Night time in Florida

by Tom
(Opelika, AL)

Sea Towers condos - Madeira Bch, FL

Nikon D40
2008/02/15 19:11:32.6
JPEG (8-bit) Normal
Image Size: Large (3008 x 2000)
Color
Lens: 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6 G
Focal Length: 19mm
Exposure Mode: Shutter Priority
Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern
1 sec - F/3.5
Exposure Comp.: 0 EV
Sensitivity: ISO 200
Optimize Image: Normal
White Balance: Auto
AF Mode: AF-A
Flash Sync Mode:
Flash Mode:


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Night time photography can yield stunning results. There’s something special about all those lights twinkling against a darkened sky.

Let’s have a look through Tom’s shot and see what’s good, and what could be improved.

First the good. Night time photos often look better during those moments when it isn’t quite dark yet, when there’s still a little colour left in the sky. Tom’s taken his photo at the right moment – there’s deep yellows near the horizon, stretching into blues, then violets. We’ve also get a few high level clouds in there to help liven the sky up a bit.

Then there is the shooting position. Tom has positioned himself across from a lake so that the lights are reflected in the water. Remove the water, and the reflection goes, and with it a lot of the impact of the photo.

And the preparation – Tom either took a tripod with him to take this photo, or found a sturdy surface to rest his camera on. We can tell this because the metadata shows us that this photo was a one second exposure – too slow to get a good hand-held photo. You can read more about understanding exposure here.

And so we move onto improvements . . . the one thing that I am itching to correct in this photo is the angle. The photo is on a slant, and it looks like all that water is draining away to the right!

There is an easy fix for this – the crop tool. The crop tool doesn’t just crop photos, it can also be used to straighten them. Click here to read a digital photography tutorial on using the crop tool.

All in all, this is a decent enough photo, and I hope I’ve outlined some of the reasons why it’s good; and please Tom, dig out that crop tool!

Click for more digital night photography tips.

Ed.
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Read a hands on review here.