sydney night shots (first attempt)

[zeddy]

these are some photos of sydney at night.this is my first attempt at night shots so please be honest with your C&C so it can improve
shot with a canon 30D 18-55mm kit lens.









thanks zsolt

[surenj]

shows how nice the cityscape at night really is....you may want to cut out distractions and focus more on your subject. These often photographed subjects are better received when you find a new angle...if you can...

[drifter]

Hi zeddy . I like the first one .The dark trees on the left are a bit distracting though . The horizon on the opera house needs a tilt .Its leaning to the left a little. Also your sensor needs a clean .Theres quite a few dust bunnies on there.

[zeddy]

Oh thats what that is dust,the camera is only 3 weeks old how often do you need to clean the sensor? and yes it is leaning to one side i have a really cheap tripod and have troubles getting it straight.
thanks zsolt

[zeddy]

what about this one is this one better

[drifter]

Much better angle .

You only need to clean the sensor if it gets like it is now on yours .Its surprising how quick it gets that way if you change lenses often .

[drifter]

Actually , check its not just dirt on the end of the lens first .Sounds stupid i know but hey , its easy done i nearly cried when i got home from shooting once and found a horrible smear mark on all my shots .Thinking it was on the sensor and at the time ,not having anything to clean it with i tried blowing the dust out with a dust blower (a proper camera dust blower) no luck , then i realised the damn thing was on the lens filter .
If it's the sensor have a good look around in the forum here for sensor cleaning in the search box .Its one of those things that you'll have to do eventually anyway so best to get a heads up on it so you can get the right gear for it .

[zeddy]

thanks will have look on the forum

zsolt

[mattyjacobs]

the angle of the horizon on all those pics make me dizzy.

[daniel_r]

The suspicious dots in images #2 and #3 are suggestive of filter flare.

Are you using a UV or skylight filter, particularly an uncoated one?

Typically, filter flare will manifest itself in a particularly identifiable way - the small flare spots appear to take on a mirror reverse of the highlights in the main image. This page shows some examples.

I think I'm seeing a case of this in image #3 where there's a bright headlight trail in at the bottom left of centre, and a reflected reversed version near the top of the tallest building at the top right of centre. The same with the opera house image where the line of lights around the foreshore are shown as a line of flare dots directly above the sails.

You'll achieve much nicer night images by removing any filters and making sure you have clean glass. A good sturdy platform (tripod) and correct focus are also crucial.

Getting the perfect night image is an art... 'It won't happen overnight, but it will happen' (er... bad pun?)

Another tip is to also consider shooting during "blue hour", the hour after sunset or before sunrise. You'll pickup colour you didn't know existed. I find it just adds a bit more zing to my pics (eg this and this)

keep it up!

[zeddy]

thanks for the advice,next time i go,i'll try to go in the "blue hour" and see what difference there is .yes there was a U.V filter on the lens

cheers zsolt

[ozonejunkie]

G'day Zeddy - I have used this lens on my 300D (before I upgraded), and found that the combination of 18-55 + Cheap UV filter is no good for night time photos. I think you will find that the image ghosting you are getting is the result of the bright light reflecting of the sensor of the camera, and then being "projected onto" the UV filter, as most cheap filters only have 94% transmissibility.

These days I use multi coated UV filters, and haven't had a problem since.
Admittedly though, I am using a different lens.

Just my $0.02,

Tristan

[seeto.centric]

Oh thats what that is dust,the camera is only 3 weeks old how often do you need to clean the sensor? and yes it is leaning to one side i have a really cheap tripod and have troubles getting it straight.
thanks zsolt

maybe use self timer mode?
use the spirit level to level it up?

-julz

[jheld]

I think the water should be level, unless you want artistic perspective.
I like no 3 best.

Re filter:
Why put two more surfaces in your optical path to protect the lens?

[zeddy]

well i have removed the uv filter.and i did use the auto timer but like i said before the tripod i own is crap and hard to get level i did not have much time to set up better as i was parked in a 15 minute spot.
thanks for your comments,will try again in a few weeks but this time spend more time setting up

zsolt