Arc De Triump Nite Scene


Dayan

New Member
Mar 4, 2011
21
0
0
1. in what area is critique to be sought?
I would like to seek comment and advise on exposure. Any other valuable comments/advice are welcome too

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
To capture the stream of light rays from the moving vehicles with focus on a stationary subject (i.e focus point), as seen in many magazines, pic from this forum

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
Pic was taken on a chilly nite in May. Emotionally, I was excited as this will be the first time I took a nite shoot with a tripod.

4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
Was uncomfortable and dissatified with the blurred branch on right side of picture. However, as a novice I like the pic but would like to seek advice how I can improve my nite shoot technique.

Thanks for commenting


DSC_2216.jpg
 

Was it raining? Can see some raindrops on the right side.
Exposure is ok. Would've preferred a tighter crop (crop off the trees on top).
Composition wise, I think you can try taking from the front? Looks more symmetrical. ^^
 

derrickder

Yes, it was about to rain. Thanks for comment.
 

I like the color of the shot, the white balance seems fine for me.
I like the angle, in particular it's a good idea to put the eiffel tower in the background.
I would crop off the tree leaves as they are more a distraction (or alternatively put more of the trees).
but the picture seems somehow blur maybe the tripod moved a little bit ? (or did you sharpen the picture after the resizing?)
I would try to bring a tad more contrast in the image (in particular make the blacks darker,the highlights seems good to me).
 

Eqesg

Thanks for your input and comment. Agreed with your comment on the tree leaves. Yes, I think the tripod did shaked a bit as that nite was windy. Will do some contrasting to see how it goes.

BTW, I tried taking some pic of myself with the Arc De Triumph as the focal pt, with variuos exposure timing (i.e 6 to 20 sec), but I always appeared blurr, can teach how to take such pic? Apology if question seems elementary as I m still a newbie.

Regards
dayan
 

it seems that you need to lower the exposure time I would suggest below 1/50 so that you don't have enough time to move.
you will need to increase the iso, an quite likely to use a flash as well.

Cheers
 

Thank you for the advice and suggestion on how to take such pic. Will try during June at RWS.

Regards
Dayan
 

Alternatively you could also try metering against the scene so that it wont be overexpose/underexpose then use a fill flash to properly expose yourself...

1: Meter against background using the M mode
2: Use the metered setting and focus on the subject
3: Use the appropriate flash power to lit the subject
4: Snap

Senior please correct me if im wrong in anyway.
 

The picture seems a little blur. Could be an unstable tripod, strong winds or vibrations from cars.

I also see some bright equal sized spots on the sky. They might be ghosting, or clone/heal brushes not done right.

I would have preferred a much different angle, shooting the arc straight on.
 

Hello Dayan,

Thank you for sharing your work.
Apart from what the previous CSers have raised about some slight issues with (i) sharpness, (ii) the distraction from the leaves and (iii) some droplet-like artefacts on the front element (or filter) of the lens, allow me to just raised several points:

  • I think the exposure is fine. The orangey hue of the arc is fine in my opinion, as it conveys the mood.
  • There is really no need to use flash in any way, for the structure being so huge and so far there is no possibility of any of our conventional flashes to light it up.
  • Since you are already on tripod, you should maximise it by using as low a base ISO as you can and not bump up your ISO. I thought I'd just raise this point to share.
  • I read that you would like to emphasize the streaks of car lamps on the road. In my opinion, to do that and to have a little more emphasis of these trails against the arc, you could lower your camera much more to almost the ground level and do another exposure from this position, a little more zoomed in towards the arc. This would change the perspective drastically and perhaps achieve what you would like.

Sorry for a long post here.
Merely my humble opinion.
 

Hello Dayan,

Thank you for sharing your work.
Apart from what the previous CSers have raised about some slight issues with (i) sharpness, (ii) the distraction from the leaves and (iii) some droplet-like artefacts on the front element (or filter) of the lens, allow me to just raised several points:

  • I think the exposure is fine. The orangey hue of the arc is fine in my opinion, as it conveys the mood.
  • There is really no need to use flash in any way, for the structure being so huge and so far there is no possibility of any of our conventional flashes to light it up.
  • Since you are already on tripod, you should maximise it by using as low a base ISO as you can and not bump up your ISO. I thought I'd just raise this point to share.
  • I read that you would like to emphasize the streaks of car lamps on the road. In my opinion, to do that and to have a little more emphasis of these trails against the arc, you could lower your camera much more to almost the ground level and do another exposure from this position, a little more zoomed in towards the arc. This would change the perspective drastically and perhaps achieve what you would like.

Sorry for a long post here.
Merely my humble opinion.

Hi limwhow bro! The flash issue was to answer him on how to take people as the main subject against the structure background. ;)

I hope this doesn't confuse him to as and when he should or should not use flash. haha..
 

Hi limwhow bro! The flash issue was to answer him on how to take people as the main subject against the structure background. ;)

I hope this doesn't confuse him to as and when he should or should not use flash. haha..

Certainly, JweiH, certainly you have a good point.
Yes, if he were to capture some human subjects closer to the foreground. Yes, certainly.
Haha... I think for this shot, perhaps Dayan was going for the light streaks from the vehicles. My thoughts, my thoughts.
 

Hi All

Really join the right forum as I wanted to learn from all about photography. Great comments and views how I can improve. Now I saw the spotting too, how can I ensure such things do not appear again, or is it my camera being dirty or something?
 

Hi!

i agree with limwhow on going lower. perhaps if focus was on the light streams you might want to try going nearer to the cars. The trails of lights are kind of small and too low now.

if you want to take a photo of yourself with the background, i also agree that the best is to use a flash. I had to experiment many times to get it right, basically the camera settings are still set to expose the background (i.e. the arc) properly, and the flash is set on 2nd curtain sync (flash fires just before shutter closes). I try to keep as still as possible during the time the shutter is open and especially so during the last flash. i presume you're using a remote with at least a 2second trigger, otherwise you'll be a little shaky after running to the camera, and it also might not be focussing in the correct place (i.e on you). Using a bigger value for Av (smaller aperture helps to get more objects in focus so higher chance you'll be in focus) you'll most likely have to diffuse the flash or lower its power though to avoid overexposing yourself, unless you're quite a distance away. I believe that the nearby surroundings will also be lit up, so if you don't want that, take another similar shot with the camera still on the tripod (using same settings for shutter, aperture, iso) right after your shot with yourself, and blend those 2 shots in post process. Quite alot to do, but best is to try it out for yourself and tweak along the way.

hope that helps!
 

Hi All

Really join the right forum as I wanted to learn from all about photography. Great comments and views how I can improve. Now I saw the spotting too, how can I ensure such things do not appear again, or is it my camera being dirty or something?

Perhaps I could share my own humble experience with you pertaining to the 'spots'.
I have found that there was once rain drops upon my filter (of the lens) that I did not clean off, and which dried off leaving marks.
Generally these marks are not so visible if we use a wider aperture of say, f/2.8. But once we are on a smaller aperture (f/8, f/11) they become very obvious.
Thus I have learned to clean my lenses not only during a rain storm, but also AFTER that when I am back in the hotel.
I have also stopped using filters for my lenses (this is just me. You really don't need to, if you are comfortable having them on your lenses) as my lenses are all hooded and thus protect the front elements sufficiently well.