First 'real' picture, CC please

I have been taking photos of my family almost exclusively since purchasing my DSLR 3 weeks ago. I thought I would try my hand at shooting some buildings near me because I like the way they look. Here is what I feel is the best of the shots that I took last night. This picture was taken right after dusk. I like the framing the trees give the picture and I like the blue of the building. The only processing was cropping and changing the white balance because the lights gave everything a yellow hue. It was shot handheld with me sitting in the street. Please give suggestions on what I could improve, I have thick skin and really want to improve my skills.

Very pretty, nice shot.

Some tips for future architecture:

correct the horizon line--image is slightly tilted.

I like framing architectural shots with tree branches, but I would have moved to the right so the trunk does not cut into the lines on the building.

If you want to post process, you can correct the receding lines of the building so the building has perfect right angles.

That is a very nice picture indeed, with the small exception of the tilted horizon. I really like the colors and the lighting.

Thanks for the comments and advice.

whats that white streak between the trunk and the building?

Not impressing me. May be the bad horizon. Can you correct that first. But good capture with nice color. But in reality it is not impressing me. Some thing is missing or kind of.. May be no message i can understand? Next time post with exif data

coffeeman said:

whats that white streak between the trunk and the building?

Click to expand...

If you are talking about what I think you are, the vertical streak is a white column and the horizontal streak is the light reflecting off of the ground. This photo was taken after dark, and the parking lot lights were very bright.

The streak on the left side in the sky is a plane.

ms18 said:

Not impressing me. May be the bad horizon. Can you correct that first. But good > capture with nice color. But in reality it is not impressing me. Some thing is > missing or kind of.. May be no message i can understand? Next time post with > exif data

Click to expand...

I will correct and repost when I get home. I was not thinking about trying to send a message; I just liked the design of the building. Will the EXIF post if I post the pic from my hard drive as opposed to from my gallery or do I need to do something else?

Good effort. I'd like the image better if that small tree weren't smack in front of the buildings and if the building color and the blue sky weren't so similar. And if the horizon were level. But this a good effort.

However, it's a shot that cries out for a tripod; the whole image is a bit fuzzy.

Virginia Bill said:

Good effort. I'd like the image better if that small tree weren't smack in front of the buildings and if the building color and the blue sky weren't so similar. And if the horizon were level. But this a good effort.

However, it's a shot that cries out for a tripod; the whole image is a bit fuzzy.

Click to expand...

I am not sure a tripod would have helped. I had to sit in the middle of the street to get the angle of this pic. I don't have a tripod but I am looking at getting one, as I think I would like to take more night pictures.

Here is the pic again with the horizon straightened and hopefully the EXIF data:

I think it is a good first effort, especially since you got the colors and exposure right -- that can be hard to do at night.

Compositionally, I think the building doesn't look so good centered in this frame; a squarer format of the frame might be better for a central composition. I like adjusting the crop tool in Photoshop, trying various aspect ratios and crop positions: very often, one particular crop will 'pop', and the picture looks right. If you are mathematically inclined, you can measure the ratios of various scene elements in your image, and attempt to get a certain proportion of geometric elements.

I agree that that the vertical perspective on the building needs to be reduced. This can be done in Photoshop, or can be ensured during shooting by keeping the camera absolutely level and using a wide enough lens to get the whole building in the image; this wastes a lot of pixels, unless your camera is far enough off the ground. Be bold! If you want to take a picture of a building at an angle, make it a big angle; avoid small angles.

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http://therefractedlight.blogspot.com

6/10 sec = 0.6 sec @ 18mm.....
If your lens have 4 stop VR than you can hand hold let me do the maths
18 X 1.5 = 27
1 Stop 13.5
2 Stop 6.75
3 Stop 3.375
4 Stop 1.6875
5 Stop 0.84375

In Canon it will be easier with 1.6x crop factor..
If it is 18mm 4 Stop give you 1.8 Shutter speed.. Just divide by 10


Due you have hold that shutter speed you got the maximum clean file.. It is nice that you have done the proper exposure in the first shot itself. .. You have used the manual mode i hope?