After dark

Here are some test photos of my Cougar to figure out what works best on my camera. They were taken in a theater parking lot a little after midnight.
The larger version and other similar shots with a variety of settings are in my Flickr page.

there is WAY too much flare in these shots, in my opinion ruining potentially good shots.

Switch the headlights off

I personally like car photos with headlights on. The second attached I agree has out of control flare - but included it because it was the only that had that reaction.
As I originally said, the intention of taking them was to test out what does and doesn't work, not unnecessarily looking to product a 100% perfect photo. Maybe I wasn't clear on that.

Any suggestions along with your criticism is appreciated. Like suggest how to get a properly exposed night photo, with headlights and lampposts, without flare.
If you simply want to point out what you don't like or what I did wrong, I have plenty of people in my life to do that

Want some C&C?

well, how about dial in some negative exposure compensation, the colours are washed out and overexposed. If you don't want to do that, try HDR, there are manysites available discussing it. You could also try masking off seperate layers in Photostop instead. Try and avoid flare by using a lens hood and paying attention to the image in the viewfinder.

My final criticism is, if you don't want people to comment on your photos, don't post them up, simple as. This is a public forum, and people are entitled to say what they like. The best way to improve your work is by taking criticism well, irrelevant of skill level.

Headlights work in some cases, in some they don't. In this case, I think it would be better with them off, especially the second shot.

Try not to shoot so many lights in the frame. I think the second shot would be good with headlights off, and not including the light that is shining in the top-right corner. You want a fluid image, these just have too many things (lights) distracting the viewing.

I think the shots would look great with just the corner/parking lights on

I've read up a little on HDR and want to try some out, but haven't gotten that far yet. Something like this probably would work out much better HDR'd

Good idea, & I think one flare pic would work in a series of otherwise good shots. let's see what you come up with.

Just keep in mind that, with 100,000+ members, no matter what you do will get + & - comments along the way. If someone gets brutal, let us know & we'll slap them down. Otherwise, it's a fact of life, so you'll just have to live with it.

another attempt at some night shots at the theater, HDR'd this time.

IMAGE LINK: http://farm2.static.fl​ickr.com …45308408_bb168b​9bf9_b.jpg

IMAGE LINK: http://farm2.static.fl​ickr.com …44414577_0f9a15​8911_b.jpg

IMAGE LINK: http://farm2.static.fl​ickr.com …45299742_670b26​8ee5_b.jpg

IMAGE LINK: http://farm2.static.fl​ickr.com …44411387_d25064​c405_b.jpg

IMAGE LINK: http://farm2.static.fl​ickr.com …45315342_eec784​4d89_b.jpg

IMAGE LINK: http://farm2.static.fl​ickr.com …45311688_53247e​d119_b.jpg

personally, i like these alot better .

thnkx. me too!

2nd set is A LOT better. Nice work

ok, been tweeking the image 1 (post #10) with some different HDR setups and came up with this one. looks obviously HDR'd, and I wasn't liking it as much as the realistic looking one, but it's growing on me now and liking it more.

IMAGE LINK: http://farm2.static.fl​ickr.com …76564673_e2e191​fa5c_o.jpg

I like it better now. Got one with just the parking lights on?