Low-light city landscape photo problems

Jerry-astro wrote:

StopCzas wrote:

Hey guys, I like to shoot after sunset, usually +1h max. I tried to capture the details of night city, but i think i failed. Apart from my mistakes, what can i upgrade to get better results with X-T3 sensor?

btw. XF 50-140 is out of budget

Regards

At the expense of being rather blunt, you might first look at upgrading your skills and experience a bit before looking for additional gear. The EXIF data suggests that you took this shot at ISO 80, which would incredibly low for such a dark environment. You can shoot as high as ISO 800 or even 1600 with little or no noise to deal with (or certainly nothing that would eliminate any of the detail in your shot). Your image is clearly highly underexposed.

Agree with the diagnosis (image underexposed, likely need to "upgrade the OP's skills rather than kit), but not with the proposed remedy (increase ISO).

This was clearly shot from a tripod (15s exposure), so sticking to low ISO has its merits.

Now, *IF* the OP wants a brighter image (but does he/she? - he deliberately shot it with "-1 EV exposure compensation"), I would recommend increasing the exposure time... perhaps by approximately 1 stop (i.e., reverting to "0" exposure comp.).

Before looking at different lenses, start by significantly increasing the amount of light in your exposure by increasing your ISO.

And therein lies the error: increasing ISO does NOT increase the amount of light in the exposure, all it does is increase the amplification of the signal. The ONLY way to increase the amount of light captured is to physically increase the exposure time (or use a wider aperture).

And one additional final suggestion from me, if you're shooting JPEGs: try Film Simulation = S, with Highlight Tone -2, Shadow Tone -2 for these types of scenes. You might be pleased.

Marco