Low light and night shots

[gilliebg]

I have no experience taking long exposures and night shots, so I shall appreciate any advice. The first picture was taken at 1/320, f6.3, and Iso 640



the second was after the sun went down, or would have done had we been able to see it through the thunder clouds and was taken at 1.6s, f9, ISO 200



I was using a D7000, and a Tokina 12-24mm f4

[Polar01]

Gillie: the first image to me is not really a low light shot, 1/320 that is not slow, however image 2 well, you did really, really well on that one. To me it is the clouds that really make this image stand out, you did everything right, got to love that D7000.

Cheers:

Allan

[Kris V]

#2 is just great!

[FrankMi]

Hi Gillie, it is rare for an image with a strong horizon placed across the middle of the image to generate impact. In the first image you may want to play with the cropping to get the horizon in the upper third of the image and position the boat off-center with more space ahead of the boat than behind it and see how it looks to you. That should also make the subject larger and the people on the boat easier to see.

The second one is fantastic but even here, having the horizon in the center can detract from its full potential. With a dramatic sky like that, I would try cropping out some of the foreground and thereby move the horizon down closer to the 1/3rd point. That would also give the image a wider view which should also help.

[Emmie]

Nice job. I rely love lowlight photography. Keep up the good work!!!

[gilliebg]

Thank you all for the kind words and for taking the time to comment. Allan, the first image is certainly not a long exposure, but had it been the boat would have been too blurred; the shot is more one taken in low light, than a 'low light' picture if that makes any sense! Thank you for your input, and yes, I do love that D7000

Frank, you hit the nail straight on the head with the boat picture, very sloppy cropping. I would not think of having a bird fly out of the frame so why do it with a boat! I am usually fairly good at not having pictures divided in half, but I sometimes get bogged down with the details of what to lose and what to keep. I didn't want to lose any of the reflections in the second picture, so I cropped some of the sky, leaving that as the top third, which put the shoreline in the middle as I see now. I shall pay more attention to the final cropping in future. Gillie