Nightscape of Golden Gate Bridge

[JLove60]

I took this shot with the help of a fence post. As a newbie to DSLR photography, I left my tripod 1200 miles away, oops. Anyway, I'm wondering if cropping the city lights out of the right side of the photo would help? Any suggestions for post processing, as this is how it came out of the camera? What would make this a prize winning photo? Thanks in advance for your critique.





Nikon D300
Focal Length: 16mm
ISO: 1600
Shutter Speed: 1.3s
Aperture: F/5.6
ExpComp: 0
WB: Auto
Taken: 8/7/2009 @ 8:50pm Pacific Time

[dcclark]

First, great colors and richness here -- I really like that.

Second, the right hand side of the photo is absolutely empty -- nothing to see there. You definitely need to crop it out, to balance things out.

Keep it up!

[EasternSierra]

Well...Your depth of field is not there...your apperature was too wide. For a shot like this to really, REALLY work...you need a tripod, and a narrow aperature.

There is also a lot of noise, due to the really high ISO. Using an ISO of 100 and an apperature of f/22 on a tripod, you would have had a 20 second exposure, or so, which would have given you wonderful aberrations on your lights, nice, soft water reflections, and solid, crisp focus from the front to the back. You really need the entire length of the bridge to be crisp and clean for this to work properly...

[JLove60]

Believe me I will ALWAYS be carrying my tripod from now on. I thought by using a higher ISO and lower Fstop I could shorten the hold time. After I saw the picture on my computer screen I kinda liked the lower (or is it higher) Fstop with the lighting blowout. Anyway, thanks for your comments and suggestions.

[ardentphotog]

I think it's beautiful....

[NIX74]

Composition wise it looks good, the idea is there except abit too far out, causing the right side abit empty. If there's a big round moon over there, it will make a whole lots of difference,

As many have mention, you really need a tripod for a good sharp night photography, guess this explained your high ISO and wide aperture setting. Guess for this picture, you can try cropping off sthe land on the right of the pic.

However something does puzzle me and I just can get over it, the light reflection on the water, it look so strange. There is light reflection on the right side of the bridge but nothing on the left. Look like it been super impost into it. Is this the condition of the bridge lighting ?

Can anyone explain how to improve the reflection effect. I will usually use longer exposure for this instant.

[sk66]

IMO, bring the top edge down and the right edge in, but DO NOT eliminate the city skyline to the right...it provides a "destination" for the leading line of the bridge.
I would also look to reduce the brightness a bit and boost the contrast.

I'm not too fond of the reflection of the bridge lights...

I agree about having greater DOF and reducing the noise levels....

[brasil0069]

The Colours are deep and rich, a crop to the right would help bring the bridge up front were it should be.

Mike

[dudley206098]

tripod tripod tripod
keep shooting