Corner Store

[Xia_Ke]

Played around a bit earlier with some long exposure night shots. This one was about a minute and a half exposure using a Cokin ND4 filter. This was my first real attempt doing this type of shot. Any suggestions?

[Greg McCary]

Unless you were after trail on the car lights you probably would have done better without the ND. You did good using a high F/stop creating a star effect with the street lights but the pumps and light above them are blown out to much. Balancing shoots like his can be very hard, but I think here you are overexposed. I rarely ever have exposures over 20 or 30 secs. But I always take plenty shots at different exposures, shoot in RAW format and then you have plenty to work with when you get home.

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks for the input Greg The main thing I was after was the trails from the cars, hence the long exposure, f/22, and ND4 filter. The exposure was about the minimum time it took for the cars to fully travel in and out of frame. This was actually practice for an idea I have for round 6 of the LPS contest. Luckily the place where I plan to take the shot for the contest only requires a maximum travel time of about 20 seconds for the cars to go in frame and out of frame. Also, there are no street lights there so shouldn't have any problems with light blow out. I just hope there's plenty of traffic before the light is gone from the sky

[Frog]

There may be light problems but I like the composition.
If you want suggestions, I suggest you do more of it because you're on a good track.

[readingr]

Is it me or does this look soft? It could be the downgrading for the web or just needs sharpening a tad.

For exposure this long you really need a sturdy platfor to get pin sharp photos.

I also think that you need to tighten up the composition on the right to focus on the store, crop out the building on the right.

Good attempt but the use of the ND seems an overkill for this image and could be the cause of internal reflections causing some of the softness I see.

At night I try not to use filters just because of this issue of internal reflections. On an SLR I would also consider blocking off the viewfinder so that you have no light creeping in from behind and lock up the shutter to minimise vibration.

Roger

[SmartWombat]

I disagree, I'd crop the tree and car on the left.
The tail lights leading into the picture on the right are too important to cut out and you'd lose them along with the building.

[photophorous]

For a first attempt, I think you did very well.

The best night shots aren't really taken at night. They're usually taken just after the sun goes down, but while there is still some ambient light and some blue in the sky. Judging by your sky, this one looks like it wasn't too long after sunset. I'd suggest doing it a little earlier to help balance the ambient light with the artificial lights. That might mean you need a darker ND filter to get an exposure long enough for the car light trails.

My suggestion for things like this is to start shooting right after sunset and keep shooting until it's completely dark. Then you have a range of photos that show how tiny changes in the light level can make big differences in the over all look. Do that a few times and you'll learn to see when the light is just right. It might not be when you would expect.

Paul

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks for the input guys

Frog: I hope to do more in the future, only problem is I think tonight will be the only night I can get to the spot to shoot for the contest entry. Pray with me that the rain holds off

Roger: I noticed it was little soft as well but couldn't figure out what it was.... until this morning. Went to pack up my ND4 for tonight and noticed there were finger prints all over it. DOH! As for the need for the long exposure, the main thing I wanted with the shot was to have full trails for the car lights from the point of entering the scene to when the lights exit the scene. As for the building on the right, I'm not a big fan of it either but, opted to not crop it out as I wanted to leave in the extra car lights heading out of frame on the right.

Paul (SmartWombat): I agree with you on the tail lights on the right. I had also thought about cropping some of the left but, I kind of liked the green glow of the light against the trees. Think I'd be better off without them?

Paul (photophorous): I was outside shooting this for about 20 minutes and this was at the end of that time. I agree that the earlier light was a lot better, however there were no cars on the road really and the trails were one of the main things I was after. This shot was well after I should have been shooting. There was a fair bit of processing to get the light levels to the point they're at. I have to listen to people outside revving their engines none stop 24/7, then the 20 minutes I want to shoot there's no one around! Figures huh?...LOL

[jkriminger]

I like the colors here...I think this might be a nice shot without the emphasis on the car lights and concentrating on the other lighting and detail. Nice picture.

[Xia_Ke]

I like the colors here...I think this might be a nice shot without the emphasis on the car lights and concentrating on the other lighting and detail. Nice picture.

I agree it would be better as a more focused shot on the store. The whole purpose of the shot though was for practice with long exposures for car light trails as that will be the main part of a different photo I want to do. This was just an experimentation for that and figured I would work the car trails into a shot of the store.