Going dark soon

[danemathieu]

1. In what area is critique to be sought?
Color, Composition
2. What one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
Poster type image

3. Under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
Catching the last minute of sun setting behind the cityscape

4. What the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
Sharpnest and color

Taken this photo using GD blue filter.

 

[Smiles88]

Hi, please take note, your horizon is tilted and due to usage of the Graduated Blue filter, your building lights are blue as well.

 

[eleveninth]

whats wrong with blue lights.

 

[danemathieu]

Eleveninth,
I second to u, on whats wrong with the blue lights,

Smile88,
I aligned the horizon base on the water, is it I suppose to align it on the bridge to the right side?

 

[Smiles88]

Eleveninth,
I second to u, on whats wrong with the blue lights,

Smile88,
I aligned the horizon base on the water, is it I suppose to align it on the bridge to the right side?

I don't know leh. I see already I got the feel tt it's slanted. I also not sure. :embrass:
Actually nothing wrong. But a little un-natural. I think it's just me.

 

[daredevil123]

Eleveninth,
I second to u, on whats wrong with the blue lights,

Smile88,
I aligned the horizon base on the water, is it I suppose to align it on the bridge to the right side?

Picture too small. Can't see clearly.

But from what I see in this small picture... it is not very pleasant.

You want blue lights, then make everything blue. Not half here half there.

And the picture looks really soft.

 

[ZerocoolAstra]

Picture too small. Can't see clearly.

But from what I see in this small picture... it is not very pleasant.

You want blue lights, then make everything blue. Not half here half there.

And the picture looks really soft.

The horizon has been wrongly corrected, is my opinion.
Because the right side is much closer to you than the left, in actual fact the 'horizon' is slightly slanted to the right.
What's most annoying is the tilt of the buildings, most likely caused by you aiming your camera upwards to fit in the buildings. Do try to use a spirit level and make sure your camera is level. This helps greatly.

The blue.... well, it's not even. Damn obvious on the left side. I find the blue unnecessary.

And also the photo isn't that sharp.

sky is nice though.... keep trying.

 

[coolthought]

Eleveninth,
I second to u, on whats wrong with the blue lights,

Smile88,
I aligned the horizon base on the water, is it I suppose to align it on the bridge to the right side?

Colour. personal preference, I prefer natural and warm colours as oppose to blue cold ghoulish light.

Verticals and horizontals. As observed in the photo. The waterline is horizontal but the brightest reflected lights around the fullerton are tilted. However, the buildings from the OUB centre and Maybank Towers to the rest of the buildings on the right are tilted left. Rest of the buildings on the left look straight.

Photo size. 600x407 pixels. 81.2 kb. You have uploaded a medium size photo with very low resolution for us to critique and comment.

4. What the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
Sharpnest and color

What are you trying to achieve here?
.

 

[danemathieu]

Colour. personal preference, I prefer natural and warm colours as oppose to blue cold ghoulish light.

Verticals and horizontals. As observed in the photo. The waterline is horizontal but the brightest reflected lights around the fullerton are tilted. However, the buildings from the OUB centre and Maybank Towers to the rest of the buildings on the right are tilted left. Rest of the buildings on the left look straight.

Photo size. 600x407 pixels. 81.2 kb. You have uploaded a medium size photo with very low resolution for us to critique and comment.

What are you trying to achieve here?
.

Coolthought, will tke note of your pointers..
Abt the image size, my apologies for that. First time to post a picture here. Next time will uploaud large size photo..
What im trying to achieve is a sharp decent night shot using a kit lens..Thanks

 

[daredevil123]

Coolthought, will tke note of your pointers..
Abt the image size, my apologies for that. First time to post a picture here. Next time will uploaud large size photo..
What im trying to achieve is a sharp decent night shot using a kit lens..Thanks

Sharp decent night shot is possible with a kit lens. In the quest for sharpness few things you need to get right:

1. focus need to be spot on.
2. need to eliminate all possibilities of vibrations during exposure.
3. get good contrast in your shot.

point 1: You can use hyperfocal distance focusing in landscape
http://darthbertz.blogspot.com/2010/07/getting-everything-into-focus.html

point 2: get a good stable tripod. Do not extend the center column. Weigh down the tripod if you need to. Avoid placing tripod on vibration prone platforms. Use mirror up feature. use a remote shutter release.

point 3: get your exposure right, not over exposed, not underexposed. use bracketing and layering if you need different exposures to tackle different parts of the frame.

And lastly, your picture is tilted to the left. You can read up this article on how to level the horizon in complex scenes.
http://darthbertz.blogspot.com/2010/06/leveling-horizon-in-complex.html

And I hope you realize by now that graduated color filters are pretty much useless if you are shooting digital. You can easily do the same thing in PP. In lightroom, for example, I apply a color GND in less than 5 seconds. And I can vary the softness or hardness of the graduation, also adjust the amount of the color added, I can even remove areas I do not want the color filter effect and I can vary the angle of the graduation.

GND, however are still very useful in balancing exposures.

 

[night86mare]

of course nothing is wrong with blue lights, just that there are pleasing palettes, where the color works in harmony, and there are unpleasant palettes, where the colors clash, or the whole frame is just flush with a heavy cast that is meaningless, i.e. it doesn't add to the mood.

will blue lights work? of course! do they work here, i can't say that they do for me.

 

[danemathieu]

Sharp decent night shot is possible with a kit lens. In the quest for sharpness few things you need to get right:

1. focus need to be spot on.
2. need to eliminate all possibilities of vibrations during exposure.
3. get good contrast in your shot.

point 1: You can use hyperfocal distance focusing in landscape
http://darthbertz.blogspot.com/2010/07/getting-everything-into-focus.html

point 2: get a good stable tripod. Do not extend the center column. Weigh down the tripod if you need to. Avoid placing tripod on vibration prone platforms. Use mirror up feature. use a remote shutter release.

point 3: get your exposure right, not over exposed, not underexposed. use bracketing and layering if you need different exposures to tackle different parts of the frame.

And lastly, your picture is tilted to the left. You can read up this article on how to level the horizon in complex scenes.
http://darthbertz.blogspot.com/2010/06/leveling-horizon-in-complex.html

And I hope you realize by now that graduated color filters are pretty much useless if you are shooting digital. You can easily do the same thing in PP. In lightroom, for example, I apply a color GND in less than 5 seconds. And I can vary the softness or hardness of the graduation, also adjust the amount of the color added, I can even remove areas I do not want the color filter effect and I can vary the angle of the graduation.

GND, however are still very useful in balancing exposures.

Thanks Daredevil123,
Will check on the link you provided and will shoot more and take notes of those tips the you refer..