Nighttime - London Bridge

[bard6817]

I've always prefered dusk and night time photography and had a go myself...

Would love to get a bit of feedback on my positioning and technique.

I used a collapsed tipod on a small wall nearby & had to use my 18-55 kit lens and used a remote shutter.

Shot in Appeture Priority Mode.

Shutter speed 4

Appeture Value 13

ISO 100

Focal Length 47mm

White Balance Mode = Auto

I shot in RAW mode, so i had the opportunity to adjust the white balance in Photoshop in order to get the just the right amount of darkness in the background I felt was right.

I've also cropped the image slightly, but other than that I've made no alterations. If any, I would probably go for removing the barge and boats which break up the water in the scene.

As a beginner, don't be too harsh on me.. Really was one of my first attempts.



thanks

[balmans]

Its a very nice picture,the light pillars were a distraction but a overall great picture

cheers,

dev

[Keef]

Nice picture but a small point - It is Tower Bridge.

[bard6817]

lol... Good point! lol.

[Andrew Waters]

:idea:

You are right about the boats. Remove them.

On your positioning: since the tall lights in the foreground are a part of the scene, reposition to include one on your lower left if possibleso the line is unbroken. This way the lower left of the frame will be in balance with the rest. There issome clutter to the left of the gentleman (in the bottom right of the picture.)

And I realize sometimes positioning just can't be had. That said, I certainly would have taken the picture anyway because of the content. :-)

[bard6817]

Think you have a great point there, about the missing 4th pillar.

If i recall, i think i was probably trying to exclude as much of the boat on thebottom left of the picture which would have been included ifthe 4th pillar was included.

But now i see the 4th pillar is missing, i should have gone for removal of the boat later in Photoshop.

That said, to be honest, i really didn't see the pillars as having any balance when i was setting up.

Much appreciated feedback,

thanks

[Andrew Waters]

Further, whenever you lift your camera to your eye to take a picture you should automatically be aware of the surroundings near your subject. Take the time to look around your viewfinder to see how it can work. Learnto see the spacing around the frame.On the other handif you don't have time and it is a once-in-a-lifetime picture then bombs away; with today's digital magic I believe you can crop and rearrange to your hearts desire.:-)

One other comment. When I was reading about some compositionalaspects ofphotography thirty years ago I read foreground objects should always be in focus. Looking at some photographs today, e.g., Popular Photography/September issue,on the cover, the flowers very nearest the camera are out of focus and to be frank with you I find them a bit distracting. Since I only take pictures of the family and vacations then I'm sure I've missed out on the current thinking.