Bay Bridge at Night

SimpsonBrothers

Please let me know how I can improve this.
It doesn't look quite right to me.

Sexy6Chick

What ISO did you shoot this at? The sky looks grainy. Great potential shot though.

SimpsonBrothers

I think that is from the HDR blend.
I could probably get rid of it.

Date Taken 2010-07-02 23:15:48
Model Canon EOS 40D
Exposure Time 5.1873s (518735/100000)
Aperture f/8
ISO 800
Focal Length 44mm (70.4mm in 35mm)

rustic

SimpsonBrothers wrote: »

I think that is from the HDR blend.
I could probably get rid of it.

Date Taken 2010-07-02 23:15:48
Model Canon EOS 40D
Exposure Time 5.1873s (518735/100000)
Aperture f/8
ISO 800
Focal Length 44mm (70.4mm in 35mm)

I'd start by dropping your ISO as low as you can. If you're going with a 5 second exposure, there's no need to bump your ISO up at all.

This doesn't really strike me as a shot that benefits from HDR... was there a particular reason that you used it? Can you post the original shot?

The vertical bands of color on the water look a bit unnatural, not sure if that is from the HDR or just an effect of the long exposure? Similarly, I'm seeing an odd looking black halo around the moon (assuming that is the moon), though that could just be from my monitor (laptop).

Not sure if that's at all helpful...

BradfordBenn

I am by no means an expert, but from my view there is nothing that indicates that this is a night time shot to me. I think I understand what you are trying to do with the HDR processing you mentioned. For me what could be interesting and might look a little more natural is to only have the Bridge and Construction in HDR and the rest standard exposure. The moon being blown out to me spoils the sky and the water is too bright for me as it doesn't read as water. I like the over all composition and the subject.

SimpsonBrothers

Original

torags

You gotta wait for the new bridge OR

Get a different shooting site. Looks like you you shot in the flats near the security entrance to the military area. Even if you get the tech side done right, your subject is not attractive from there

Get up the hill to change the shooting angle. This is a good angle as well as a few hundred feet to the left

SimpsonBrothers

Yeah, I went there and got kicked out by homeland. Didn't go so well.

nazquel

my main thing is it looks like theres too much lighting on and under the bridge... so much so that its hard for me to figure out what im looking for up there.

i would consider dulling some of the lights, especially the white light on in the middle-bottom of the pic, and that white orb on the left-top. also id consider dulling out all the lights from under the bridge to the left of the white light in the middle i mentioned before.

... did what i said make any sense?

torags

nazquel wrote: »

my main thing is it looks like theres too much lighting on and under the bridge... so much so that its hard for me to figure out what im looking for up there.

i would consider dulling some of the lights, especially the white light on in the middle-bottom of the pic, and that white orb on the left-top. also id consider dulling out all the lights from under the bridge to the left of the white light in the middle i mentioned before.

... did what i said make any sense?

They're building a bridge next to that bridge, maybe they were doing night work, it's really bright.

Jeeze Simpson too bad. Try parking in the residential lot near the ridge next time (for a little while).

hawkeye978

Barring noise issues, I like the shot. As I look at it I feel you are blocked up in some areas. Specifically under the bridge to the right, and the main bridge road bed center/right. It looks like you have the information so I would try and dodge those areas to bring out just a little detail so it's not so black. I might also try to do the same thing with the dark bands in the water. Just lighten a little because I think the overall mood is good.

Just a recommendation for future reference. If you are going to be on a tripod just set the ISO as low as possible and use a remote to trigger the camera (or a 2 sec delay if you don't have a trigger). That will keep your noise as low as possible.