my first attempt at cityscapes

[nvitalephotography]

So I decided to go out tonight and capture a few shots of downtown miami. tell me what you think.


30sec, f 10, iso 100


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I liked the blurred look but thought the clouds might look better sharper so I tried a shorter exposure





3.2 sec, f2.8, iso 100


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But I really dont like the water in that shot, so I tried combining the two images taking the sky from #2 and the water from #1





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not sure which one I like the best. Tell me what your opinion is or what I could change for next time.





thanks,


Nick

[Sean Setters]

The unlevel horizon line is driving me nuts. Otherwise, I like the first one best (the motion blur looks nice).

[nvitalephotography]

yeah, I noticed that right away to, I just forgot to fix that before I put them on here, I will fix that asap.

[erno james]

Nice shots N. I agree with Sean regarding the unlevel horizon...it

[nvitalephotography]

if possible, try to find a foreground element, be it a rock, a jetty, a boat, or the beach/ground you were standing on. that extra layer will help anchor then direct your viewers' eyes. and keep shooting...if you shot past this time into blue hour, please post some of the images.

I was looking for a good foreground subject but was unsuccessful at the location I was shooting. I think I will go again to try to find something like that. I also kept shooting until later but I started driving around looking for different views, but I wasn't really happy with any of the results.

[Kayaker72]

Hi Nick,


Since you asked for opinions, here are a few thoughts:

• Overall, I like the pictures. You are working with some great light: the sunset behind Miami, the city lights, and the reflection in the clouds.
• I agree with others on the horizontal level.
• As the water isn't that interesting and the sky is, I would be tempted to move the buildings from mid-frame to the bottom decreasing the amount of water and increasing the amount of sky.
• I find the wider angle in #2 to bemore interestingthan the others.
• The building density is a little unbalanced. Fewer and smaller buildings to the left than too the right.
• If you were to keep the buildings mid-frame, I would work somehow to not cut the top of the clouds off or cut them in the middle of the cloud. The I find it distracting that the cut is so near the edge of the cloud. Does that make sense?

But, overall, nice photos.


Brant

[nvitalephotography]

ok, horizon fixed.


Brant,


I never noticed the clouds but I agree its a bit distracting. The building balance got off because I the better clouds where all on the left side, but I noticed that issue too.








I took some of what you said. used an image with a little wider angle, which helped the building balance, and lowered the buildings in the frame.





[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/850x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/14/1385.IMG_5F00_5053panorama.jpg[/img]

[erno james]

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[erno james]

I took the liberty of processing in Aperture 3. let me know if not okay with you....


here's how I processed this image:


-horizon level, cropped image to feature that awesome sky, applied a polarizer filter to sky, bumped up saturation and vibrancy, selectively increased blues (blue light reflection)

[nvitalephotography]

erno,


I like how you processed it. I haven