What's wrong with these exposures?

[Greg McCary]

I'm not real concerned with the content of these shot but I would like to know how I could have made the pictures look better. I bracketed the picture starting a couple of stops underexposed and worked my way up. I shot at f/11 400 fuji film. Should I change f stop instead of shutter speed or what???? I think the third one is best is this as good as it could get. You guys pictures are so much better it seems.

[zrfraser]

For night shots I usually shoot at f/16 and change the shutter speeds accordingly. 400 speed film is fine, I use it all the time. The first one seems fine to me, but its late and may not be looking at it right. Be sure you have a tripod when doin night shots and make sure its level. I also use use my self time on my camera to trip the shutter, so it doesn't shake as much.

Z

[Dylan8i]

I like the first one as well, do you not like it because of the yellow tint? maybe try shooting it with a different ( not daylight) setting, ie for halogen or what ever those street lights are, and it might look more natural. not positive about that though.

[Sebastian]

Are you scanning these off of prints?

[GB1]

With regards to aperature I think that as long as you get the proper DOF that is fine. Each lens has an ideal f-stop for maximum sharpness and I read somewhere where it's about 2-3 stops under your minimum aperature - so if your lens goes to f22, it would be f 8 or f11.

Regarding the shots. The top two seems like your Fuji film got resiprosity failure using the long exposure times. That's were the 3 different layers of the film absorb light at different rates when using exposure times and you end up with unbalanced colors (and often incorrect exposures). The third one down from the top is imo the best, but it seems a little washed out and/or soft. Same with the bottom shot but even more so. But I dont understand the extreme color differences between the top two and bottom two - were they much, much different time exposures?

Like Seb, I wonder if you scanned in prints or have a film scanner here? Scanning can cause lose of sharpness. Either way, check your tripod for stability for the softness issue.

gb

[Greg McCary]

These are not scans. I had the prints put on cd when I had them developed. I also used a tripod and a cable release. when I took the pictures I bracketed the shots starting a couple of steps under exposed and worked up until I was overexposed. the pictures are not in this order as you see them.

[Dylan8i]

nevermind my comment, i was thnking you were shooting digital.