Austin SRV

So, went down to Austin for the weekend. I had a specific group of shots I wanted to do of SRV and the Austin skyline. Long story short, very frustrated, not happy with how any of them turned out. All very noisy. Even bracketed shots for HDR were so noisy I couldn't get them to look any good before merging.

After processing the hell out of one, here's what I've come up with. Whip me, beat me, that's the only way I learn.

Aww, I will try to be gentle. I like the concept of your composition (but you didnt include his boots). I wonder why you would use an ISO of 3200. It appears that you shot this during the blue hour or maybe it is your PP.....can't tell but the sky color looks off to me. I am assuming that you used a tripod? Did you use a cable release or camera timer? I also wonder if you set your exposure and focused on the statue which may have caused the city lights to be OOF and blow out. I'd like to know more about how you took this shot.

I cant define why but something wrong with this composition, something is not right, maybe would be better without a man, or man at different angle...
Did you have to shoot with such high iso? You tried to get whole scene in focus, I don't know if this statue is worth it. It distracts from nice city lights, is in focus but lacking details cause it's dark anyway, so maybe why bother.

horsik wrote in post #13072137
I cant define why but something wrong with this composition, something is not right, maybe would be better without a man, or man at different angle...
Did you have to shoot with such high iso? You tried to get whole scene in focus, I don't know if this statue is worth it. It distracts from nice city lights, is in focus but lacking details cause it's dark anyway, so maybe why bother.

I guess you are not a SRV fan, then getting a photo of the statue would be worth it.

Yea, I just didn't have the mojo that night for whatever reason. These shots were taken as the sun was going down, sun set was 6:55 that evening and this shot was at 7:08. I did indeed use a tripod with cable release. This was the +2 of a three bracket shot that I reduced the exposure of to try and reclaim to have at least one shot.

horsik, here's one of just the skyline.

Here's a better crop, just seems too bright to me.

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Other than the tree on the right and the automotive (?) logo on the bottom, I like the last post much better....way better composition. It takes in Stevie totally...why you didn't illuminate flash him, beats me.

part of the problem i think is that it is some where in between a regular shot and a silhouette.
either get lower and make the statue darker or get some light on him and make him part of the whole lit up composition

I like your last post a lot better than the first.

If you have a long enough shutter on these you can manually pop a flash at the statue to add a bit more light to it.

Thanks guys, I forgot my flash sitting on the desk at home when I packed up. I swore I had it, well....

I traveled down there with the image of a Stevie silhouette with the lit up skyline in the back. All the shots I took that silhouetted him have so much noise I can't get them cleaned up. This was my first time trying to do a silhouetted type shot and failed miserably, I'll keep trying...

Jason