Failure attempt at Cityscape


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Gr|ever

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Nov 3, 2002
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Hi guyz.

Here's my attempt at the night shot of the city. Nothing impressive at I I feel. Why izzit like dat? I'm using a FujiS602Z & I brought my tripod along with me. I happily set up everything by Shears Bridge, hoping to take a magnificant view of our city. However, the picture turn out kinda blur, unsharp. I've seen azone's cityscape photo (azone! Can you hear me?!?!). He's using a FujiS602Z as well. But he's is so clear & sharp. But look at mine. Izzit because of special lens or filters? http://community.webshots.com/photo/71215814/71215955OYnzFV
 

wat are ur settings? this shot over-exposed to me, and u should lower ur ISO. try to use breezebrowser and sharpen ur pic...
 

The pic looks kinda grainy. What was the exposure settings ?
 

Oh... it was darker before. I brighten it abit with PS.

The settings were
Shutter: 6sec, aperture: F7, ISO: 200
 

Originally posted by Gr|ever
Hi guyz.

Here's my attempt at the night shot of the city. Nothing impressive at I I feel. Why izzit like dat? I'm using a FujiS602Z & I brought my tripod along with me. I happily set up everything by Shears Bridge, hoping to take a magnificant view of our city. However, the picture turn out kinda blur, unsharp. I've seen azone's cityscape photo (azone! Can you hear me?!?!). He's using a FujiS602Z as well. But he's is so clear & sharp. But look at mine. Izzit because of special lens or filters? http://community.webshots.com/photo/71215814/71215955OYnzFV

Few things u can do, use a more aggressive usm in photoshop, use lower iso, use the timer when taking pictures and most importantly, let the camera cool off after taking some shots. Can also try denoising the pic a bit.
 

Originally posted by Gr|ever
Oh... it was darker before. I brighten it abit with PS.

The settings were
Shutter: 6sec, aperture: F7, ISO: 200
did u use self-timer for this shot? in fact it looks quite ok, just overexposed and ISO too high...
 

ah, no wonder, you brightened it up, explaining the noise. Was it very dark before you brighten the pic? Cos the current one looks a bit too overexposed to me.

Yup, next time try ISO160, on a sturdy tripod, and use self-timer to trip the shutter. If exposure looks wrong, try again on the spot, don't rely on photoshop to salvage it.
 

Yeah.. I was rather dark. Too dark to see any solid details. So I brighten it up using PS. Come to think of it, most of the pics taken from my S602Z are always too dark & always needs touch up on PS. :what:

I had a tripod. And I used the timer too. Anyway, here's another 1. It's untouched. Obviously it's overexposed. The settings..
S: 6s
A: F7
ISO: 200

http://community.webshots.com/photo/71215814/71222222YHeqCs
 

Originally posted by Gr|ever
Yeah.. I was rather dark. Too dark to see any solid details. So I brighten it up using PS. Come to think of it, most of the pics taken from my S602Z are always too dark & always needs touch up on PS. :what:

Try using F11 at 15sec (iso160).
Also adjust the brightness level of your lcd to its minimum.
 

Another advice for PS.

Instead of using the brightness and contrast adjustment, adjust the levels instead. That way you can maximize the histogram so that the dark portions remain dark.

Here's what I managed to salvage from your picture. Re-adjusted the levels and curves, and applied some USM.

aem.jpg


- Roy
 

Thanx a lot Roy! Seriously, it does look better; better contrast & sharpness! I understand levels & curves. But what's USM?

And thanx to the rest for your comments. But anymore tips on taking night shots? Like I mentioned, I've seen some other nightshots using S602Z as well. And it looks much better than mine. Izzit because of lens & filters? Do they really play a major part?
 

the blur shots may be due to large vecihles passing by the bridge when u are taking a long exposure

hope this helps
 

Originally posted by Gr|ever
Thanx a lot Roy! Seriously, it does look better; better contrast & sharpness! I understand levels & curves. But what's USM?
....

Hi,

You are welcomed.

USM is Unsharp mask. it can be found under Filters>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask.

It is a sharpening tool that allows you to fine-tune the shaprening effect.

- Roy
 

Hi Gr|ever,

The reason that your pic is not that sharp could be due to the large heavy vehicles passing by, causing the ground to tremble. A few of my shots were a little blur due to that. So give a quick check to see if any large trucks are coming your way before you press the shutter (set timer 2 secs). Preview after taking and see if your pic is sharp or not. If not, retake again. A little sharpening in PS will bring out the details later on.

No special filters were used for me. Do take note on getting the correct exposure, so that you do not need to edit the brightness/levels/curves in PS. Try by using, lets say, F8 with 10secs and ISO 160. If too bright, reduce to 8 secs and so on. Make sure the fullerton hotel is not overexposed coz that is the brightest area in the whole image.

And take note of the horizon too. Your pics are slanted if you noticed. Use the Grid Lines mode in the S602. Its very useful for this.

If you can perfect on the above 3 points, you should be able to get something like this:
dscf0045_std.jpg

F7.1, 12 secs, ISO 160

Oh yes, try reaching there earlier so that you can capture the blue sky as well. Its alot nicer. ;)
 

And the difference with Azone shot and your shot is the office building lights..
 

Nice shot Azone, but is it just me or do the lights look oversharpened?
Where do you meter the shot?
 

Oh yeah... I forgot to mentioned the vehicles passing by. Sometimes it does cause a bit of quake.

And another point to add... It's the time of the week. I dunno which day you (azone) took the pic. I suppose it's a weekday evening? I notice that most of the lights in the building were on. Wherase for me, I took the pic on a Sunday night; most lights were off.

Thanx everyone for all the comments. I might wanna try this shot again.
 

Originally posted by thoa_rs
Nice shot Azone, but is it just me or do the lights look oversharpened?
Where do you meter the shot?
Thanks. I think the sharpening is ok for me.

No metering was done. I used Manual mode. Like i explained earlier, i trial and error a bit before deciding on the settings to use (no choice, the longest shutter speed for Av, Tv and P mode is 3 secs only) .
 

Actually you just need to know where to meter. The spot meter on the 602 is very accurate, you can trust it in almost all circumstances when using manual mode.
 

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