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First of all I haven't upgraded to a D90 (yet) this was taken with my cousin's camera. I was a bit late in the day taking this as it was pitch black. Not the best idea when using an unfamiliar piece of kit
Both shots came out under exposed by one to two stops and I didn't realise until I put them on the laptop that the exposure time had topped out at 30s. Do I need to be in manual to increase this?
This was taken at Lake Garda, Italy a short walk from our hotel in Riva.
I look forward to your comments.
Phil
| Brand: | Nikon CORPORATION |
| Camera: | Nikon D90  Check out Nikon Nation! |
| Lens: | 18.0-105.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 |
| Recording media: | RAW (digital) |
| Date Taken: | 3 Apr 2011 - 8:33 PM |
| Focal Length: | 22mm |
| Lens Max Aperture: | f/3.7 |
| Aperture: | f/18.0 |
| Shutter Speed: | 30sec |
| Exposure Comp: | 0.0 |
| ISO: | 200 |
| Exposure Mode: | Aperture-priority AE |
| Metering Mode: | Multi-segment |
| Flash: | No Flash |
| Title: | Harbour Lights |
| Username: | 
Philo |
| Uploaded: | 20 Apr 2011 - 6:07 AM |
| Tags: | Lake garda, Landscape / travel |
| VS Mode Rating |
101 (100% won) These stats show the percentage of wins and the rating score that your photo has achieved. You can go to the VS Mode by clicking on this icon. Signup to e2Signup to e2 to see which photo this has won or lost against in the vs mode |
| Votes: | Voting Disabled |
 | Critique Wanted |
| Modifications Welcome (Upload a Modification) |
 | Variant - Tests |
Comments
Both are decent shots, and yes, you would need to go onto bulb to get longer than 30 sec. But you will very rarely need it - not here. Exposure is quite good, but everything is a bit to the bottom of the frame and you need to spot out that bright light/flag or whatever it is. Very eye catching.
Generally a good pair of images.
Paul
Hi Phil, a pleasing set of images, though i think V2 is much better than V1 as i feel that the yacht and the background sort of compete in V1. I think the exposure seems to be ok, but i would probably have underexposed this one slightly or metered for exposing the RHS of the image which due to the concentration of the lights on that side seems a little too bright 
which sort of gives the impression of one big source of light rather than a chain of light stars, i typically go for manual mode for night shots, to get the exposure right, in this case probably a lower f value of around f/13-16 would have allowed you to take a shorter exposure. I would also try and crop this a bit from the top since the shoreline is a bit distance a letter box crop might bring the subject into more prominance. I have done a rough mod where i tried to lower the temp a bit cloned out the light source (iam assuming its coming from a building) in the top middle of the image and then cropped a bit from the left and the top. Of course these are just my suggestions from my little experience in shooting in the night V2 as it stands looks good too
PS : - Looks like i uploaded the wrong mod, please ignore it # 2 is the correct one.
Cheers
Prabh
Many thanks Paul I will have to give manual a try but as you say probably not needed for this shot. The bright light on the mountain side is actually a castle but I guess it is too small and just serves as a distraction.
Prabh, thanks again you seem to be doing a good job on mods for my shots. Your crop loses the dead space and castle and, as such, works rather well. Interestingly the exposure looks more like the original so I think I may have tried to add too much light to reveal detail in the mountain.
All good learning
Cheers,
Phil
Hi Phil,
I think that this is one of those shots, or at least the original is, that you could process in a dozen different ways and you'd end up with a dozen equally pleasing images!
I very much prefer the processing of the buildings and quaysides in V1 but obviously, the sky/background hasn't worked quite so well. I'd guess you've used the shadows/highlights tool?
I also think that the inclusion of the yacht makes the shot.
And lose the castle.
I'm not sure quite what I can achieve here but I might try a mod.
Hope this helps.
Bren.
Hi again Phil,
I've tried all sorts on this and there's no easy fix that I can see.
I've uploaded a mod. in which I've made a few adjustments using shadows/highlights but they're very slight and don't really show at the size of the mod. I've removed the castle and its reflection and carried out some pretty specific cloning on the sky. I've tried to end up with what looks something like ambient light above the buildings fading to darkness. It's not entirely successful but hopefully, you'll get the idea.
As I've already said, it's difficult to see changes in mods. of this size unless they're fairly dramatic changes and really, these aren't!
Anyway, hope it's OK.
Bren.
Hmmm.
Sorry. That hasn't fared at all well in the transition from here to there.
I'd retained much better exposure in the bright bits than is showing in my mod.
Hi Bren, you seem to have been quite busy whilst I was at work. Okay your mod may not have turned out quite as planned but I do get where you are coming from. As I said above I have tried too hard to reveal detail in the mountain (no sky present in the shot btw) and need to start from scratch again.
Glad you like the yacht as I think it adds depth to an otherwise flat shot.
Your valuable input is much appreciated as always.
Phil
Hi Phil,
Glad if it's helpful, even if it didn't quite work.
The version I had here, was much more punchy and definitely sharper.
I'm sure that there's something in the uploading of mods. process that sometimes causes some deterioration. This isn't the first time this has happened to one of mine.
They're reproduced at a much smaller size than the OPs' shots that we download to work on and I'm wondering if the subsequent resizing to make the mods. smaller is the cause of it.
I'm going to try resizing mods. myself to whatever size they need to be (I'll download one and see) and we'll see if that makes a difference. Sadly, I've already deleted this one. It would have been an ideal candidate to try out my theory.
Cheers,
Bren.
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