Late Night Bridge

[>JJ<]

Ok guys here is a panoramic picture I took of a bridge in my hometown of Brisbane, Australia. (Victoria Bridge).

Please be really mean in your critique, thanks.

JJ.

[Steph_B]

Please be really mean in your critique, thanks.
JJ.

Taking bridges in the night is not an easy thing to do. I've tried! I should post them sometime...

The good: I like the colors of the building that are reflecting in the water. I think this scene merits frequent visits. ... and definitely merits a good pic!

The bad: everyhting seems to be a bit tilted. A good idea would be to straighten the water. The buildings will also look better.
The highlights are totally washed out! Basically, you both have totally black shadow and totally white highlight. This is rather typical when you take a pic by night... Night photography is not easy and quite often the best shots are taken directly after sunset. There is still a bit of ambient light left to avoid having totally black skies. After that you just expose for the highlights and you should get good results.

The advice: try to go back there just after sunset, and use a long exposure (15-30 sec) to blur the water. The results are often quite spectacular. This will also give you de facto a very deep DOF. Obviously you will need a tripod! If you shoot film, do not forget the reciprocity failure: if your exposure is longer than 1-2 seconds, I usually add 1/3 to 1/2 EV. If the exposure is longer than 10-15 seconds, I add a full 1 EV. If it's even longer, I add 1 1/2 EV..... I am shooting Velvia. Other films will have different characteristics.

Cheers,

Steph.

[Clicker]

Ok guys here is a panoramic picture I took of a bridge in my hometown of Brisbane, Australia. (Victoria Bridge).

Please be really mean in your critique, thanks.

JJ.

I like this photo for its abstract quality, the bridge itself is really funky! and funky is goooood... Maybe even more of a tilt to emphasize the dynamic shape of the bridge? I would get rid of the tall building on the right, as it competes for attention!

[Steph_B]

I like this photo for its abstract quality, the bridge itself is really funky! and funky is goooood... Maybe even more of a tilt to emphasize the dynamic shape of the bridge? I would get rid of the tall building on the right, as it competes for attention!

Hey! your idea of a tilt is not bad! I like that!

[>JJ<]

The bad: everyhting seems to be a bit tilted. A good idea would be to straighten the water. The buildings will also look better.

The highlights are totally washed out! Basically, you both have totally black shadow and totally white highlight. This is rather typical when you take a pic by night... Night photography is not easy and quite often the best shots are taken directly after sunset. There is still a bit of ambient light left to avoid having totally black skies. After that you just expose for the highlights and you should get good results.
.

Gday Steph_B and thanks for the critical feedback!!!

I agree about your point on the image being tilted, I did notice this, thanks for pointing it out!

I will go back and do the shoot again, the only trouble is that my digital camera has a max exposure time of ....wait for it........2 seconds (very very ****).

I will go back though, mark my words I am set in making this picture the best it can be.

[>JJ<]

I like this photo for its abstract quality, the bridge itself is really funky! and funky is goooood... Maybe even more of a tilt to emphasize the dynamic shape of the bridge? I would get rid of the tall building on the right, as it competes for attention!

Gday clicker, thanks for the support!!. Thanks for the feedback also, i tried your erase of the building, (it was that one right), i personally like it with the building in it.