Photography Questions

[Maritime Q-Scout]

I've never taken a class or course in photography (although some day I'd like to). I don't have any intentions on becoming a professional, but would like to be able to take some really nice shots.

That said I don't have an SLR, I've got a Panasonic DMC-TZ3, that I generally play with the setting on and has an extended 10x optical Lumix lens.

So I guess my question for those in the know is. Artistically/professionally which shot it better, and what are the others (or all of them) missing?

Setting: Wentworth Park in Sydney NS. The shot is taken at night with the extended exposure. The Scene Setting type is "Starry Sky". The first shot the lens was open for 30 seconds, in the following two it was open for 15.

Cheers,

[FurnaceFace]

Night shots are tough to get in a single shot because you've got such light contrasts. You blow out the street lights like in your shots or the unlit areas are black. You might try bracketing the shot by taking a few pics at different speeds so you get decent exposures on all areas and then just photoshop them together.

Another old school technique for long exposures is the hold a bit of black card paper in front of the light for part of the exposure. I've only read about this technique, I haven't tried it, but I think it's best if there are limited light sources to worry about.

In the spirit of constructive criticism...

Regarding your pics, a general composition "rule" is to direct the eye to the focal point of your image. In the examples you provide, my eye wanders all over, nothing "anchors" the image. For example the foreground in the 1st and 3rd one are distracting and due to the brightness shout "look at me" so the rest of the shot is lost. Also the light on the left is distracting and highlights the power line. The 1st one also has part of the tree on the left. My eye is naturally drawn from the bright foreground up to the bright light and on to the pink sky. I don't focus on the park.

I think the most interesting part is the fountains with the multicoloured lights if you could make those the focal point of your image I think you'd be on to something. It's tough to suggest exactly what would work without knowning the layout of the park but, using shot 2 as a guide, if you can move further to camera right and a little lower down perhaps you could line up the fountains in a receeding line. Another option is just to go in tight on the right most fountain, shoot portait, and have it fill most of the lens. If you could recreate the setting to get the nice misty look of the fountain in shot 3 I think that would be great.

The thing I've always tried to remember is most pro photographers don't walk up to a site, take 3 pics and walk away. They take their time, study a site, look at different angles and take a heap of pictures. Some are test shots, some are what they expect will be keepers, and some they take to experiment.

There is a site called photosig.com where contributors will post their pics and others on the board will comment and critique their shots all in the spirit of creating better photos. You might want to check it out, I've gotten lots of good tips from it and been inspired by the work people post.

Thanks for posting your shots, I always like to think about shots like this, they make all of us better. I have said before I think we should start a thread where all the photo guys are free to critique each others work and ask for advice.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

Thanks for the tips

I'm not sold on any of the above, I know they're off. But couldn't place as to how they were.

I didn't have a whole lot of time, nor did I have my tripod with me. So I ended up using a brick fence to keep the camera steady. I figured I'd try and get some advice on what to look for and frame the picture.

I'm going to try the black card idea next time, and of course take multiple shots with various exposures.

Thanks

[FurnaceFace]

The great thing is, you're taking a picture of someplace in your own backyard so you can go back time and again to get the right shots.

I used to subscribe to "Digital Camera" magazine out of the UK. It had many great tips but the best thing was this little pullout booklet which came with one issue that went through composition techniques. Might have been 20 pages in total, but I go through it every so often just to reinforce. Not sure if it's online anywhere.

I'm sure there are other sources like this available which will help us develop the hobby.

EDIT: This isn't the one I have but it's along similar lines and comes from the same magazine.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/10330580/D...ng-Composition

Pages 22/23 on Focal Point apply to your shots above.

[Phaneuf3]

Just as another opinion:
I like #1 the best, followed by #3. I think they could do with a crop to take out some of the distracting elements but its a neat horizon with the completely black silhouettes of the trees. I like it and if you worked with those images try to reduce some of the extra stuff to it I think you could have a decent image.

IMO, these are better shots of that horizon than they were of the park.



As for what I'd try to do differently - its hard to say without being there but it looks like there's a brick retaining wall a little ways ahead of where you set up. I'd check to see if you get a decent vantage point from there. Maybe getting closer and a bit lower will help to reduce some of the extra stuff in your picture. If it doesn't add anything to your main subject you should try to get it out of there or reduce its impact.