Night at the Marina

[Drema Swader]

What do you think of this one? I know it is mighty dark, but I have lightened it all I dare without making the sky more purple (I have posted others at this spot taken at an earlier time, but I wanted a full on night scene)

Also, I think I missed the focus slightly. The background buildings seem to have a little sharper focus than the tall buildings that are the subject. What do you think?

Any comments are welcome.

[Michael Burton]

Other than WOW I am not sure what to say.

[Nick Weall]

Nice work ~ I wonder if it is simply an illusion as the two foreground buildings have curved windows, whereas the background buildings have more clearly defined rectangular windows ~ it will be interesting to see what others think.

It would be nice to see the same shot with mirror smooth water some time too

Congratulations ~

[Kevin Childress]

Quote Drema Swader:

What do you think of this one? I know it is mighty dark, but I have lightened it all I dare without making the sky more purple (I have posted others at this spot taken at an earlier time, but I wanted a full on night scene) Also, I think I missed the focus slightly. The background buildings seem to have a little sharper focus than the tall buildings that are the subject. What do you think?

Any comments are welcome.

Composition looks good. Like you said, mighty dark indeed. And you've also noted what some might say is a focus concern. It really sounds like you've already done all the critiqueing you might expect to gain on this one.

Since all comments are welcome: It seems like I remember your photos are never accompanied by EXIF ... what are we looking at here - particularly shutter speed?

[Drema Swader]

Quote Nick Weall:

Nice work ~ I wonder if it is simply an illusion as the two foreground buildings have curved windows, whereas the background buildings have more clearly defined rectangular windows ~ it will be interesting to see what others think.

It would be nice to see the same shot with mirror smooth water some time too

Congratulations ~

Thanks Nick. Looking at the original up close, I think it might indeed partly be the curved windows.

I do have one posted that has pretty smooth water (except for a few little ripples where a boat went through) that was taken earlier at about the same spot:
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/43912717
and another with an almost glass like surface that I'll post later.

Quote kevin childress:

Composition looks good. Like you said, mighty dark indeed. And you've also noted what some might say is a focus concern. It really sounds like you've already done all the critiqueing you might expect to gain on this one.

Since all comments are welcome: It seems like I remember your photos are never accompanied by EXIF ... what are we looking at here - particularly shutter speed?

Thanks Kevin. It's still good to hear opinions from others (and sometimes a surprise when others don't think your photo is as good as you do ) But I didn't expect a "Wow", thank you Michael.

The shutter speed was 13 seconds at F7.1 (ISO 100). The sky was actually blacker, but turned a bit purple when I tried to lighten the photo a bit.

[Kevin Childress]

Quote Drema Swader:

Thanks Kevin. It's still good to hear opinions from others (and sometimes a surprise when others don't think your photo is as good as you do )

The shutter speed was 13 seconds at F7.1 (ISO 100). The sky was actually blacker, but turned a bit purple when I tried to lighten the photo a bit.

I agree. I think you said it best by commenting that, “This forum is not a place where people can post their pictures just to have someone rave over them…”. Hopefully I didn't imply that I didn't like this photo. Your photo here has two elements that I really like working with in my own photography; night work and long exposures. You’ve heard me say this before but, we all see things differently. I asked about the shutter speed only to imagine how I would have done this one differently and to form an intelligent opinion of how I would change this photo to suit my personal taste, which I think we all tend to do when “critiquing” another artist’s work.

Although you expressed some concerns over focus, everything looks to be in acceptable order to me. I know that wide angle focus is difficult to gauge when we’re working in the dark. The two buildings in the middle ground is where the focus should be, and they look alright. I’m comfortable with how the rest of the image shaped up where DOF is concerned. You already know how to improve/change the DOF/sharpness ratio so I won’t get into that.

The only thing I would have done differently here is ran a longer exposure (assuming the gear allows such an action) to add more color appeal. The colors you have look good so I don’t find any fault here but there is some really nice color to be had in this sky. Obviously this color would have been developed further as the shutter remained open longer. In my experience, you would not have been at risk of overexposing or blowing out any of the areas that are “bright” such as office lights, street lamps, etc. The reflection on the building on the right may have been a concern with clipped highlights but maybe not.

The reflection certainly adds an interesting element. I like it – it’s definitely a keeper.

[davidcmc58]

Nice shot, Drema. Would you be kind enough to upload the full size (or somewhat larger size) version of this shot so that I can study it in detail? I seem to have issues with sharpness at full size for all my night time long exposure shots (not just the San Francisco shots under windy conditions). I like to know how sharp night photos can be. There is also no secret that I am a strong believer of large size photos for upload, critique, study, admiration or otherwise. At the current reduced upload size, the focusing looks just fine to my middle-aged eyes.

[Avagara]

Excellent choice of size for the photo, which covers up a multitude of sins of focus and graininess. A photo only has to be as good as its intended use, and absolute perfection is not possible.

On the composition, I think the two towers on the right have a far more interesting profile than the smaller tower and low rise buildings on the left. Here is an instance where the "rule of three" might be leading you astray, bringing in elements that don't contribute to the overall effect and may even detract.

Obviously, a really good photo overall.

[InstinctImages]

Very nice! Beautiful scene, nice composition, good exposure...it's all there.

[Drema Swader]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Quote Avagara:

On the composition, I think the two towers on the right have a far more interesting profile than the smaller tower and low rise buildings on the left. Here is an instance where the "rule of three" might be leading you astray, bringing in elements that don't contribute to the overall effect and may even detract.

Obviously, a really good photo overall.

So what is your recommendation Avagara... to crop out the smaller tower on the left (and have a square aspect ratio with the two towers centered in the picture)?

[Avagara]

That's what I was thinking. You could go that way with a simple crop, but I'd think you would have trouble cutting off the low rise building right up next to the tower. I might also try a different framing with the goal of isolating the two towers better (if possible).

[Drema Swader]

Quote davidcmc58:

Would you be kind enough to upload the full size (or somewhat larger size) version of this shot so that I can study it in detail

Here is the full scale size, David


And here is a version that I have cropped. leaving just the two building centered in the photo, as described by Avagara.

[davidcmc58]

Drema, thank you so much for your large size upload! I actually do agree with you that the focus was slightly off at the back buildings instead of the main subjects. However, they are all so sharp even at this blown up size that I do not see it as a problem. With this example I can establish a "target sharpness" for my own night shots. This really will go a long way for night shot newbies such as myself, David

[Avagara]

I thought the cropped version would work better, and I think it does, but maybe that's just me.

You really did a great job on the focus here, and I appreciate your discussion of the technique that goes into it