affinity photo Experimenting with night photography and editing

[cyberian]

I'm pretty new to photography in general and even newer to Affinity. Took some night photos of Brisbane CBD. Keen for some feedback / constructive criticism.

[Antony parks]

Good evening (at least here) cyberian,

What camera, lens, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, raw or JPEG, tripod, taken from a road bridge etc, etc? What size was the original and what size the download?

And then what did you do in post production editing?

Can't really help unless we know what's going on.

And also what do you like about the shot?

Yours ever

Antony

 

[cyberian]

Hi Anthony, thanks for the reply. Yeah, like I said, total rookie. So I've got Nikon D5200, Nikkor 18-50mm f/3.5-5.6 GII DX VR lens, 100 ISO, f/5, 25 second shutter speed. Shot in RAW, exported as Jpeg, shot from a pedestrian bridge, ordinary Manfrotto tripod, used wireless shutter release. Honestly, can't remember much of what I did in post-production, I played around with settings until I somewhat liked the result. I'd say water reflection is my favourite part. Cheers

[Antony parks]

Hi cyberian,

Sorry not to get back to you quicker; trying to finish a project.

• Camera is doing its job; no problems. Plenty of detail, all sharp.
• Tripod essential, good. Avoid road bridges as they vibrate. (You can hang a weight from a tripod that is vibrating and, sometimes, steady it.)
• Shot in RAW. Good.
• Shoot this kind of landscape at f8 or f11.  f16 or f22 tend to go a bit softer, try them out and look carefully at the image but in general avoid using them.
• If necessary go as far as 800 or 1600 iso
• Bracket the exposure: keep the same aperture and use a 1/4, then a 1/2, then exposure meter speed reading, then twice and four times the recomended exposure. There is almost no correct exposure....the correct one is the one you like. Don't worry about being too "dark" as you can use these to recover high lights. And conversely too light can be used to give details in the shadows
• You can batch develope these to get the max out of the source pictures and then import them into Affinity Photo as a "stack" keeping "alignment" on.
• Now you can use the sky from one exposure and the river from another. You can replace windows with burnt out whites by "under exposed" windows from another shot......etc, etc. This not the same as HDR which, of course, you should also try.

 

When using a wide angle lens try and get something into the foreground and then a curve that leads you to the center of interest.  Read / view articles on composition. If neccessary hang the camera upside down from the tripod and get it close to the ground. You then take a series of pictures focused on the near foreground, the foreground,  midground and background. Bring these into Affinity as a focus stack.

Try shooting in the rain or when its wet at night, also cloudy skies usually reflect the city lights and so give some drama to the sky. Or in twilight at dawn or in the evening.

And practice, practice practice. The most important thing is to carry the camera and use it and your softwares! At your lunch break, on the bus, in the pub, after the pub, everywhere.

Have fun, keep going,

Yours

Antony

 

 

 

 

 

[Mortimer]

The only thing I can see missing from the Brisbane shot is that you should have waited for the International Space Station to be in the night sky.   I am impressed with this shot.   Makes me want to do some night photography myself.  

[cyberian]

Hi Anthony,

Thank you so much for taking the time and writing an elaborate response. I'm planning to head back into the city in the near future again, so I'll definitely make those adjustments and see how it goes. 

Yeah, I've been taking my camera with me everywhere I go, photography really caught my interest, it's such a fascinating art! Thank you again for your advice.

Dimi