Here are a couple shots that I took the night I went out and did the phot shoot for the contest.

 

okay, 66 views at the time i write this and not one comment?

well, i'm going to chime in. mike, there's a few things going wrong here. this is going to sound harsh, but my hope is you become more critical of yourself.

in a photoshoot of lets say 80 pictures, i probably use 12. and that's after some editing!

pic 1.

no white balance.
the parking lights burn spots in the pic
the lighting is uneven
it also appears out of focus in parts.
the frame colors you picked, although try to match with the photograph, end up being just as distracting as the burn spots.

honestly, i would skipped taking a pic of the minis and just got a nice closeup of the cafe blue sign. it's way too distracting otherwise, there's no framing.

pic 2.

ok, so it's a mini going around a car. hmmm, i tried that once. it took about 45 minutes to setup and tuls was unbelievably patient with me as i took 30-some 15 second exposures. all that and in my eyes it's still nowhere near perfect! ugh...but back to your pic. the car streaks are overexposed and completely hide the mian subject of the pic....you did want the mini to be the subject of the pic right?

pic 3.

you know, i actually like the location of this one. it's almost...."soothing". i just wish you wouldn't "center" everything. rule of thirds man! the lighting is good, it's even distributed although still a little dark. the shiny car looks good and it's a cute touch to have the light shining underneath. you could possibly do some good things with that light...but after a while, it just turns into another bright spot in the pic that's fighting with everything else.

oh, turn down your ISO - no more than 50!

so, was that harsh? you betcha! someone's got to give you a hard time about it otherwise you'll never try new things. hope some of this helps, keep practicing. you'll get better over time. i know i have a ways to go!

 

I agree on hafids point, and would like to add that the third one is just a bit crooked as well, and the first one isnt perfectly centered. Although, i really like the third one. The lighting seems to be better composed and even. And i really like 3 rally lights as opposed to 2 or 4



In critiques, your true friends will be the ones being harsh :smile:

 

Thanks guys,

You know me Haf I'm still new to this night photo camera stuff. It's hard folowing in YOUR footsteps.
BTW What is an iso and how do I change it.

As for the motion pic I just through it on there. I was not happy with it at all and the natives were getting restless so I had to quite.
Man it hard getting good help these days.

Hey any time your in town haf and want to go soot I would be totaly up for it. Maybe I can learn a trick or two.

Every photographer has a nitch. I think mine is micro shots. But I'll try anything.

 

Hey, I hope you're not discouraged about night time photography. It's obvious you have an eye for composition. After 30 years of photography, I myself am still not comfortable with my low-light sessions.

Keep experimenting. Keep posting. Keep waiting for criticism, and its eventual praise.

 

I agree....i think they are good in terms of night photography(which is very hard)

 

I like the locations and the composition. The biggest distraction to me is the crooked horizons.

Does your camera have a flash shoe? If so, you can get little levels that really help at night, or say when in the mountains where you don't have any straight lines to reference against.

You may want to use manual focus for the night shots too. Try the manual settings for more aperture, so you can get more depth of field.

As far as the white balance, Sodium Vapor lights emit light in a very narrow spectrum which will never balance out to white. You can make them look green or purple, but never white. If you have Photoshop, you can use the Curves to make them look less orange.


Dave.