overpass. Not very happy with the results, would love any suggestions.

[Trader]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Did you have a specific question? If you include the EXIF data it would help us critique this shot. If you don't know how to do that, it is explained in the first post under 'Rules.'

[krenka]

Thanks trader. Not sure if there's an automatic way to include exif data but for this shot it is:

aperture: f/5, shutter speed: 30s, 14.0mm, iso 100, exposure bias: -07ev, using Canon 400d.

My issue with the shot is that I wanted to sky to show up but not blast the pic with the lights too much - no idea if that's possible. I'd also love to know how to avoid as much as possible the glare from the streetlights. Any tips would be great.

[Gulpa]

Wow, the sky is really nice! A shame the street lights do spoil the top half of the picture.

I'm only new to photography so can't give you much constructive advice, but I'm interested to read the opinions of those more versed in the trade.

I wonder if a change in the metering method would've solved the street light problem...

[krenka]

Thanks Gulpa. Not at all sure about light metering - it's the element of photography I'm most fuzzy on and basically haven't changed. For this pic it was set at centre weighted metering.

[Bigfoot]

Hi Krenka,

I haven't done this myself yet, though I've been wanting to do it for quite some time allready, so my experience in this is little.
I think that if you want to get the sky to show up, you need to go a bit earlier, at dusk, so the sky is still a bit lit. Then you can use a higher aperture and/or a shorter shuttertime and probably then the street lights will not be such a problem.
Good luck and I would like to see your result if you've tried again!

[krenka]

Ah, was wondering about that Bigfoot. I actually took the pic at about 10:30 at night. Maybe a half hour after sunset or so might be the better option, with a shorter shutterspeed as you suggested. Cheers.