Moscow hotel at night - dramatic or dull?

[offwhitedog]

(2.5" f/8 ISO100, with Tamron 28-300mm at 184mm)

Myself, I like the high contrast of brightly lit building against night skyline... but I've had other feedback that it's dull & boring. Any critique of the composition would be great! Thanks

[dishingthedivine]

why is the top half of the building so lit up and the bottom not? I wish that the bottom had been lit up as well. I wouldn't say that the picture is dull, though!

[offwhitedog]

I wish I knew! Generally, the level where it goes dark is where it is no longer taller than the surrounding buildings so I guess they don't bother lighting it up... but why the particular side facing my vantage point is darker than the rest? I have no idea

If I spoke better Russian I would call them up and ask them to switch on

[mitchgreene]

"Dull" and "boring" are harsh terms. I don't think it is a particularly evocative image. I think it could be more dramatic with a tighter crop. The fact that the building is squarely in the center of the frame with a lot of distracting stuff around it makes for an image that doesn't really lend itself to close inspection. Tighten in on the building (is that a crane on the left?--don't need to see that), and maybe it won't be described as "boring." I like the subject, I just want to see more of it.

If your idea was to show it against the skyline, then I need to see more of that--since the skyline is pretty dull, you can etry to play up the contrast of dull vs ornate: don't know how I'd do that here.

[offwhitedog]

Thanks for the feedback.

What I was going for here was the high-contrast impact of bright building vs dark sky, which is why I didn't zoom in further (wanted to leave enough sky to make a background). Agree about the clutter (e.g. crane) in the dark - despite being dark, it does detract.

Maybe it could do with more sky and the building offset to the side? I'll take another look and see if there's anything else I could include in the shot to balance it... e.g. zoom out, building 1/3rd in from the left, moon 1/3rd in from the right...