B&W street shot

[MehdiR]

DSLR: Nikon D5000
Lens: Nikkor 18-55mm

PP: Lightroom (w/ Silver Efex Pro) and Photoshop (w/ Viveza)

Hello everyone,

Basically, this is my first shot. Ever. I can't recall myself shooting a picture, may it be with a cellphone, a compact or any other device that takes pics. Being a graphic designer, i had to get my hands on a DSLR eventually, so i read all i could about composition, basic rules of photography etc, and after a month of documentation, i finally got my D5000 today, and here's my very first shot

[windrider86]

Hi, welcome to DPS.

Seeing that you use Silver Efex and I have the same tool, it appears you used the high key preset.
Whats lacking here is the lack of contrast and the blown out skies are also a distraction.
You can use Silver Efex to select certain areas of your image to brighten or darken and to also increase or decrease sections you want.
Also ask your self, what is the main focus of my photo. Is it a building or perhaps the sky?

[MehdiR]

Thank you for your reply. Actually, the main focus is the sky I can't exactly recall the preset i used, but i'm pretty sure it's not high key. I used Viveza back in photoshop to add light and contrast with the selective tool.

[windrider86]

Here you go:

Camera: Nikon D5000
Exposure: 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture: f/22.0
Focal Length: 18 mm
Exposure: 0.00
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: +1 EV
Flash: No Flash

Your photos have emebedded this information within the file and can be found on your Flickr site. If you look under more properties thats where it is

I can certainly see the look you were after!
The buildings on the left that are lighter have a nice effect to them with the shadows from the clouds. I might be inclined to crop this down quite abit to get rid of the sky areas that are blown out. This will also help with your composition. If you look at the photo it's hard to tell what you are looking at because it's so busy. By that I mean your focal point.
Maybe even remove some of the bottom of the image, right up to the base of the buildings to remove some o fthe clutter on the bottom part.