Bridge at Night

[Kaye]

Would like to get some advise on how to improve this photo. My first try at night photography. Not sure if I should be using Ap. Mode, the settings I used, etc. ISO seems high.
Thanks



Exposure: 4
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 52 mm
Focal Length: 53.4 mm
ISO Speed: 1600
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash

[offwhitedog]

I love this shot ... the colour gradient in the dark sky & the bright lighting contrasting against it

I'd say go for ISO100 and therefore a longer exposure to get better quality, but I've looked at this shot close up and can't see much graininess... looks like there was some noise but it's been smoothed out, was this the in-camera processing or did you do this?

I'd also hazard a guess from the star patterns around the lights that you're taking the jpeg straight from the camera, have you considered working with the RAW image to get more tonal depth to your lowlights?

Also I can see you've got the in-camera sharpening turned up - if you do start working in RAW, you might want to turn this off and apply it in your post processing instead.

(edit...)
oh yes, and one last thing - the right side of the shot seems cropped just before the bridge ends, I'd suggest just expand the shot a little to include that

[Kaye]

Thank you for your comments and advise. I have my camera on the ISO Auto: Max: 1600. I would like to go back and photograph the bridge again and will try to set the ISO myself instead of letting the camera do it. My daughter (who has a D80) was also taking some photos of the bridge and never could get it just right. Her ISO was also very high.

The photo has no processing of any kind. It is straight off the camera. And yes, we have talked about trying RAW. To be honest, we have not up until now because of the $$ of the programs. But last week I downloaded ViewNX onto my computer and now I do have a program that I can at least learn with (and then if I like it, buy a nice program)..As you can tell, I don't know a lot about the RAW..

I didn't even notice the end of the bridge being gone on the right until you mentioned it. This really was my first night shot and I was just pleased you could actually tell what it was....But next, I'll make sure I get it all.

Again, Thank you!

[offwhitedog]

Personally, I use GIMP instead of photoshop... many people hate it because it's look & feel is not normal for Windows software, but it's FREE, very fully featured, and has plug-ins to support RAW formats. I'd say give it a try - there's a strong likelihood you won't like it, but if by some chance you do, it's like having full-blown photoshop for free

[TravisM]

First time critic here so keep that in mind (decided a good way to learn is to look at others work).

Camera suggestions:
1. Work in aperture setting mode and set for F/8 to F/11
2. Set ISO to 100
3. Doing 1 and 2 will increase shutter time, tripod is a must and either a remote trigger or delayed trigger would help
4. Advanced: google and learn about hyperfocal distance and set the focus manually to a little past that for your setup
5. Advanced: learn when and how to use raw (something I need to do)

Photo suggestions:
1. As mentioned, include the right support of the bridge, otherwise it visually hangs too much (I usually take about 10% more picture than I want and crop on the computer just in case I miss things like this)
2. Move the bridge up in the frame (closer to the rule of thirds). Or, move the bridge down in which case the sky acts like a matte that highlights the bridge (get the light grass out of the shot). I think I prefer the latter.
3. Rotate the image about 1 degree counter clockwise to get a flatter horizon

I am open to any critiques of my critique.

[Kaye]

Thanks for all of your opinions and advise. It is greatly appreciated. I did get my daughter to let me look at her photo's tonight (taken with Nikon D80) and below is one of her photographs. As I said before, we had never photographed anything at night before and we were both just practicing (or trying our best). We did enjoy ourselves and look forward to going back and really working at improving our bridge photo's the next time around.

[Kaye]

PS: She did a better job than I did keeping the whole bridge in the photograph.

[offwhitedog]

Sorry, I meant to make some more comments but real life got in the way...

About the 2 shots, actually I like the first one better - yeah the bridge is slightly cropped, but the slightly higher exposure gives a more interesting colour overall I think. Did your daughter shoot in RAW? if so, she can adjust the exposure level to some extent and create a new jpg.

You originally asked about camera settings? OK, well some general tips about night shooting (apologies if it's stuff you already know):

- don't let the camera make all the decisions for you!

- unless you are compelled to shoot handheld (which is not easy in the dark...), then the most flexible parameter is exposure time, so yes set the camera for aperture priority or manual mode

- go for the lowest ISO number your camera allows (usually 100), this will give you the least noise in the shot

- for aperture, it kind of depends on the kind of shot you want; you need to decide whether your priority is depth of field or sharpness; your lens will probably be sharpest with an aperture of 2-3 stops down from wide open, so if this is your main priority, you're probably looking at f/5.6 or f/8; but if you want depth of field, stop it down some more - f/11, f/16, f/22 (although you might start to get diffraction if you stop down too far); f/8 & f/11 are good compromise settings

- have you got a remote shutter release? if so use it, it will prevent the camera wobbling when you press the shutter; otherwise use the timer for a 5-10 second delay between pressing the button and taking the shot

- if you are going for sharpness as your priority, consider enabling the mirror lockup as well

- if the auto-focus struggles, you might need to help it out either by focussing manually (e.g. switch to live-view mode and go to max magnification, get the focus right, then switch back to shooting normally) or by putting one of the more sensitive focus points over a high contrast edge in the shot, focussing, then adjusting the composition to set the frame just how you want it (you will need to use the focus-lock function for this method)

- don't implicitly trust your camera's idea of what the exposure time should be! the trick here is to understand the metering settings for your camera; you will get most control of this if you set it to spot-metering and you deliberately choose what part of the shot to meter from; but whatever method you choose for metering, you will probably want to bracket above and below to make sure you cover the options

- final tip: have fun & experiment even with just 1 subject, take plenty of shots with various different settings and get a feel for what the effect of each combination gives you