1st Night Shot attempts (x6)

SnapHappy

First time SLR First attempt at night shots. Camera 350d, sigma f/2.8 24-70.
All more or less at f/2.8, ISO 1600, hand held. I have a few Q's on the odd one if anyone can help, otherwise thanks for looking. All C&C welcome.

Why have the lights gone star effect, I thought you needed a cross filter for this to happen, not that I am complaining. Not hand held, used the bridge!


What is the correct white balance to use, all were set at tungsten, seemed to work best on this one: (cropped Quite a bit)








I darkened this and nudged the contrast a tad as well as a crop!:


Looking forward to doing more night shots once the tripod arrives, and may be a 50mm prime

Mike Lane

SnapHappy wrote:

Why have the lights gone star effect, I thought you needed a cross filter for this to happen, not that I am complaining. Not hand held, used the bridge!

Because of the blades of the aperture. Different lenses will create different numbers of points. http://www.scphoto.com/assets/images/aperture.gif There are actually little tiny slits between the blades of the aperture. That's what creates the points.

SnapHappy wrote:

I'm not so crazy about this one. There isn't much in the way of a composition here. Just kind of a jumble. I'm thinking you could do something kind of cool with the line of one of the railroad tracks with a train on it. But then again, that may not lead to anything spectacular.

SnapHappy wrote:

What is the correct white balance to use, all were set at tungsten, seemed to work best on this one: (cropped Quite a bit)

This has great potential I think. I like the stairwell in the middle particularly. The light pole at the top is a bit distracting though.

SnapHappy wrote:

I dig the colors on this one

SnapHappy wrote:

Lots of potential with this on I think. Maybe go to this area again and try a bunch of different angles and zooms. Really focus on this area for a long time. Let your creativity go wild.

SnapHappy wrote:

This one doesn't really work for me.

SnapHappy wrote:

I darkened this and nudged the contrast a tad as well as a crop!:


Looking forward to doing more night shots once the tripod arrives, and may be a 50mm prime

This one I like a lot! Great job here!

SnapHappy

Thanks for your time & comments Mike. Much appreciated